New Month, Same Empty Set

The Morning Joe Rebuttal for July 1st, 2010


Observations:


1) It is with great joy that I witness the Morning Joe cast go for John Boehner’s head, and crack down on anyone in the Republican party who defends him as acting in deference to status quo interests.


While it may seem like theater, there is a permanent record of open criticism happening that will haunt the minority leader forever into the future. Everything from work ethic to a dearth of new ideas are all cataclysmic charges.


Now the softball interview with Paul Ryan was a step back. But I don’t want to belittle his ideas, he does in fact put moderate merit to what used to be the Republican consensus financial platform. The problem, and you know how big of a problem it is, is that even Paul Ryan doesn’t get to criticize what he knows his party is incapable of. The modern Republican party does not have the ability to initiate solvency reform in the financial sector, environmental reform at the MMS, or health care reform. Both parties are entrenched with status quo special interest, but the record now shows that only one party has any ability, even if diluted, to be a genesis point for reform or governing.


So when Paul Ryan gets to launch grenades at Obama and his agenda, and Joe Scarborough can’t put the obvious check question “would your party, if in power, be able to enact any financial reform?’ into play, that’s softball.


2) But that’s it, that’s all that was accomplished today in three hours. The sheer void where oil spill coverage should be cannot be part of the program lest the program is ready to start bleeding credibility. Today's show was a majority coverage of features and human interest stories. Not like it was a slow news day either.


Make a spill status snapshot and report on it every day. These questions have to be asked every day from now on:


Where are the oil removal ships, and can they be mapped, and competitively analyzed to understand if there is a reason for their slow assignment?


Is there burning at sea going on and what is the impact?


Is the claims fund in place and what is its financial snapshot of claims paid?


What part of the solution both at sea and in affected communities is still being directed through BP as a defacto NGO?


What is the timeline for the spill being stopped?


Will there be a criminal prosecution for the BP managers who acted recklessly causing this disaster?


Will there be any clawback of compromised activity at the MMS?


I’m sure there are others, but we just can’t watch a show presided over by a man from Pensacola, Florida turn in the result Lebron 3, BP 0.


That’s all for today, see you tomorrow.