Henry Payne

I'm just beginning to realize that editorial cartoonist Henry Payne at the Detroit News is about the best thing going from either of the Detroit dailies, although I still enjoy reading The Lockhorns.

Or should we now be calling the News and Free Press sub-dailies?

Payne's got a good one about Barney Frank today. Check him out here:

Obama Administration Labels AIG Executives ‘Enemy Combatants’

Far be it from me to suggest that AIG executives who’ve received millions in bonuses need defending.

But there’s something about the united front of Obama and the Congressional Democrats against bonus payments, raises, and profits that strikes me as--to steal a phrase from the now forgotten Israel-Hamas war of a few months back--disproportional. Israel made half this much fuss trying to get their captured soldier back from Hamas and the UN called it genocide.

All I'm saying is a lot of innocent American civilians are going to get clobbered.

"Cramming down"mortgages, calling for vitiation of private contracts, and using the tax code to punish enemies of an outraged populace are really powerful weapons the liberals don't have enough character to lay down after this is over.

Listen to Chuck Schumer:

"My colleagues and I are sending a letter to [AIG CEO Edward] Liddy informing him that he can go right ahead and tell the employees that are scheduled to get bonuses that they should voluntarily return them," Sen. Charles Schumer said on the Senate floor. "Because if they don't, we plan to tax virtually all of [the money] ... so it is returned to its rightful owners, the taxpayers."

Taxation as class warfare. What a great idea! I can’t imagine where something like this would ever be used against me and my interests! How 'bout you?

Then here is President Obama:

"[AIG] is a corporation that finds itself in financial distress due to recklessness and greed," Obama told politicians and reporters in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, where he and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner were unveiling a package to aid the nation's small businesses.

Obama said he will attempt to block bonuses for AIG, payments he described as an "outrage."

. . . .The president said he has asked Geithner to "pursue every single legal avenue to block these bonuses and make the American taxpayers whole."

Obama said he would work with Congress to change the laws so that such a situation cannot happen again.

Then there’s Barney Frank:

“Clearly not enough was done in the beginning to put conditions on A.I.G.,” Mr. Frank said in an interview on NBC’s “Today” show. While he said he wanted to review whether A.I.G. was contractually obligated to pay out the bonuses, as it contended, he also questioned whether the recipients of the money should remain employed.

“These people may have a right to their bonuses, they don’t have a right to their jobs forever,” Mr. Frank said, charging that the bonuses amounted to rewards for incompetence. And he added: “These bonuses are going to people who screwed this up enormously.”

When Frank, who, trust me, believes he has a right to his job forever, talks about screw-ups, we'd all better listen, since he practically wrote the book. Between them he and Chris Dodd brought down the American economy.

Now just imagine if Obama brought this kind of rhetoric, focus, and “let’s try anything” determination to his efforts to push back the growing jihadist threats against the United States. Let's say instead of releasing jihadists, negotiating with Iran, and fretting with his Attorney General for hours over Khalid Sheik Mohammed's Fourth Amendment rights, he instead ordered his cabinet and the Joint Chiefs to "pursue every single legal avenue to" protect this country from the our global jihadist enemies.

Yeah, I can’t imagine it either.

Test Drive the New 2009 Barney!

One way or the other the Democrats in Congress are determined to put someone named Barney in charge of the Big Three. What with the Donkey Party’s unswerving sense of priority (e.g., automobiles are the root of all evil, the Planet is on fire), and the historical weakness of Democrats, when they're in a majority, for refusing to consider opposing views, the most Detroit can hope for is a compromise on exactly which Barney gets selected.

With that in mind, we thought we’d ask our readers which, of the three most prominent Barneys on the national scene today, is likely to do the least amount of damage to the auto industry?


Our early research indicated that a fourth prominent Barney was the hands-down favorite for being able to do a better job than either the Congressional Democrats or the current Big Three CEOs.

I’m referring of course to Barney Fife, who, unlike any of the auto companies’ current and recent executives, once enjoyed a reputation for not letting much get by him.

But we haven’t included him in this survey for technical reasons, including that a) the real Don Knotts only played someone named Barney Fife on TV, and b) he's dead.

Too bad. That leaves Detroit one Barney short of a savior, and the future of the automakers very likely in the hands of someone like this:

Frank on Fannie Mae: 'Fundamentally Sound'

The Democrats plan to get even more mileage out of McCain’s statement last week that the fundamentals of our economy are strong.

But making statements like that, especially in stormy economic weather, is what presidents do. It's not lying, (especially if it's true). It's leadership. You just don't want American presidents telling the world that the fundamentals of the economy are weak--or certainly not worse than at any time since the Great Depression. (Okay, Carter would do it). Not unless they mean to invite foreign investors to withdraw trillions of dollars in investments here. (Okay, Carter would do it).

That would be stupid. That kind of political theatrics is only attempted by ambitious persons who need a crisis to advance their game. (Yeah--okay, Carter would do it).

Nonetheless, the Democrats intend to beat McCain’s statement into the ground. Which made it all the more interesting that what led up to the Bill O’Reilly- Barney Frank donnybrook the other night, was Frank's remark in July 2008 that “I think this is a case that Fannie and Freddie are fundamentally sound. They are not in danger of going under.”

Which was not only not true, and Frank must have known better, but also it was something that Frank had a very big hand in being responsible for.

But is anyone jeering at Barney Frank?

UPDATE: A case in point on the differences between leadership when discussing the economy and malpractice by shooting your face off. The Wall Street Journal reports on Harry Reid’s and Chuck Schumer’s recent statements leading directly to market sell-offs in response, (“The Trouble With Harry”):

Just as U.S. credit markets this week were close to the edge of the cliff, threatening capital-starved businesses large and small, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid stepped in front of reporters and offhandedly announced:

"One of the individuals in the caucus today talked about a major insurance company. A major insurance company -- one with a name that everyone knows that's on the verge of going bankrupt. That's what this is all about." The next day, share prices fell sharply across the insurance industry. . . .

It calls to mind Senator Chuck Schumer's public suggestion in July that troubled IndyMac Bank "could face collapse." It did, after a deposit run. Senator Schumer said criticizing his action was akin to blaming "the fire on the guy who called 911."

The nation's shareholders would sleep better at night if some Members of Congress enrolled in Arsonists Anonymous.