Mike Williams' Obama Watch - May 6, 2009

Not long ago I mentioned that Sen. Specter’s party switch was a Faustian bargain with Sen. Reid, who promised Specter he’d retain his seniority as a Dem.

Today we learn that the Dems sent Specter to the back of the bus. Ed Morrissey:

This goes beyond the denial of the chair on a subcommittee Specter wanted. He actually got demoted on his existing committee assignments, moving from the top or near top of the opposition to the bottom of the majority. When Barack Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court meets with the Judiciary Committee, Specter will be the last person to ask questions, instead of second — a dramatic comedown.

Democrats sent a more practical message with this vote. Specter needed to retain his seniority in order to make the argument that electing him would keep Pennsylvania in a position of power in Congress. The caucus has made it much easier for a Democratic primary challenger to beat Specter by taking that advantage away from him. It’s practically a signal flare to Joe Sestak, approving of his run against Specter….

Specter reportedly switched because he felt he’d lose in the 2010 Republican primary, and as Ed points out, the Dems have now yanked the rug out from under him in the Dem primary. So Specter could retaliate by voting with his former Republican colleagues, as he says he’ll do on Card Check.

That would deny the Dems their filibuster-proof majority when Al Franken takes Sen. Coleman’s Minnesota seat. The other interesting thing is that Reid’s Dem colleagues apparently told their own majority leader to pound sand.

In other news, I think we knew this was coming:

Chrysler LLC will not repay U.S. taxpayers more than $7 billion in bailout money it received earlier this year and as part of its bankruptcy filing.

This revelation was buried within Chrysler's bankruptcy filings last week and confirmed by the Obama administration Tuesday. The filings included a list of business assumptions from one of the company's key financial advisers in the bankruptcy case.

Rick Moran at American Thinker:

This will be the first of many [giveaways], I'm afraid. Recall if you will the assurances we received that this bail out money would be paid back with interest. Recall also the laughter of serious economists who said the Obama administration was dreaming.

There are a couple of trillion bucks floating around out there that are at risk of simply disappearing. Do you think that Chrysler will be the exception rather than the rule? How much do you want to bet that the banks will look for similar "forgiveness" from the taxpayer?

We have given considerably more to GM - almost $70 billion. Would they dare stiff the taxpayer when they file bankruptcy?

With these guys in charge? You're kidding, right?

On climate change, Randall Hoven at American Thinker:

How do we know the globe is warming? Because glaciers are melting, silly.

Well recently, we found that glaciers have been shrinking for the last 700 to 6500 years , depending on where you look. I don't know about you, but I wasn't driving a car, cutting a lawn, barbequing, or even breathing that long ago. It wasn't my fault.

But apparently, not all glaciers are shrinking now. Discovery reports on a group of 230 glaciers that are growing, and have been for three decades.

But I'm sure this has nothing to do with a more quiescent sun [my link]….

This doesn’t look to be stopping cap-and-trade, however. And would you be surprised to learn that Al Gore stands to make a lot of money if this legislation passes?

Let’s end it for today with this American Thinkerr article on where our foreign debt is headed. An excerpt:

The United States is experiencing a huge debt problem at present. Not only are our households over-borrowed and our corporations over-leveraged, but our federal government is in the process of rapidly increasing its debt.

On top of all that, by the end of this year we will owe foreigners about 35% of our GDP. As we continue to run trade deficits, payments to foreigners will be an increasing drag upon our incomes.

As wise economist and presidential adviser Herb Stein once said: "If something cannot go on forever it won't." Something will have to give. The next stage in our economic crisis could be some combination of dollar-collapse, high interest rates, and high inflation….

This is a very educational read if you’re interested in where Obama and the Dems may be taking us.

Mike