Friday Potpourri

That 10.8 percent unemployment rate from……..Ronald Reagan.

You’re going to hear a lot of Obama critics today saying, “Where are the jobs, Mr. Obama?” They know the unemployment rate is a “lagging indicator,” as the economists say. But they have forgotten how our system works (if they ever knew). So, here is the unemployment rate for one of the recessions presided over by their saint and savior, Ronald Reagan.

For the 12 months of July 1982 to June 1983, the unemployment rate was 9.8 percent or above. For 10 of those 12 months, the unemployment rate was above 10 percent, reaching a high of 10.8 percent in November and December of 1982. Give it a rest, my dear Republican friends.

Memo to GOP

Yesterday, John Boehner, minority leader of the House of Representatives stood before a rally of raging opponents of the health care reform proposed and he railed on about the difficulty of governing when we forget the sacred principles of the U.S. Constitution. He said “I’m going to read to you the first paragraph of that great document,” and then he proceeded to read the first paragraph of the ….Declaration of Independence.

PS to GOP: why not ask your members to read the Constitution before they actually run for office?

GOP angst over Obama’s ability to address more than one issue at a time.

One Republican friend asked me this week why President Obama doesn’t stay in the Oval Office and work on one major issue at a time instead of spending tax money flying all over the nation in Air Force One talking to constituents?

I explained this President has 322 million citizens looking to him to keep the lights on for them, clear the air for them, provide adequate and affordable health care for them, assist with the education of their children, and oh yes, protect them from all enemies, foreign and domestic. I don't begrudge him a ride on a big plane to Wisconsin to talk with his constituents about education and other important issues.

The reason this President continues his high approval rating with most Americans is because they perceive in him a President, finally, who actually CAN keep more than one ball in the air at the same time.

Sanctimonious Republicans

Who are these people, the John Boehner’s and the Chuck Grassley’s of this world who claim to be outraged by the current level of spending proposed by the Obama Administration.

Where was their outrage when Ronald Reagan quadrupled the national debt during the eight years of his administration, when the common and accepted practice of the GOP was to “borrow and spend?”

Where was their outrage when George W. Bush was setting new spending records in virtually every category of federal spending during his eight years? Nearly $1 trillion (and possibly more) in direct outlays spent on “nation building” in Iraq, a record for our country; approval of a record cost for prescription drug benefit for seniors, exceeding $1 trillion (Bush, of course, miscalculated the cost at only $400 billion); Bush also proposed a record budget of $3.1 trillion for the U.S. in fiscal year 2009; finally, as Bush left office, the nation’s debt was rising at $2 billion per day! Where was the outrage of Grassley and Boehner then?

Hmmmmm……?????

Their silence was as deafening then as their hypocrisy is today.

And therefore, it should come as no surprise that their lamentations about President Obama’s initiatives to stabilize the economy and restore its strength have no credibility with the American people and are being roundly ignored – as they should be.

Too Late, Newt

By now, you may have read media accounts of Newt Gingrich's recent strategy letter to House Republicans. In it, he calls for "real change to avoid a real disaster." Sorry, Newt, too late.

Newt is calling for "real change in legislative, communications, and campaign strategy and involves immediate, real action, including a complete overhaul of the Congressional Campaign Committee." Too late, Newt.

John Boehner, Republican leader from Ohio, added his two cents: "Republicans can only succeed this year by being agents of change and reform. The American people know that Washington is broken, and we have to convince them that we can fix it."

Too late, John. The American people have your number. We've seen the money laundering of Tom DeLay. We've seen the Bush Administration's reckless disregard for the US Constitution. We've seen your profligate spending in everything from misadventures overseas to earmarking special projects for your friends here at home. We've seen your spending up close and it is not pretty. Not even liberal Democrats, your favorite whipping boy, spend money the way you guys have spent it for the past seven years. You are not Republicans. Barry Goldwater wouldn't know you. You might best be described as the GOOP Party (Grand Old Opportunists Party) for that is mostly the course you have taken.

On one thing we do agree, there has been a "catastrophic collapse of trust in Republicans" as Newt has correctly noted, and in the end, that will be the problem that will keep John McCain from winning in November.