I'll keep this short and sweet -- Super good: Hilda Solis; Super bad: Timothy Geithner.
Solis, appointed to head the Labor Department, is incredibly strong on the weighty issues she will oversee. For one, she is very supportive of the ever-important Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which one friend aptly described to me once as "another New Deal, for labor." The most telling story I've heard about her? After the EFCA failed in the House in 2007, she didn't just forget about it as so many pols are prone to do—she wrote about it, she's continued to campaign for it, and has not let it go quietly into the night in the way of so many other important failed pieces of legislation. And speaking of important failed legislation that's been on the back-burner for way too long, I think she could be an important force in dealing with labor issues related to comprehensive immigration reform. Namely, of course, addressing the issues of millions of undocumented workers in America that we need (badly), whose only crime is entering and/or remaining in this country illegally, and who would pay taxes if only they were given a fair path to legalization.
Geithner, appointed to the dangerously important post of Secretary of the Treasury, is cut from the same cloth as the men who sowed the seeds of the economic crisis. A protégé of Robert Rubin and Larry B(S)ummers, there is little indication that he will be any different than they have been in the past and even how they've acted more recently. (At this point, of course, I should point out how disappointing it is that Greedy Gumdrops Summers is Obama's head economic adviser.) Check, too, his social, professional, and other important connections to Wall Street. Further, the fact that Geithner can't even do his own taxes properly—or hire someone to do them properly—simply indicates carelessness and over-confidence.
Solis spells change; Geithner spells stagnancy.
That being said, happy Inauguration to all. I'll leave you with this post-script --
Super good: Aretha's hat (and pipes!), Michelle's ball dress.
Super bad: John Roberts' fumbling of the most famous oath on Earth; Rick Warren looking as fat and virulently anti-gay as usual.
And I'm not sure where Cheney's final White House appearance on a wheelchair, pushed by a sour-looking nurse falls. Probably under super appropriate.
-- Daniela Perdomo
RSS Feed