Sirota sellout Watch(tM): Reich gives it an A-minus!

OH NOES! Reich must have been a sleeper Clintonite all along!

Now, I can believe -- pace Krugman -- that it's too small. But I can also believe this has been constructed in good faith -- and that good people on the Left think it is pretty good, even in a diminished form.

They're obviously part of the conspiracy.

[...] Sens. Collins (Maine), Specter (Pa.), and Snowe (Maine) were the only senators to break party ranks, [...] -- Steve Benen

"Funny"... Martinez (FL), Murkowski (AK), and Voinovich (OH) were quick to preen as "centrists" when it came to slashing the impact of the stimulus but got cold feet when it came to voting for what they'd wrought? Vewy, vewy bwave of them.

And my hat is off to Teddy K; they might have pulled it off without him, but, bless his sturdy heart, he dragged himself to the floor where it counted, just to make sure.

what's up with cornyn? was he in the men's room or something?

This presidential press conference is stunning. I'm sad to say I'd forgotten what it was like to see a president answer questions at length, on topic, and with a stellar command of both the fine details and the big picture.

After eight years of frat boy nicknames, empty platitudes and aw-shucks shrugs, this is a breath of fresh air.

"what's up with cornyn? was he in the men's room or something?"

He was probably having some of that hot man-on-box-turtle sex he keeps talking about.

Damn, Brian beat me to the punch about Cornyn.

The greater concern now isn't that there will be a stimulus package---there will, now that it's cleared cloture---but rather that the reaction is a pale shadow of the action, because of the notion that "the boat can be made less leaky by drilling a hole to let the water out."

Looking at the full bore-stroke of this deflationary recession---definable now as the early stage of depression, with the hat-trick of housing, consumer spending, and industrial output all in collapse to a combined tune of probably 1-point-3 trillion or more just this year alone (and that's only if things do not accelerate toward evaporation at a greater rate than is already recorded), this "stimulus" is nothing more than someone wagging their string of magic mojo beads at a rapidly-approaching nuclear warhead.

And my hat is off to Teddy K;

Mine, too.

In a short time the stimulus will have been resolved in conference, and will be passed. At that point, Obama should take some time to shoot a few extra hoops, or whatever. He will have gotten nearly everything that he and the House Democrats wanted. Politically, it's looking better than his critics on the left and right claimed.

I'm downcast, but it's looking like he played it right.

Yes! For once Cornyn didn't embarrass me as my Senator!!

I don't care what his reason was. I'll take what I can get.

Cornyn was attack-dogging/trolling for money on the Street:

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0209/Cornyns_absence.html

@ TR 8:45- you said brother
I cringed every time in the last 8 years I had to see that vapid empty suit representing our country.
I still can't get over it.
Tells the truth
Calls repugs out on their talking point bullshit
Pronounces Nuclear correctly
Actually answers the questions in a thoughtful nuanced manner
He pronounces all the countries and leaders correctly.

Astounding

TR, you are so correct although it's not your fault you forgot what it was like to hear a president speak in full sentences that made sense. Eight years is a long time.

It's amazing to me that we went that long with a dolt who couldn't speak in depth or with any insight on any issue. And the MSM seemed to think it was perfectly normal. He was cut way too much slack.

I sure hope someone in the Democratic party has been tasked with bringing Collins and Snowe over to the Democratic party. They have a lot to gain, potentially, if they do, since either would be the magic 60th vote; they could claim that the stimulus bill is the straw that broke the camel's back for them. Obama won the state by 18 points. Is there a downside for them? The Republicans are looking like the minority party in the Senate for a while....why not join the winning team? And neither is up in 2010, so that's four years for any potential unhappiness over the switch to die down.

Did you notice that Obama compared the number of newly unemployed to the total population of Maine in his presser this evening? What a coincidence ;)

You Democrats all suck! Pretty soon we won't even have a country and your all going to look like a bunch of idiots....

Did anybody else see this:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aGq2B3XeGKok&refer=home

It looks like the Fed and FDIC spent/loaned 9.7 TRILLION dollars over the last two years without us knowing about it.

Holy $hit! I think President Obama was low on his comment about DOUBLING the national debt in eight years - Bush and the Republicans might have TRIPLED or QUADRUPLED it.

ksis:

it's "you're," not "your."

At that point, Obama should take some time to shoot a few extra hoops, or whatever.

No, Marler, Obama's going to get busy passing even more legislation that will mitigate the failures of the Party you shill for and ensure the Republicans spend a long, long time in the political wilderness -- and so, sadly, will be in no position to give you those sweet, sweet tax cuts. All youd dishonesty, and for nothing. Too bad, so sad.

Jackass.

Yes! For once Cornyn didn't embarrass me as my Senator!!

Mwwwwfff! (Coffee through my nose.)

Just a continuation of the Bush borrow-and-spend policies, but greater in scope by an order of magnitude.

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1850269,00.html

Two weeks ago in midtown Manhattan, time stood still � literally. After the country's debt surpassed $10 trillion, the marquee-sized debt clock in Times Square, which has kept a running tally of the U.S. national debt for nearly 20 years, ran out of digits.

Just a continuation of the Bush borrow-and-spend policies, but greater in scope by an order of magnitude.

No, it isn't a continuation. Obama is enacting proven Keynesian stimulus, in which deficit spending during a recession is necessary and effective. Bush squandered a budgetary surplus during times of modest prosperity in order to redistribute wealth to the ultra-rich. There is no equivalence between the two.

No, Marler, Obama's going to get busy passing even more legislation that will mitigate the failures of the Party you shill for and ensure the Republicans spend a long, long time in the political wilderness -- and so, sadly, will be in no position to give you those sweet, sweet tax cuts. All youd dishonesty, and for nothing. Too bad, so sad.

I just meant that he should enjoy a brief celebration before getting back to work. I didn't mean he should shoot hoops forever. He did a good job. He faced down the criticism from left and right and stuck with his strategy.