#1:  Chris Dodd is being battered about quite a bit right now, from what I can tell not really deserved — he not the culprit.  But he’s easily tagged by partisans who need a dirty Democrat to hang up as a poster-critter, really the rule is that if you want to find politicians with alliances to the financial industry you look over to the states of Connecticut and Delaware.  The problem with the current outrage at AIG is that I had pretty well extrapulated it as part of the rot of the bailout bills, the “threading of the needle” which was heavily justified in not getting to the problem with their Corporate Culture.  This sort of ticking time bomb form of outrage is getting annoying:  we jump from one outrage to another — Bernie Madoff to AIG — without fully assembling it into one package.

Chris Dodd is toast, and the model for a Republican take-down of Democrats in 2010.  But does anyone believe any of the Congressional Grand-standing?  Maybe he deserved to be toast, but I have little doubt that his allowance of the Big Pile of Bonuses would not have been alleviated if the current Republican Populists had been in his position — toastier toast they oughta.

#2 and #3:  One of those curious contradictory storylines I’ve seen is this conflicting analysis visa vie Hillary Clinton and Joseph Biden.  First I read that Hillary Clinton has usurped some power and role ordinarily afforded Joseph Biden, and Biden is getting less than he signed up for.  Then I read that Joseph Biden has usurped some power and role ordinarily afforded Hillary Clinton (a bigger name and star power, natch) and Hillary Clinton is getting less than she signed up for.  I don’t know if this is supposed to mean that we have a co-Vice-President co-Secretary of State combo.  And maybe some pundits are trying to stick them too fit into some pre-ordained box sizes.  Noteworthy is that Barack Obama passed on the annual GridIron Dinner, a passing I whole-heartedly agree with and hope will be continued by future administrations to tap down a certain chummy back-slapping with the press corp, and sent Biden instead.  At the very least, Joseph Biden has been inserted into a hefty ceremonial role.

One thing that needs be said about Hillary Clinton — the Clinton Problem was my general inability to sepearate the two Clintons and her likely administration, the chief point of departure for my basic weariness in her acceptance, reaffirmed as the nation wrestles with the current Financial Meelee, with large points of departure from policies enacted and signed into law during Bill Clinton’s Administration.  It is impossible to get ahold of whether Bill Clinton was a good president or not, and overall I’m glad Hillary Clinton is working for President Obama instead of Obama working for President Hillary Clinton.

#4:  Bill Richardson, the man who should probably be Commerce Secretary (Quick!  Give me the details of the scandal that derailed him from that position.  And don’t cheat by googling it up!)  has suspended the Death Penalty down there in New Mexico.  The suspension of the death penalty is the “Last Refuge of the Scoundrel” if you want to cite the example of former corrupt Illinois Governor (aren’t they all?) George Ryan.  In this economic climate, capital punishment is apparently the first item on the chopping block to trim the state budgets.  Or Bill Richardson was swayed by the examples of wrongful convictions, or his days of seeking national office are over.  Take your pick.

#5:  Dennis Kucinich.  I can take take two routes with him.  First, I see that in the trailer for the “Alex Jones” “Obama Deception” film (which I also associate with Walter Tarpley, though I know it has a cast of many another conspiranoid freak) there is a sound-byte of Obama referencing “Republicans and Democrats” who have come out opposed to the TARP bill — and naturally a flash of Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich.  (There are Republicans and Democrats a tad more mainstream than them.)  Secondly, Kucinich probably weighs closer to having some form of foundation underneath his Congressional Grand-stands that make it less absurd.  But that big “BUT” inherent in being the voice selected by your Alex Jones always hangs right over him.

#6:  That brief shining moment when this blog was bouncing around in the first two pages — between #4 at its absolute peak and #19 — in google searches for “Mike Gravel” — which spurred a furious blogging on the subject of Mike Gravel to see if I could maintain that honor.  I do think I did uncover some quasi-unsavory elements from Gravel’s long-gone Senate career — better to say a politician acting like a politician, which would be okay if it weren’t that Gravel was casting himself as a sort of anti-politician.  Last I knew, Gravel had signed himself up for this type of thing.  But otherwise his profile has been busted right on down to (#7) current John Edwards level.

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