Freddie Mac Chief Resigns, End of Global War on Terror, the Catchphrase

Paul Krugman
E J Dionne
Fareed Zakaria

Politico has an interesting piece that President Obama is having more trouble from Washington "insiders" than appointees from outside of Washington: "We know the public wants fundamental reforms, and as candidate Obama always said, change doesn’t come from Washington, it comes to Washington. That is hard to pull off, of course, if you primarily work with people from Washington."

Hot off the digital presses, the NY Times reports that the head of Freddie Mac is resigning: "The struggling mortgage lending giant, Freddie Mac, said Monday that its chief executive, David M. Moffett, had resigned effective March 12. The board, in a statement, said it was working with its regulatory overseer, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to find a successor.
In a statement, Freddie Mac said that Mr. Moffett indicated that he wants to return to a role in the financial services sector.

Mr. Moffett had been in the post since September, and had been a senior adviser to the Carlyle Group, a big private equity firm in Washington, before joining Freddie Mac. He had also served as U.S. Bancorp’s finance chief for nearly 14 years, overseeing financial reporting, treasury operations and real estate functions, as well as the asset and wealth management group. He left the bank in 2007 after he was passed over for the top job." It bothers me that this guy has been in charge only since September and is going to get a golden parachute. This is common practice during the Bush years, people revolving in and out of government office to set themselves up for a lobbying job or to purposely destroy that office's effectiveness. I certainly hope that the ban on administration people going into lobbying is applied to Mr. Moffett...

It seems that Robert Gates was a good pick by George Bush and even better choice by Obama to keep him on the job. And Mr. Gates seems to be enjoying working for Mr. Obama: "Appearing on Meet The Press, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates compared President Obama to his previous boss, George W. Bush: "I think that probably President Obama is somewhat more analytical. And he makes sure he hears from everybody in the room on an issue. And if they don't speak up, he calls on them." He also said it is "fairly remote" that the current plan for withdrawal from Iraq would change."

And the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staffs, which sounds more and more like a bad marijuana joke, also had a backhanded compliment for Obama: "Appearing today on Fox News Sunday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen said that the current timeline to withdraw from Iraq is acceptable, and expressed his confidence in President Obama: "He clearly has sought my advice. I feel very comfortable that as a senior military officer and adviser to the president that he is giving me the time and the opportunity to advise him accordingly."

Admiral Mullen also seems to like a more intelligent give and take. Instead of using right wing catch phrases that really have no meaning, he has actually banned the use of the phrase "Global War on Terror" since last October. Here's to supporting our troops with intelligent leadership and better benefits when they come home.

Hopefully, tonight there will be no more reruns of late night talk shows. I'm finding that Jay Leno has the best joke writers, his jokes often get recycled to David Letterman the next day, and Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Kimmel are not very funny. So here are some vintage Ralph Nader jokes:

"My favorite candidate, Ralph Nader, announced he's running for president! Oh, I love Ralph. You know, you can't get rid of him. Every election year he pops up. He's like the herpes of presidential candidates." --Jay Leno

"No, Nader says his reason for running is that he spent over 40 years as a consumer advocate. I think after 40 years of studying consumers' wants and needs, he'd realize consumers don't want or need him now" --Jay Leno

"Nader says he's running for president again because the Democrats did not stop President Bush on the war in Iraq and on the tax cuts. Stop him? If Nader hadn't run, there wouldn't have been a President Bush." --Jay Leno

"In political news, Ralph Nader has decided to run for president. Well, you thought Mike Huckabee didn't know when to quit, huh? There you go. In fact, Ralph Nader's campaign slogan -- 'It's me again.'" --Jay Leno

"What do you call somebody at a Ralph Nader campaign rally? Ralph Nader. That's the only one there." --Jay Leno

"He's gonna be 74 next week. In fact, the good news, if Ralph gets sick, his younger brother, Raul Nader, will then take over." --Jay Leno

"Well, you know who's thrilled that Nader is back in the race? John McCain. He's not the oldest guy anymore." --Jay Leno

"As if this field isn't crowded enough, Ralph Nader says he will decide in a month whether he'll run for president again. Ralph Nader. Hey, he's ready to go. Luckily, his suit is still unpressed from the last time" --Jay Leno