by TChris

As fall political campaigns begin to capture the attention of voters, the days after Labor Day will give Democrats the opportunity to discuss the many ways in which life for workers can improve if Republicans are reduced to a minority status in the federal legislature. (Some changes would likely encounter a presidential veto, but that problem can be remedied in another two years.)

• Democrats can protect retirement income by saving social security from privatization. And by eliminating the $90,000 income cap on social security payroll taxes, Democrats can make the Social Security Trust Fund solvent while assuring that high income wage earners pay the same percentage of their earnings to FICA as does the average worker.

• Democrats can roll back the most punitive provisions in the Republican-enacted bankruptcy "reform" legislation, while reforming chapter 11 bankruptcy law to make it more difficult for corporations to weasel out of the commitments they made to employees in collective bargaining agreements.

• Democrats can increase the minimum wage.

(Guest Post by Big Tent Democrat)

A few weeks ago in my post What Obama Needs To Learn, I wrote:

[T]hat is FDR's lesson for Obama. Politics is not a battle for the middle. It is a battle for defining the terms of the political debate. It is a battle to be able to say what is the middle. . . . FDR governed as a liberal but politicked like a populist. When LBJ rightly and to his everlasting credit removed one of the Dem pillars of paranoia - racism, the GOP co-opted populist racism, added the Jeffersonian notion of government and institutional hatred, throw in a dash of paranoid Red scare, now terrorism scare, and you get political victories. The lesson of Hofstadter is to embrace liberal governance and understand populist politics. It may sound cynical, but you must get through the door to govern. Lincoln knew this. FDR knew this. Hofstadter knew this. I hope Obama can learn this.

A debate about populism has been ongoing among some very smart folks. Brad DeLong has been in the middle of it, in particular in debate with Paul Krugman:

I am, as I said above, a reality-based center-left technocrat. I am pragmatically interested in government policies that work: that are good for America and for the world. My natural home is in the bipartisan center, arguing with center-right reality-based technocrats about whether it is center-left or center-right policies that have the best odds of moving us toward goals that we all share--world peace, world prosperity, equality of opportunity, safety nets, long and happy lifespans, rapid scientific and technological progress, and personal safety. The aim of governance, I think, is to achieve a rough consensus among the reality-based technocrats and then to frame the issues in a way that attracts the ideologues on one (or, ideally, both) wings in order to create an effective governing coalition.

I am a Big Tent Centrist Dem so that sounds good to me as a matter of policy. But what about the politics? I think populism is critical to Democratic politics. I'll discuss Delong's views and other matters related to populism, as policy and politics, on the other side.

by TChris

Seeking to interview Karl Rove, the New York Times refused the administration's inevitable attempt to control the message:

The White House said that Mr. Rove would consider an interview for this article if it were conducted off the record, with the provision that quotations could be put on the record with White House approval, a condition it said was set for other interviews with Mr. Rove. The New York Times declined.

The Times isn't alone in telling Rove to stuff it.

by TChris

• Whatever his motivation, Arnold Schwarzenegger merits props for his support of legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in California. (Here's what else he needs to do.) What are we to think, though, about his incongruous love affair with the Hummer?

• This is the text of the president's weekly radio address. Ever optimistic, the president is again using the V word. The definitition of victory remained unspoken.

He didn't say what "victory" in Iraq will look like. Given that most of the Iraqi deaths over the past several months have been the result of sectarian conflict, would "victory" require U.S. troops to intervene in a civil war? Nor did the president say how the Iraqi enterprise prevents terrorist plots such as the recently disrupted plan to blow up airliners.

• "This is the time?" Wasn't the time, what, three or four years ago?

This is the time for Mr. Bush to acknowledge serious errors, present evidence that he has learned from them, define clear goals and set a strategy for accomplishing them. Time is short.

• The administration decided to "cut by nearly half the jobs of lawyers at the IRS who audit the tax returns of the richest Americans," while the government sends Ronald Isley of the Isley Brothers to prison for three years and one month for tax evasion. Isley must not be a Republican.

• Opium farmers in Afghanistan are having their best year ever.

(Guest Post by Big Tent Democrat)

Via TNR, Slate reportsRudy saying no to the New McCarthyism:

As [Rudy Giuliaini] answered the last of the three questions from reporters, he talked about the root causes of terrorism: "oppressive governments that demagogue and blame and project their problems other places and do nothing to solve the problems of their own people."

"Sounds like the Democrats," shouted a man. The crowd roared.

. . . "Time out," [Giuliani] said . . .The other thing we have to learn is that we can't get into this partisan bickering. The fact is that Republicans and Democrats have the same objectives. Democrats are loyal Americans. Republicans are loyal Americans. I think we have better answers, but we have to respect each other."

Say what? No more calling Democrats traitors? No more comparing them to terrorists? What will that leave Rove and Cheney and Rummy and Lieberman? Next thing you know Rudy will be defending gay marriage and the right to choose. I saw that season of the West Wing -- did Alan Alda win? I forget.

by TChris

Republicans are complaining that intelligence agencies aren't doing enough to scare Americans with "ominous warnings" about Iran. Why is the GOP trying to terrorize the country? Why not a rational and calm review of the facts, rather than an endless series of dire warnings?

Who knew Bush had such a sense of humor? From U.S. News & World Report:

Animal House in the West Wing

He [Bush] loves to cuss, gets a jolly when a mountain biker wipes out trying to keep up with him, and now we're learning that the first frat boy loves flatulence jokes. A top insider let that slip when explaining why President Bush is paranoid around women, always worried about his behavior. But he's still a funny, earthy guy who, for example, can't get enough of fart jokes. He's also known to cut a few for laughs, especially when greeting new young aides, but forget about getting people to gas about that.

How utterly juvenile. [Hat tip to TBogg.]

The Republican National Committee has turned its website into a tabloid in the vein of the National Enquirer. Check out this hate-filled "article" on Markos of Daily Kos. What did he do to deserve the party's wrath? He took a vacation.

As Steve of Carpetbagger Report writes at Crooks and Liars:

Maybe I'm missing something here. Are we supposed to be disgusted with Kos for "relaxing"? Are vacations now bad? Or is the point that Kos is somehow suspect because he went to El Salvador?

by TChris

Once information has been in the public domain for a few years, it wouldn't seem to be "secret," but that bit of common sense hasn't deterred the Bush administration from reclassifying information about nuclear weaponry that used to be publicly available.

Researchers at the National Security Archive, an independent library that belongs to The George Washington University, found that officials from the Pentagon and US Department of Energy have been trawling through reports that have been released to the public and deleting numbers of missiles, despite some of the statistics being decades old.

You may recall this TalkLeft post about the administration's obsession with secrecy, leading to the reclassification of more than 55,000 documents. Today's news is more of the same. Open government, anyone?

A new CBS poll shows President Bush's approval ratings haven't changed since the London terror threats became public:

The arrests in Britain have not helped President Bush's popularity so far, the CBS poll finds. His job approval remains exactly at 36 percent, where it was a month ago. Even the president's rating for handling terrorism - his strongest suit - remains unchanged at 51 percent.

Via Brains Over Bombs, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has made Vanity Fair's Best Dressed List.

She was cited for being "immaculately groomed and formidably dignified but with an audacious renegade streak".

But, Condi's accolades may be wearing thin.

Claude Allen, President Bush's top domestic policy advisor until he resigned in February, then accused in March of a theft by returning receipts sfor refunds cheme at Target and Hechts, will plead guilty to a misdemeanor in exchange for having felony charges dismissed and receiving no jail time.

Allen was arrested after Montgomery police accused him of stealing more than $5,000 in merchandise from Target and Hecht's stores through a refund scheme. Police said this is how the scheme worked: Allen would walk into a store, pick up items and pay for them. He would later return to the store, pick up identical items and seek a refund using the receipt from the purchase. Police said he did this at least 25 times from October to January, buying items including a Bose home theater system, clothes and merchandise worth as little as $2.50. Several of the transactions were recorded by store surveillance cameras.

As part of the deal, Allen will pay $850.00 in restitution. Background here and here.