OK, a loss of 60-plus seats in the House and 6 Senate seats is a disaster. Luckily the teabaggers threw up certified lunatics like Joe Miller, Sharron Angle, Ken Buck and Christine O'Donnell and incompetents like Carly Fiorina and Dino Rossi or the Senate would be gone too. Let's be real: President Obama is significantly if not mostly to blame for this "shellacking". Although not alone that is, for there are incompetents in his cabinet who are letting not just him but the American people down. After the 2006 midterms when the GOP was pummeled and lost both houses of Congress, at least President George W. Bush did one right thing and
fired the incompetent Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who had been overseeing 2 failing wars (that are still failing but that's a whole other diary). Yet 3 weeks after the bloodbath and President Obama has not made ONE substantive staffing move. I believe a bold move MUST be done to show that the White House is listening to the will of the people. So why don't we help him along? Here's a few names I wouldn't shed any tears over:
How about
Timothy Geithner? This should be a no-brainer. He should have been dropped for consideration for the job that includes head of the I.R.S. once it came out that he couldn't even manage
to do his own damn taxes right. 2 years later and the sailing has been just as rough. Why is the stock market flush with cash but unemployment still sky-high? Why are there huge bonuses going out to execs of taxpayer-money hoarding corporations but very little hiring or lending going on?
How about offshore oil-drilling shill
Ken Salazar?
Rolling Stone makes the best case as to why Interior Secretary Salazar's hands are dirty when it comes to the BP oil spill (the whole article is a must-read):
Though he criticized the actions of "a few rotten apples" at the agency, he left long-serving lackeys of the oil industry in charge. "The people that are ethically challenged are the career managers, the people who come up through the ranks," says a marine biologist who left the agency over the way science was tampered with by top officials. "In order to get promoted at MMS, you better get invested in this pro-development oil culture." One of the Bush-era managers whom Salazar left in place was John Goll, the agency's director for Alaska. Shortly after, the Interior secretary announced a reorganization of MMS in the wake of the Gulf disaster, Goll called a staff meeting and served cake decorated with the words "Drill, baby, drill."
How about Homeland Security head
Janet Napolitano? The new TSA screening guidelines are a traveler's (and public relations) nightmare. Why didn't her department adequately prepare the public for the new procedures? She hasn't made the case and the result is that the TSA is a laughingstock and enraging more people every day. This was hardly her
first misstep either.
How about
Eric Holder? Was it really necessary to blast America as a "
nation of cowards" when first assuming the job as Attorney General? Beyond that controversial first-impression are his decisions to
hold a civil trial for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York City and the
recent failure of his Justice department to convict Ahmed Ghailani on more than 1 count out of more than 280. Whether or not you think civilian terrorist trials are a good idea there's little doubt that
Holder's leadership in these matters hardly inspires confidence.
Then there's Press Secretary
Robert Gibbs, the genius who decided to
blast the "professional left", you know the BASE that helped push Obama over the edge in the 2008 primaries, shortly before the mid-terms when it was clear that turnout would be key. Heckuva job there.
So who should go? I vote all of the above.
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