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Friday, May 9, 2008
This sounds like trouble
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Today’s Washington Post has this:
A powerful federal arts commission is urging that the sculpture of Martin Luther King Jr. proposed for a memorial on the Tidal Basin be reworked because it is too “confrontational” and reminiscent of political art in totalitarian states.
The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts thinks “the colossal scale and Social Realist style of the proposed statue recalls a genre of political sculpture that has recently been pulled down in other countries,” commission secretary Thomas Luebke said in a letter in April.
By law, no project like the memorial can go forward without approval from the commission, the federal agency that advises the government on public design and aesthetics in the capital.
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Nunn at No. 5, Clinton at No. 3 in the veep sweepstakes?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Chris Cillizza, the man behind “The Fix” for the Washington Post, has put Sam Nunn at the bottom of his list of top five potential vice presidential candidates for Barack Obama.
Hillary Clinton is No. 3. Kathleen Sebelius, the governor of Kansas, ranks No. 1.
Of the former Georgia senator, who came out for Obama this spring, Cillizza says this:
”It’s hard to argue with Nunn’s place as one of the pre-eminent Democratic thinkers on foreign policy and defense issues. He spent more than two decades in the Senate representing Georgia and he chaired the Armed Services Committee. That resume coupled with Nunn’s status as a white southerner could well make him an appealing pick for Obama. But, is Nunn too moderate (some would say conservative) for the party’s liberal base to swallow?”
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According to Rasmussen: Chambliss safe, so far, but Perdue’s numbers have slipped
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Rasmussen Reports has a Georgia survey that shows U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss with a comfortable lead over three of the five Democrats in the race.
Says Rasmussen:
Chambliss now leads Dale Cardwell 51% to 37%, Vernon Jones 58% to 30% and Jim Martin 54% to 33%. Those figures are very similar to results from a month ago….
Cardwell has the highest favorability ratings of the Democratic challengers, but he receives positive reviews from just 35% of voters statewide. Martin is viewed favorably by 34%, Jones by 30%.
None of the Democrats break into double digits in the Very Favorable category. by 15%. Cardwell and Martin are each viewed that positively by 9%, Jones by 8%.
When it comes to Very Unfavorable ratings, Jones is at 30%, Martin 16%, and Cardwell 15%.
There are also signs that Gov. Sonny Perdue may have been hit — ever so slightly — by shrapnel from this last session of the General Assembly. Perdue, Rasmussen says:
… earns good or excellent ratings from 49% of Georgia voters. That’s down from 55% a month ago. Just 17% give him a poor rating. Up four since March. Nearly a third, 32%, give him a more neutral assessment and say the Governor is doing a fair job.
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Tom Price and Barney Frank go at it over home mortgage bill, Bear Stearns
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On Thursday, the U.S. House defied threats of a veto from President Bush and 266-154 to pass a massive, homeowner rescue plan to provide cheaper, government-backed mortgages.
Thirty-nine Republicans voted with the majority. U.S. Rep. Tom Price (R-Roswell) wasn’t one of them.
In fact, Price took the Bush side in a testy back-and-forth last night with U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), the chief architect of the proposal, on PBS’ “Newshour with Jim Lehrer.”
Read the entire transcript here, but this is a brief snippet that began with Frank contrasting Bush’s veto threat on his bill with the president’s support for the bail-out of Wall Street giant Bear Sterns.
REP. TOM PRICE: Well, it’s apples and oranges. Bear Stearns wasn’t on the floor today. In fact, the Bear Stearns assistance never came for congressional action, because it happened through the Federal Reserve. They made that decision, not Congress. We didn’t get a chance to vote on that.
And I would also make the point that this, in fact, is another bailout, if you will, for lenders. It’s a bailout for Wall Street. It’s not a bailout for borrowers, because lenders are the ones that determine whether or not this step occurs, whether they ask the FHA to move into this program.
This is a bailout for lenders. It’s a potential $300 billion liability transferred from borrowers and lenders to the taxpayer. And that’s not what the American people think are fair, especially the 110 million who have paid their mortgage, have paid off their home, or are renting.
So, it’s — this is not a fair program. It’s not what the American people want. And I believe that it’s also going to take a whole lot longer to get to the right answer because of what this Congress has done today.
REP. BARNEY FRANK: You didn’t get an answer on how the Bush administration, which strongly supported Bear Stearns through the Treasury Department and its appointees, how it’s OK to do $29 billion for Bear Stearns, but not $2.4 billion for homeowners.
REP. TOM PRICE: Well, with all due respect, Mr. Chairman, it wasn’t a congressional action.
REP. BARNEY FRANK: No, but it was the Bush administration. I understand that. I wouldn’t say it was a congressional action, if you were listening. I said the Bush administration. The Bush administration, I was asked, has threatened to veto the bill.
They say you can’t do $2.4 billion for homeowners, but you can do $29 billion for the people who did business with Bear Stearns.
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