Barrel Strength

One of the thoughts that was repeated often during the ascendancy of one Barrack Obama, was the he was unlikely to be able do much harm, because of checks and balances inherent in the US constitution.  As Mark Styen notes “The Economist is the latest of the smart guys to notice that President Obama is proving strangely unlike the guy they told us he was back in late October.”

Putting that obvious fact aside, it is interesting to note the recent spate of attacks on the Supreme Court.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid  said on Friday that Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. lied to Congress during his confirmation hearings by pretending to be open-minded about his judicial philosophy.  Similarly, Sen. Barney Frank (D), whose sole private sector experience consists of the fact that his Washington residence was once used to operate a male-escort service by his live-in boyfriend while he was on Capitol Hill, attacked Justice Scalia for being a homophobe.

Is this an attempt by the executive and legislative branch to gang up on the judiciary and try to reduce its effectiveness, as it is the only branch of government that is not controlled by the Democrats?

Atlantic magazine’s gynecological sleuth and blogger Andrew Sullivan, notes the following in his post on the current financial crisis.

For the last 21 years, we have been following a similar social experiment between different styles of capitalism: more regulated and less regulated. Several western countries including Ireland and Iceland, as well as some of the Baltic countries, got rid of many regulations, particularly regulations regarding finance. For a while, their economies were shining stars, but now they are a mess. The US and Britain, the least regulated large economies, are now suffering greatly as well from the financial bubble. While Old Europe (to steal a phrase from Don Rumsfeld) is not nearly as affected by the recent debacle.

Are we beginning to learn another one of history’s lessons?

Let us take a look at some history.

Oct 14, 2008  Banking bail-out: France unveils €360bn package
Oct 22, 2008  German bailout deal complicated by election-year politics
Nov 9, 2008  Italy next to bail out banks

History lesson indeed!  Perhaps Randy-Andy should focus his efforts on gynecology.