What is the strange pulse that is bumping sane and competent people away from office in Washington over the past month? Caroline Kennedy, Tom Daschle, and now Judd Gregg all step back just as the door has opened. Daschle I get: you have to pay your taxes and it's just not credible that a guy with his years in the harness was innocently unaware of what he owed. For a humble Democrat from South Dakota he sure does like the big bucks. A free car and driver would be nice for all of us, Tom, who do you have to know?
We were leaving for the Philippines when the Caroline exit broke and I still haven't heard what the deal was with that other than a Letterman rant one day on cable in Dagupan that implied that she had been rail- roaded out. And Judd Gregg: he won $800,000 in a lottery a few years ago so maybe he feels entitled to barge in and out of other people's Administrations as he pleases. Judd, take a seat there next to Joaquin Phoenix and plot your next career move.
The other night, in Springfield, Illinois, honoring Lincoln on his 200th birthday anniversary, Barack Obama fantasized about Abe getting an offer to be Secretary of Commerce and how he might have responded. President Obama, the most sensitive and intelligent of men, was full of the majesty of Lincoln and the folly of Judd Gregg--a name that belongs to a rube in Oklahoma--but stayed with Lincoln and gave one of those lovely Obama speeches that makes you want to turn off the TV and read a book. I think President Obama has had enough of strange pulses and will stick to what he has learned in Springfield.
1 comment:
There was funny bit about Daschle on the Daily Show, talking about his not paying tax on his car and driver. (All I know about money came from a high school Economics class in which I barely paid attention, and I know you have to pay taxes on services you receive.)
Anyway, Jon Stewart compared the situation to the movie, Driving Miss Daisy, and said that the cost of Daschle's limo service would only make sense if Morgan Freeman himself were actually your driver.
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