Establishment Meg

by CalWatchdog Staff | May 16, 2010 9:08 pm

I continue to be amused by the mistakes made by Meg Whitman’s amateurish campaign. She’s campaigning as an outsider, a “can do” business woman who hasn’t been corrupted by the political process. Yet she’s eager to boast of the endorsements of every Establishment insider.

This is an anti-Establishment year. Obviously. That’s what the Tea Parties[1] are about, and they’re just getting started. Bob Bennett just was dumped[2] by the Utah GOP because he supported President Bush’s 2008 TARP bailout[3] of the Big Banks — Main Street tax-gouged to subsidize Lucullan[4] bonuses for Wall Street.

Another victim of TARPism was Kay Bailey Hutchinson, the longtime Texas Senator, in her bid for governor of Texas. Incumbent Rick Perry beat her by branding her “Kay Bailout[5].” Even John McCain, nominated just two years ago by the GOP to be Emperor, is facing a tough nomination bid in Arizona, with TARPism a major issue[6].

Meg herself has ties to the top Bailout Kings, Goldman Sachs[7], so the issue should be toxic for her.

Instead, whom does she get to back her gubernatorial bid? Ex-V.P. Dick “Darth” Cheney, the mastermind of the Cheney-Bush administration that stuck us with TARP. Today Cheney (or his staff) wrote an op-ed in the Orange County Register[8] backing Meg. Republican Facebook Friends write that Cheney is making robocalls[9] to Republicans backing Meg.

Last month I noted[10] Meg’s amateurish myopia in attacking GOP conservative icon Tom McClintock. And back in late April, Meg campaigned with four über-Establishment Republicans[11]:

* McCain, who lost California by more than 3 million votes.

* Jeb Bush, brother of President George “W. stands for TARP” Bush.

* Mitt Romney, whose socialized medicine scheme he imposed on Massachusetts when he was governor there was a model for Obamacare. The Tea Partiers really hate Obamacare, and know Mitt’s role in it.

* George “Sgt.” Shultz[12],  best known now for being President Reagan’s secretary of state in the 1980s. But his most infamous role was in the early 1970s. First as director of the Office of Management and Budget, then as Treasury Secretary, he was a key designer and implementer of the “Nixon Shock[13]” of 1971.

The Nixon Shock’s tax increases, breaking the gold standard, tariffs and wage and price controls produced a short burst of prosperity that got Nixon re-elected in 1972.

Then in 1974 the bottom fell out and the country suffered a decade of stagflation [14]— stagnation plus inflation. (Sort of like what Bush gave us, only not as bad.) Almost four decades later, we still really haven’t recovered from the Shultz-Nixon Shock which, among other assaults, jammed the middle-class up into upper-income tax brackets.

When everything fell apart, “Sgt.” Shultz, like his “Hogan’s Heroes[15]” namesake, groaned, “I know nooooothing! I see noooothing!” Then he went on to make millions heading Bechtel[16], the military-industrial complex[17] giant.

Bottom line (a business phrase Meg would use): This is one of the most inept campaigns I’ve seen since I began watching them in 1964. Her campaign managers, as I noted[18], are veterans of the campaigns of Bush and others. Like generals fighting the last war, they’re replaying the campaigns of 2004, 2006 and 2008. They’re like Gen. Westmoreland [19]fighting in Nam as if it were World War II. But fighting in forests is very different from fighting in canopy jungle.

This is 2010 and it’s a Tea Party  jungle out there.

— John Seiler

Source URL: https://calwatchdog.com/2010/05/16/establishment-meg/