Geithner: "Dammit Jim, I'm a Treasury Secretary -- Not An Economist"

by: AdamGreen

Sun Apr 18, 2010 at 20:45

I just got back from a Sunday jog around the White House and monuments. For those who aren't here in DC, it's sunny but windy/chilly.

Listened to the Sunday show podcasts along the way. Some things that caught my ear...

• TIM GEITHNER: "You know, I'm -- I'm not an economist, David." Reminds me of Cenk Uygur's typical riff on Star Trek's, "Jim, I'm a doctor, not a [fill in the blank]." Except unlike Dr. McCoy being called on to be a bricklayer, Tim Geithner's "Dammit, I'm a Treasury Secretary -- Not An Economist" when asked about unemployment is a little more unnerving.
• BILL CLINTON was asked about Obama pushing "opposite policies of Treasury Secretary Rubin and Summers at that time, do you think in retrospect they gave you bad advice on these issues?" He said, "on derivatives, yeah I think they were wrong and I think I was wrong to take it." Wow. That strikes me as rather big news.
• TIM GEITHNER: Previewed the White House talking point if unemployment goes up: "If you see that happen it'll be because you have more people come back into the workforce now because there's hope again." Yay! Hope is on the way!
• REP. MARSHA BLACKBURN: Reacting to Gov. Ed Rendell calling Republicans the party of no, she previewed a new 2010 Republican talking point, "We're the party of K-N-O-W." Really? If Frank Luntz wrote that one, he's kinda losing his touch...
  
• DAVID GREGORY asks Blackburn a great question: "What did [the free market] get the American People during...the financial collapse? Is that not a fair question about the limits of -- of the free, capitalist system?" WHOA. When was the last time a Sunday show host for a network owned by a giant corporation questioned an unbridled market? wow...
• POLITICO does an amazing job giving Meet The Press an exclusive on a new poll showing that 76% of teabaggers think Obama is a socialist. After that statistic, David Gregory adds, "I -- I should say that that poll from Politico will be available in its entirety on Monday at Politico.com. Speak to that." Ha. PR person's dream...
• DAVID GREGORY, on a roll, quotes Michele Bachmann at a teabagger rally saying, "We're on to them. We're on to this gangster government," and then does an unusually good job asking 5 tough questions and follow-up questions to Marsha Blackburn, including "April 19th is coming up...the anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing, where an antigovernment person who was arguably a sociopath attacked the federal government. When you describe a gangster government, do you think that's over the line and inappropriate in our political discourse?" He got Blackburn to disown Backmann's words on the 5th try, "It would not have been a choice in words that I made." (Programming note: Rachel Maddows "The McVeigh Tapes" about anti-government militias airs this Monday at 9pm EST on MSNBNC...)
• JAKE TAPPER: Was he aware of the irony when asking Bill Clinton, "Explain what a commitment is?" 

Politics Daily's Jill Lawrence: Journalism Without Facts

by: AdamGreen

Wed Mar 17, 2010 at 07:30

Great news for "the left" -- Politics Daily's Jill Lawrence wrote us a memo!

Who is Jill Lawrence, you may ask. She is the prognosticator who declared three months ago, "It may be too soon to write a requiem for the public option, but I'm going to do it anyway..."

Surprise, surprise, she now writes, "Memo to the Left: The Public Health Insurance Option Is Dead, Get Over It."

I actually don't care that someone would question whether the public option is dead. Ezra Klein -- a smart guy -- wrote just last Friday, "The public option: Very alive or totally dead?" (He also wrote, "the story of the public option's resurgence has been a mixture of smart organizing and Senate cowardice," much appreciated by the thousands of folks who have been organizing on this issue.)

What I resent about Jill Lawrence's "memo" is that she engages in journalism without facts. Check out her main three arguments against progressives:

First, a public option could complicate passage in the House. Pelosi is trying to balance potential loss of support from anti-abortion Democrats against gains that may come from moderate "Blue Dog" Democrats who prefer the Senate bill. They like it in part because it has no public option.

I spoke with Jill Lawrence and she said this on the phone. I asked her point blank, "What yes votes turn to no votes because of the public option?" Her answer, "Well, I don't know the names."

I suggested she find them. Evidently, she couldn't. But she threw this unsupported argument out there anyway.

One could just as easily say some members of the House are more likely to vote for the bill if it has a public option. Unlike Jill Lawrence, I can name names. The Atlantic's Chris Good wrote about Rep. Scott Murphy (D-NY) -- a former "no" vote -- in his piece, "A Moderate Dem For The Public Option." When signing our House public option letter, Murphy said:

"Our nation's health care system is broken.  To have real reform we need to ensure three things; accessibility, accountability, and affordability.  I support this letter because the public option would help achieve all three of these goals and help to keep costs down by giving the American public a competitive option to private insurers." 

Jill Lawrence's first point goes down in flames. But, she took two more stabs at it. Here's the next one: