Once again, President Obama channels Oscar Wilde, who famously said the only thing he couldn’t resist was temptation.
So it is with Obama’s attempt to turn the Gulf oil debacle into a reason why America should embrace his cap-and-tax energy policy.
No matter the crisis, Obama can’t resist the temptation to exploit it in his quest to grow the government.
He did it during the financial meltdown, arguing the economic crisis proved America suddenly needed an idea he’d pushed all along, universal health care.
It didn’t, and still doesn’t.
Yet Obama showed last night he is ready for The Sequel.
Rolling out the military metaphors–“battle plan” and “siege” and “fight”– he again embraced the philosophy of his resident thinker, Rahm Emanuel, that a crisis is a terrible thing to waste.
It was an unpersuasive performance. It lacked the essential energy and mastery of detail that would show the president focused like a laser on the crisis.
Instead, it caught him looking starry-eyed into the wild blue yonder.
Earth to president: Come on down. He’s been hammered relentlessly for not being engaged, but he’s still not into the details of the prevention and cleanup.
He’s got a czar, a commission and a dream, therefore he is. And, oh, he’s got BP to kick around and milk like a fat cow.
His idea to tax all forms of carbon already failed once as the public gagged on his splurge in deficit spending.
Even Democratic senators and governors fear the impact it would have on energy prices and manufacturing jobs in coal and oil states.
But the idea is in play, repackaged as Obama’s answer to the Gulf spill. It would be one thing if he came up with these industry takeovers as answers to the emergencies.
It’s quite another when he uses the emergencies as a transparent excuse to sell a plan he had before the crisis hit.
With people along the Gulf worried about their jobs and way of life, and as oil continues to wash up on shore, he wants to expand the subject instead of taking charge of the immediate problems.
The fact that Obama is meeting with BP officials for the first time today shows how far behind the curve he is on the unprecedented disaster.
BP deserves the blame for the accident, but Obama’s reluctance to do little more than use the company as a populist punching bag cost valuable time and let a bad situation grow immeasurably worse.
Unfortunately, it’s typical of the president’s M.O.
Lacking management experience, and self-absorbed with transformational ambition, he treats details affecting millions of Americans as a distraction.
The habit first surfaced during the 2008 campaign, when he resisted any suggestion he scale back his domestic goals as the financial meltdown gobbled up the nation’s wealth.
When he took office, he simply added the $862 billion stimulus and other bailout programs to the budget, then spent a year pushing the health-care monstrosity.
Meanwhile, he seems to have given up trying to fix the job-growth engine, and the carbon tax would be another ball and chain on employers.
Americans could get behind a plan to reduce reliance on imported oil, a security issue as well as an economic one. And we must develop alternative fuels. But to try to reduce all carbon fuels is utopian to the extreme.
The last thing the nation needs is an energy plan that leads to higher costs, job losses and more federal debt.
Sometimes, even a president must say no to temptation.
‘Bloombucks’ rap raises lot of questions
If it was a crime, it ranks as one of the strangest of all times. A man is accused of stealing $1.1 million, the victim doesn’t complain and isn’t clamoring for his money back. Hmmm.
That’s the short form of the case against John Haggerty, the Queens GOP player indicted for stealing the dough from Mayor Bloomberg in last year’s campaign.
Something doesn’t fit. The hole is bigger than the case, at least so far.
Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr. naturally has a theory about the hole. He argues Haggerty was able to “dupe” the mayor and his sophisticated advisers because “they trusted him.”
No way. Bloomberg “trusted” Haggerty because he knew him well and expected the money would be spent on poll-watching and other vague duties. Mayor Moneybags didn’t really care what Haggerty did with the money. He just wanted to win the election, and would spend whatever it cost.
Victory, it turns out, cost him north of $105 million. That brings his direct expenses on three races to about $270 million.
By funneling the money through the Independence Party, and throwing in an extra $100,000 for the party, Bloomy clearly didn’t want the payment known. Which explains why the party used a spaghetti tangle of transfers to get the cash to Haggerty.
It’s also curious that Bloomberg never asked for an explanation about where the money went until my colleague David Seifman asked. Could it be that Bloomy didn’t want to know?
That’s my bet. I suspect Bloomberg’s staff was following the Tammany tradition of handing out “walking-around money.” Basically, the money was Haggerty’s to distribute any way he saw fit.
Such cash usually comes in brown paper bags and is no more than $10,000. With Bloombucks, everything comes with an extra zero or two.
Vance is new, but political tricks aren’t. The DA acknowledged the Independence Party is not cooperating with him or the grand jury. That means he doesn’t have the whole truth. He needs to keep digging until he does.
GETTING IT RIGHT: NO HUGS FOR FLOTILLA THUGS
Democratic House members from the city ran from Rep. Pete King’s bill to require America to support Israel in the flotilla probes, but some are backing a related good idea.
With several passengers from the Turkish vessel that fought Israeli soldiers scheduled to speak in Brooklyn tomorrow, the pols and several Jewish groups want the State Department to investigate those passengers who seek visas. Any with ties to terror groups obviously should be denied entry into the United States.
A group calling itself “The Palestine Right to Return Coalition” says three “survivors” from the ship that tried to break the blockade on Gaza will speak at a rally on Atlantic Avenue. One of the scheduled speakers is a member of IHH, which bills itself as a Turkish charity, but in fact supports Hamas. The Jewish Community Relations Council and other supporters of Israel gathered 23,000 names on petitions to demand background checks. Rep. Eliot Engel of The Bronx said the ship carried “hate-filled provocateurs” determined to create a violent confrontation. Other House members signing on included Carolyn Maloney, Jerrold Nadler, Charles Rangel and Anthony Weiner.
Gilly’s slip showing
More news attesting to the smarts of New York voters. A new poll finds Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s approval rating falling to 36 percent, down 6 points in a month.
They’re on to her.
Andy’s Indy problem
By the way, the case now gives Andrew Cuomo a problem. The attorney general, who vows to reform Albany, accepted the backing of the Indy Party on the slick claim the party was clean. Surely, he’s heard of Caesar’s wife.