Push-me Pull-you

So here's yet another of my President Bush rants. There really isn't much time left for these to be relevant, so I must strike while the iron is hot. Or warm. So it scars more and hurts.

Here are two unrelated articles ~ one regarding ramped up attempts by the Bush administration to pass regulations regarding the protection of endangered species and plants. The new regulations would eliminate the required input of independent federal wildlife biologists, etc. before a new construction project is approved. It also (and more to the point in the administration's view) "bar federal agencies from assessing emissions of the gases blamed for global warming on species and habitats, a tactic environmentalists have tried to use to block new coal-fired power plants.". Read it. They are bending over backwards to get this passed before a set deadline so that it can't be reversed easily by President Obama when he takes office. It literally would take an act of Congress to undo this. There have been a quarter of a million written comments in response to this proposed regulation. Lawmakers have vocally urged that it not be pursued and passed. Yet the administration pushes forward.

AN ON THE OTHER HAND ... we come to the second, unrelated article.
Unrelated except for the idea that here, the President is basically taking the hands-off approach to management with regard to the nations economic turmoil. The man whose administration has been assertive almost to the point of arrogance throughout his tenure, is pretty much doing the opposite in this case. Now, one might say that he knows he is only 2 months from being out of office and that it would be unwise to take some steps that might contradict the next administration's plans, but in this instance, 2 months is a VERY long time.
The President-elect CAN'T do anything at this point. He can make some plans behind the scene, and offer suggestions - but no current administration is going to accept that kind of "advice" unless it is the same as their own. And Mr. Obama cannot come out publicly and criticize the current administration's actions (or inactions) without undermining the confidence in the office of President itself.

And this is my point. Mr. President - YOU are the man between now and Jan 20th. YOU need to speak to the American people. YOU need ot lead. YOU need to stop letting/encouraging your people to focus on vindictive, questionably motivated regulatory crap and START stepping up here.

Now I know... there are those that think that people like me will stop at nothing to criticize President Bush. Really and truly, that's not so. But THIS is a major crisis ~ one that calls for leadership in the name of The President. You wanted this job, Sir .... please finish what you started. The nation may not needyou, but it needs its President.


From The Huffinton Report 11/19/08
WASHINGTON — Animals and plants in danger of becoming extinct could lose the protection of government experts who make sure that dams, highways and other projects don't pose a threat, under regulations the Bush administration is set to put in place before President-elect Obama can reverse them.
The rules must be published Friday to take effect before Obama is sworn in Jan. 20. Otherwise, he can undo them with the stroke of a pen.
The Interior Department rushed to complete the rules in three months over the objections of lawmakers and environmentalists who argued that they would weaken how a landmark conservation law is applied.
A Nov. 12 version of the final rules obtained by the Associated Press has changed little from the original proposal, despite the more than 250,000 comments received since it was first proposed in August.
The rules eliminate the input of federal wildlife scientists in some endangered species cases, allowing the federal agency in charge of building, authorizing or funding a project to determine for itself if it is likely to harm endangered wildlife and plants.
Current regulations require independent wildlife biologists to sign off on these decisions before a project can go forward, at times modifying the design to better protect species.
The regulations also bar federal agencies from assessing emissions of the gases blamed for global warming on species and habitats, a tactic environmentalists have tried to use to block new coal-fired power plants.
Tina Kreisher, an Interior Department spokeswoman, could not confirm whether the rule would be published before the deadline, saying only that the White House was still reviewing it. But she said changes were being made based on the comments received.

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From CNN.COM 11/21/08 by Eliott C. McLaughlin
(CNN) -- As the United States writhes in a collapsing economy, analysts and observers are wondering: Who's skippering the ship?
President Bush has been noticeably absent from the machinations aimed at righting the nation's financial course. Analysts and key players differ over whether President-elect Barack Obama should get his economic team in place and take charge, or sit back and await his turn at the helm.
"Somebody has to speak up soon," said CNN senior political analyst David Gergen, explaining that he understands why Americans are growing anxious and yearning for direction and leadership.
"I think ... sort of the bottom feels like it is falling out for many people," said Gergen, who has advised four presidents. "They sense there's a total lack of leadership in Washington, that the White House is silent, the treasury secretary has been battered, the Federal Reserve can't speak up. These automakers come up to Capitol Hill and fail. And the president-elect is silent in Chicago."
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin said Obama has avoided entering the congressional tussle over whether to bail out the Big Three automakers.
"I think that President-elect Obama is being very careful to remind people that we still have a president who still makes the final decision about things being signed into law," said Durbin, one of Obama's closest Senate confidantes.
Asked if Obama was offering guidance on the issue, Durbin replied, "No, no."
Obama noted shortly after his election that "the United States has only one government and one president at a time, and until January 20th of next year, that government is the current administration."
Meanwhile, jobless numbers are skyrocketing, the stock market is plummeting and the banking industry continues a decline, outpaced only by the fall of the U.S. auto industry.
The Bush administration has not said much about the issues other than to quietly state its positions.
The executive office has approved extending unemployment benefits, has opposed a wholesale bailout of the auto industry and frowns on the idea of using the $700 billion in Temporary Asset Relief Program funds to help homeowners or to provide bridge loans to automakers. Obama said last week that neglecting to provide relief to the auto industry would be disastrous, but he has done nothing to break a deadlocked Congress.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that automakers must come up with a plan if they expect to receive any federal loans or funds.
"Until they show us the plan, we cannot show them the money," she said.
"That will only happen if they can get their act together," added Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Durbin said Obama is staying out of it for now because the present Congress is divided, and that won't change until Obama and the 111th Congress take their posts next year.
"There's a limited amount of opportunity and authority on a very contentious issue," he saidGreg Valliere, chief political strategist for the Stanford Group, a policy research firm based in Washington, D.C., concurred, saying earlier this week, "The lame-duck session of Congress will earn its 'lame' label and pass only a grab-bag of modest stimulus, leaving the heavy lifting until early 2009."
But even if the Big Three were to present a viable plan to Congress by their December 2 deadline, there are other troubling matters on the U.S. economic horizon.
Most notably, the S&P 500 -- used to gauge the stock market's health -- has hit an 11-year low. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, another indicator, closed Thursday around 7,552 points -- it was hovering around 14,000 just over a year agoAnd jobless claims -- the number of people filing for unemployment benefits -- is close to doubling in the span of a year, from about 300,000 people in January, to 524,000 people this week. Four million people -- about the population of Oregon -- are on unemployment insurance as well.
"If all these people are out of work getting money from the government, they're not net spenders or contributors to the economy. They're not net taxpayers. It means it's going to be a lot longer to get us out of this recession," said CNN senior business correspondent Ali Velshi.
Gergen said he has spoken to investment advisers who are downright fearful, especially after this week's economic convulsions.
It's understandable that Obama is staying visibly out of the fray, Gergen said, but the president-elect needs to work behind the scenes to persuade Congress to provide bridge financing for the automobile companies, and the White House has to take a more active role in mitigating the situation. No president since Franklin Roosevelt has faced this sort of economic crisis, Velshi said, but the tumult also provides an opportunity that hasn't been seen since the days of FDR.
If Obama can quickly name a treasury secretary and get working on the green economy that he says will drive U.S. finances for the next 15 to 20 years, it could create the jobs necessary to reverse the tumbling economy, Velshi said.
"We need to see if this is an opportunity we can turn around into the new New Deal," he said, referring to the program Roosevelt kicked off in 1933 to create jobs and mend the broken economy.
Names on Obama's shortlist to head Treasury include JP Morgan Chase President Jamie Dimon, New York Federal Reserve President Timothy Geithner, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. CNN senior political analyst Gloria Borger said Obama and his team are probably trying to gauge the totality of the situation, and many internal questions also have to be answered: Do we need someone younger? Would a former treasury secretary bring vital experience? Does it matter if the secretary has ties to Sen. Hillary Clinton?
"I think they're having these kinds of conversations, and so I would expect, though, that we're going to see something on the economic team in early December, if not sooner," she said.
There is speculation that Obama may name the incoming treasury secretary by Thanksgiving, but he may be distracted by the hullabaloo surrounding the potential appointment of Clinton as secretary of state
"I cannot stress enough that, while we go through this Kabuki dance about Hillary -- will she, won't she, will she be there or not -- the issue, increasingly, for the president-elect is the economy," Gergen said.
Borger concurs that the Obama team may be preoccupied with the prospect of appointing Clinton to head the State Department, but, she said, "I'm surprised, honestly, that they haven't put in a treasury secretary yet."
However, Borger said she thinks Obama is already working behind the scenes through his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, and she doesn't think the Democrats would have postponed their decision on a Big Three bailout without checking with Obama.
Borger said she expects a "big push" from Democrats to find a way to save Detroit when the lame-duck Congress reconvenes in December, and Emanuel and Obama will be a part of it.
"But honestly, you can't expect a president-elect, who hasn't even been sworn in, to use all of his political capital -- and, by the way, he's going to have a lot -- before he takes office," she said.
There's a lot of risk involved in Obama pushing his economic agenda before he takes office, and it would be unwise to publicly state what the Bush administration should do, said Stephen Hayes, a conservative columnist and CNN contributor.
"Politically, he wants to stay as far away from this as he can," Hayes said. "I think it's smart of him to say, 'We have one president at a time; I have got my four years.' "