Rahm-bo To Go?

The Torygraph reports that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel will quit after the midterms.  He denies it.  But is there anything lamer than a lame-duck chief of staff?  And why are so many Dems so willing to participate in this whispering campaign?

Comments

[JM Hanes]

Old Lurker:

"$100M for something they might not be liable for at all seems pretty stiff to me."

According to the WSJ:

The drilling industry estimates the moratorium will cost rig workers as much as $330 million a month in direct wages, not counting businesses servicing those rigs like machine-shop workers.

Compared to the $20B they are putting up, it seems a little gestural. It's interesting that they even separated it out, no? That looks like something of a two way street to me. Obama gets to talk up his coup, while BP essentially agrees not to raise a legal challenge if the Administration agrees to limit their exposure to $100M.

I find it impossible to believe that BP has agreed to the kind of blank check Feingold is apparently describing, although I think it's conceivable that they might have a back room agreement on some sort of installment plan -- in the name of keeping the company alive perhaps, whether literally or as a hedge against shareholder response. Obama was originally talking about a $20 to $40 billion fund.

They had 5 days of negotiations under their belts before Obama's 20 minute photo op, so I suspect a lot of bases, and asses, have been covered on both sides.

[Ignatz]

--after all the fraud with Katrina, I would have thought they had learned their lesson--

They did, matt; the lesson being they can commit all the fraud they want and no one will care or do anything about it.

[Janet]

Meanwhile, the press is bought and paid for by our neutral and other nations,

We need a newspaper that covers newspapers. The MSM inbreeding with the Dems/left/Rinos needs some cleansing light.

[Old Lurker]

JMH, it's the blank check aspect that has me confused. The $100M is chump change to be sure. $20B is real and certainly not likely to be an "overpayment" against the eventual real liability. But by going around any sort of judicial process, I don't know how they expect to get credit for money paid through thugs against legitimate claims that find their way through the usual process. And how they think Obama can fix that is what has me confused.

[Rick Ballard]

"And how they think Obama can fix that is what has me confused."

Onkel Adolph fixed many things for I.G. Farben in return for much less. BP is walking down a very old path. The exchange of favors should be reviewed by Congress starting on about January 2nd.

[daddy]

Matt,

Just FYI, the ADN Begich story I initially linked is now totally different, with no mention of the initial story, nor how much they changed it since that initial story. The first one has completely disappeared and this one tries to shape the narrative by exalting Begich as a take charge kind of guy, sort of at the expense of Lisa Murkowski.

I wish to goodness we had a better or a 2nd media source out here, but we don't so when it pops up, thats what I post. Hope it didn't mislead anyone. That's also why I always have to listen to Dan Fagan 'cause he's about all that's left.

I truly do hate the media.

[Rick Ballard]

Sorry about the italics.

[Old Lurker]

Well said, Rick. More than IGF got fixed by that one.

[Janet]

It's okay Rick, we've got bigger things to worry about!

[Old Lurker]

Hey Janet...was thinking of you this AM when Drudge posted the $10 per pack cost with new NYC tobacco taxes.

[Cecil Turner]

The government won't let 'em drill, so BP is responsible for wages that would be paid if the government would let 'em drill? On what planet does that make sense? (And why do leftists pretend getting paid not to work is equivalent to work?)

[peter]

Shocking news at the LUN

[Janet]

Well I didn't have any suggestions for Donald on the other thread about what to visit in NYC....and it doesn't look like I'll EVER have any! Hah!
Cigarettes are the canary in the coal mine for taxes...so heads up everyone.

[narciso]

Did the story change from the 2:39 post at the ADN, nothing makes much sense, although in an ironic sense, the famous Rex Butler was admonishing the other Johnson sibling for
her blog, hell hasn't completely frozen over

[jimmyk]

"Drudge posted the $10 per pack cost with new NYC tobacco taxes."

Something tells me Mayor Bloomberg is about to learn something from Arthur Laffer.

[Janet]

..or if I am forced into the black market, you guys might see me on COPS one night.
"Hey, isn't that Janet the Luddite?"
I'll be the one with pants that fit.

[Clarice]

RANGER:"Blago's entire devense is that those who are testifying against him are lying to get a lighter sentence. "
HOW CAN HE ARGUE THAT ABOUT BLAGO IF IN FACT BLAGO IS NOT A PROSECUTION WITNESS? THAT'S WHAT I'M TRYING TO TELL YOU.

DOT: SHOULDN'T BE IMPOSSIBLE ALL 7 SCIENTIST SALAZAR SAYS HE RELIED ON TO MAKE THAT DECISION SAY HE MISREPRESENTED ENTIRELY WHAT THEY SAID.

(Sorry about the Caps..Inadvertent.)

[fdcol63]

I want to know how much of that $20 Billion BP fund is going to the Mistress of Doom, JAMIE GORELICK?

Especially after her involvement with Fannie Mae.

When is someone going to seriously investigate all of her ties to the major disasters that follow in her wake?

[narciso]

Now this story should have legs, maybe:

< a href=http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/06/21/kevin-mccullough-obama-bp-spill-february-salazar-resign-change/> Resign or
Change, Mr. President

[Melinda Romanoff]

All these Gulf problems go away if they just would join a nearby union.

Say, the AFL-CIO, Teamsters , or even the lowly little SEIU.

All the inaction would stop, and things would happen in a hurry.

Can't these people take a hint?

Sheesh.

(G'night all, and no more snark from me for a bit. And the Chinese are going to come shopping, BTW, for what, I don't know yet...)

[Clarice]

Ranger--pardon me--I am still trying to deal with a plumbing leak here..What I meant to say is

H OW CAN HE ARGUE THAT ABOUT REZKO IF IN FACT REZKO IS NOT A PROSECUTION WITNESS? THAT'S WHAT I'M TRYING TO TELL YOU.

[Clarice]

narciso, some revelations in that article!!!!

[Ann]

It is only, Rich Galen, but at least he is asking the same question I have being asking for 60 days:Where is FEMA and DHS?

Oh well,

Thomas Sowell tweet: "You have to have a sense of humor if you follow politics. Otherwise, the sheer fraudulence of it all will get you down."

Amen

[narciso]

That's a good question, DHS is run by Incompetano, as Steyn calls her, but Fugate
is a Jeb hand, and Florida kind of is, involved

[Strawman Cometh]

Fugate?

[Danube of Thought]

SHOULDN'T BE IMPOSSIBLE ALL 7 SCIENTIST SALAZAR SAYS HE RELIED ON TO MAKE THAT DECISION SAY HE MISREPRESENTED ENTIRELY WHAT THEY SAID

Right--completely forgot about that. Can't wait for the ruling.

[Jim Miller]

This link might work better than narciso's. (At least it did for me, when I tested it.)

[JM Hanes]

Old Lurker:

I'd be really surprised if the $100M is going into the fund being administered by Feingold. I suspect that Team Obama will be picking the moratorium's winners & losers.

[narciso]

No, not that Fugate, SR,

[narciso]

This one: http://www.allgov.com/Official/Fugate_Craig> Craig Fugate

[Ann]

narciso: I sent you an email.

(I am so bad at looking at my email, I feel an urge to remind people I do have one, HA!)

[narciso]

< a href+http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-17/bp-struggled-with-cracks-in-gulf-well-as-early-as-february-documents-show.html> bp struggled with cracks in gulf

[Jim,MtnViewCA,USA]

Orcszag (sp?) is leaving too?

[Ann]

More legs:

Narciso's Link

[jimmyk]

More legs

Unfortunately that Bloomberg piece appears to be spinning it as a BP scandal rather than an MMS one. It doesn't say that BP requested help from MMS in February, only that they filed documents, and Waxman uses that to bash BP execs for not doing anything at the time.

Perhaps more disturbing, though, is this:

“Once they realized they had oil down there, all the decisions they made were designed to get that oil at the lowest cost,” said Peter Galvin of the Center for Biological Diversity, which has been working with congressional investigators probing the disaster.

Why is this apparently extremist environmental group "working with congressional investigators"? What hope is there that they will help reach unbiased conclusions? I know, silly question, but worth pointing out.

[narciso]

About as well as the Christic Institute, and
the Kerry Committtee, two decades ago

[daddy]

Narciso,

Just FWIW:

I posted at 4:26 PM JOM East Coast Time which out here is I think currently 4 hours earlier, so 12:26 PM local Alaska time. Hitting that same link in my first post now shows the story I linked was posted at Alaska local Time 2:39 PM or 6:26 PM JOM East Coast Time. So they changed the first story 2 hours and 13 minutes after I initially linked to it and never reflected that it changed at all, and the first story is lost in the ether.

That's the ADN (McClatchy) for ya'. Don't know if they've got layers of fact-checkers but at least now I know they've got layers of erasers and memory hole specialists.

Just to verify, when I press "post" in one minute, Local Alaska Time will be 11:45 PM, but will appear I think as 03:45 AM JOM East Coast Time. Here goes.

[daddy]

Yep. So 2 and a half hours after the fact, the ADN deleted the original story, inserted a different story under the same link, and said nothing whatever about it to readers. Guess that's how the Professionals learn to do it in Journalism School nowadays.

[daddy]

If anyone cares, here's some more local stuff about the ADN (Anchorage Daily News). Hope I'm not boring you to death.

Drew Barrymore is coming up to film "Everybody Loves Whales, a" ">http://www.adn.com/2010/06/11/1319289/hollywood-comes-to-alaska-to-shoot.html?pageNum=3&&&&&&mi_pluck_action=page_nav#Comments_Container"> $30 Million movie in Alaska. It's based on a true story of 3 whales getting stuck in the ice off Barrow 22 years back, and the villagers working to rescue them.

Different from the taxation the state keeps piling on the Oil Companies and Cruise Ships, somehow our Legislators realized that reducing taxes on Hollywood filmmakers might be an incentive to induce them to come North for filming, thus creating jobs, revenue etc.

In the case of this movie "the ">http://www.film.alaska.gov/incentive-program.htm"> Alaska Film Tax Incentive program -- which allows movie-makers to recoup more than 30 percent of their spending in Alaska through transferable tax credits -- made it feasible to film here."

"Movies that employ Alaskans, shoot in rural parts of the state and are filmed in winter are eligible for bigger tax breaks, said Alaska Film Office manager David Worrell." (Up to 44%).

Great for jobs, great for business, great for the filmmakers, and great for the Anchorage Daily News, because it just leased out 12,000 feet of their ADN Building in Anchorage to the Movie Company. (Maybe it was the part of the building where they housed their fact-checkers:)

[peter]

I'm no internet expert, but might not there be a way to get a cached picture of that earlier Anchorage Daily News web page?

[narciso]

Minitrue, daddy, didn't know they had an Anchorage office, for the East ASian front, and know they haven't had fact checkers since August 28, 2008; too much of an expense. So now that the RS piece, seems legit, it seems the general has figured out the same things we did about Eikenberry, Biden, and specially Holbrooke, the last member of the "Get Diem" team. Plus it paints a much more realistic picture than vapid courtier, Alter did in "the Promise" Scarborough is screaming 'insubordination,'

[Janet]

JimmyK - The Center For Biological Diversity is the type of organization that the general public needs to know more about. Extreme environmental group is exactly right. Here are their ads to "save the polar bear" and here is an article on their free condom give away to keep the destructive human population in check.

"Slogans on the packages include "Wrap with care, save the polar bear," and "Wear a condom now, save the spotted owl.""

[Jane]

Re: the whole McChrystal thing - did he do it on purpose to let the country know? Does he want out?

[Janet]

The Center for Biological Diversity is EXTREME. It is exactly the type of organization the public needs to know more about. They have a save the polar bear campaign and a condoms for endangered species program.

"Slogans on the packages include "Wrap with care, save the polar bear," and "Wear a condom now, save the spotted owl."

[Janet]

Sorry for the double post...I though it was lost in purgatory. (I got lazy on the 2nd one!)

[Janet]

and here is their legal arm the Climate Law Institute.

"The Climate Law Institute will use existing laws and work to establish new state and federal laws that will eliminate energy generation by the burning of fossil fuels - particularly coal and oil shale."

"Initial funding of $6.3 million for the Climate Law Institute has been provided by the California Community Foundation, The Sandler Foundation, The Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, and others."

[narciso]

Ah the Sandler's the folks behind ProPublica, and a good deal of the subprime crisis, the subject of the skit that SNL thought hit too close to home

[Pofarmer]

Doomed, doomed I tell ya.

We. Are. So. Screwed.

[Rob Crawford]

Now its back, of course, and the Republicans are afraid to fight it.

The "acceptable" Republicans -- the shams like McCain, etc. -- are unwilling to stand up against anyone who might cut them off from the DC cocktail circuit.

[Rob Crawford]

Why is this apparently extremist environmental group "working with congressional investigators"?

Because they're politically acceptable in DC. Actual engineers and geologists who aren't flaming Marxists are not.

[Rob Crawford]

Drew Barrymore is coming up to film "Everybody Loves Whales, a" $30 Million movie in Alaska.

That poor girl, such a distorted body image.

[BR]

Narciso and Ann's links on BP:

More legs...

Feb. 2010 - Cracks, oil leakage starts.
13 Feb 2010 - White House is informed.
17 Mar 2010 - BP CEO Hayward sells 1/3 of his holdings.
20 Apr 2010 - Fatal rig explosion and environmental damage.
Jun 2010 - BP stock falls 50 percent.

Good grief, is Waxman covering for insider trading? See below from Ann's Bloomberg link:

"BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward and other top executives were ignorant of the difficulties the company’s engineers were grappling with in the well before the explosion, U.S. Representative Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said today during a hearing in Washington.

“ 'We could find no evidence that you paid any attention to the tremendous risk BP was taking,' Waxman said as Hayward waited to testify. 'There is not a single e-mail or document that you paid the slightest attention to the dangers at this well.'

"BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles and exploration chief Andy Inglis 'were apparently oblivious to what was happening,' said Waxman, a California Democrat. 'BP’s corporate complacency is astonishing.' ”

------

How can an exec be oblivious to the coming disaster and yet prescient enough to sell one-third of his holdings.

Makes me wonder who in the WH and Congress knew about it in February and what financial gains they've made out of this.

And did Hayward warn his buddies at Goldman-Sachs? They also sold prior to the rig explosion.

I'd like to see a list of who shorted BP.

Fits in with Obama comparing it to 9/11. There were "prescient shorts" on airlines before 9/11.

[Ranger]

Clarice,

My understanding is that Fitz originally planned to call Rezko, but now is shying away from that decision. The question is why. Blago made it clear that if Rezko is called, Blago wants to call Obama as a defense witness (presumably to attest to the fact that all of the things Rezko said on the stand that he did, Obama was totally unaware of, and therefore may not have happened).

Since Rezko is at the center of every transaction here, and he is supposedly a co-operating witness for the state, Blado can impeach the state's case by asking why Rezko himself was not called.

Blago's defense is two fold. One, that the witnesses against him are lying to curry favor with the state. Two, that there was deal making, but it was political, not personal enrichment, and therefore perfectly legal.

My guess is that if the state doesn't call Rezko as a prosecution witness, Blago's team will argue that it is because Rezko refused to lie for the state on the stand. That may work to some extent. Remember, Rezko was only convicted of a little over half the counts against him. He was actually aquitted on several because the witnesses against him were so shady themselves.

[jimmyk]

"How can an exec be oblivious to the coming disaster and yet prescient enough to sell one-third of his holdings."

BR, let's not go overboard with 20-20 hindsight. Even a week after the accident BP stock had only fallen from roughly 60 to 57. So the idea that back in March they knew this was going to be a disaster doesn't ring true to me.

What we don't know about the February developments is (a) how common they were; (b) to what extent BP thought they'd fixed the problem. We also don't know how common it is for CEOs to buy or sell their holdings and for what reasons. Hayward would have still been heavily invested in BP even after the sales. I think some of us may have watched too many Law & Order episodes.

[narciso]

But the problem is Goldman, was the ones who sold off, and they really are Cthluthu's spawn
in my book; their ties to the speculators, to
the Subprime mess, to the White House, to the
European debt crisis, makes me very suspicious

[Insofar as BP's price was supported by its supposed leg up in alternatives, the news of the last six months damages it.]

Little known, but climategate has hurt all of the investments in a green alternative future. Hayward may have sensed the writing on the wall as news of the climate hoax spreads. Beyond Petroleum is frankly out of step, now.
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