Judd Gregg Goes Full WingNut

Yesterday Judd Gregg said that the United States wouldn't qualify to join the EU right now because of our deficits. Of course he was wrong. But the truth is Gregg has been wrong about quite a lot lately and yet he still gets major airplay on major cable news stations primarily because he was the nominee for Commerce Secretary for about five seconds. Steve Benen over at Washington Monthly takes him down.

It's worth remembering that Gregg doesn't know what he's talking about. The EU offers flexibility to governments that are responding to economic crises -- note to Gregg: we're in the midst of an economic crisis -- and several EU members will run deficits well above 3% this year. Those countries will be expected to lower those deficits in the coming years, which not incidentally, is what the Obama administration plans to do in the U.S.

For that matter, Gregg repeatedly supported, enthusiastically, Bush budgets that ran deficits that were more than 3% of GDP. Gregg did not, at the time, run to the cable networks to whine about it.

But let's also note that Gregg is just popping off in the media a little too much lately. In addition to his confusion about the EU, he also told CNN the other day, "The practical implications of [the Obama administration's budget] is bankruptcy for the United States. There's no other way around it. If we maintain the proposals that are in this budget over the ten-year period that this budget covers, this country will go bankrupt. People will not buy our debt, our dollar will become devalued."

First, Gregg is completely wrong. Second, his wildly irresponsible claptrap undermines confidence in the United States on the global stage in the midst of an economic crisis. In other words, by making a series of nonsensical and unsupported claims about our economy, Gregg actually runs the risk of undermining our national interests.

Gregg has been wrong about nearly every major economic challenge of the last couple of decades. If he could take this moment to enjoy a little quiet time, instead of acting like a partisan hack, we'd all be better off.

Its ironic that a man that nobody paid much attention to before now is using his celebrity from being the Commerce Secretary nominee to now use that platform to lob irresponsible accusations at the President who nominated him in the first place. I guess its true when they say no good deed goes unpunished. We can only hope that people see through his facade and notice his hypocrisy from the time George Bush was in office until now.

The Tangible Power Of Change

There is now in this country a concerted effort being made to revise the history of the President George W. Bush and his administration. In some kind of ham handed Orwellian manner Bush officials and operatives are trying to sell the last 8 years of being full of peace, prosperity, and security and they are trying to sell Bush as a strong, competent leader. Well good luck with that. Unfortunately for them we aren't living in Orwell's 1984 and there are external clues that we can consider that aren't subject to any revisionist history in this country. One of the most notable examples is the disdain that the international community has had for George Bush and the contrast in their willingness to actually work with incoming President Elect Barack Obama. In the Washington Post today we find an article about the member nations in the E.U. who are eager to work with Obama on closing GITMO by offering some of the prisoners housed there asylum in their country. From the article.

European nations have begun intensive discussions both within and among their governments on whether to resettle detainees from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a significant overture to the incoming Obama administration, according to senior European officials and U.S. diplomats.

The willingness to consider accepting prisoners who cannot be returned to their home countries, because of fears they may be tortured there, represents a major change in attitude on the part of European governments. Repeated requests from the Bush administration that European allies accept some Guantanamo Bay detainees received only refusals.

The Bush administration "produced the problem," Karsten Voigt, coordinator of German-American cooperation at the German Foreign Ministry, said in a telephone interview. "With Obama, the difference is that he tries to solve it."

snip

"I believe the new administration will have the conditions to create a new dynamic of cooperation," Amado said. He noted that when he first raised the issue of Guantanamo Bay at a meeting of E.U. foreign ministers about seven months ago, some countries resisted assisting the Bush administration.

Note that last line. There were countries in the EU who didn't want to offer asylum to detainees in GITMO, not because they didn't want to help America, but instead because specifically they didn't want to help George Bush. There is a running meme pushed by conservative pundits and talking heads that history will be kind to President Bush. Well someone should tell them that history isn't just written in this country anymore. No matter how many false platitudes are showered upon President Bush, no matter how many self serving books are written about President Bush, no matter how many talking heads get on the Tee Vee and gloss over war crimes for President Bush, the world will not forget what a failure his presidency was. His legacy will not only haunt him for the rest of his life, but also will haunt our nation until we can rebuild our reputation around the world. Thankfully, our election of President Elect Obama seems to be a good first start.