folo

Before yesterday’s newsflash that he might end up Commerce Secretary, I hadn’t spent a whole minute thinking about New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg. But now his situation really intrigues me, and I’ve been considering it. What I’m trying to grasp is what’s in it for both him and Obama, and whether this “60th seat” is really important to the Senate Dems.

What’s in it for Gregg?

(a) Maybe better job security? His state is strongly trending blue (going for Obama by 10 points), and though he’s apparently pretty popular there now, in 2010, Rep. Paul Hodes could give him quite a run, possibly beat him, I hear.

(b) Some bipartisan cred of his own to sock away for the future? A few years on Team Obama could stand Gregg in good stead in any statewide or even national race he might care to contemplate later (he’s only 60 or 61 now, so there’s time).

(c) At least some input on policy? Barack Obama, we perceive, is The Boss, and he sets the policy agenda. But he also listens and adjusts accordingly. Though Gregg is a “moderate,” that’s only in the context of other Republicans, not the whole polity. As Nate Silver shows, his votes so far have been pretty Obama-friendly (second only to Olympia Snowe’s), and presumably from the Commerce Department, he could wield more influence than as one-of-100.

(d) Downer-relief? In a different post, Nate points out that the very earliest realistic expectation the GOP would have of another Senate majority is 2014. That’s a long time to survive in the wilderness, with fewer and fewer ideological soulmates to share the bummer of watching your party self-destruct — and if the trend continues down the path it’s started, non-Far Right non-Southerners face growing isolation in the GOP. Maybe Judd Gregg doesn’t want to have to run on Limbaugh-Palin politics in 2010, given what would “have his back” (but not very)?

What’s in it for Obama? Well, let’s see . . .

(a) More “bipartisan” cred/cover (or maybe Pelosi’s term, “non-partisan,” is better here), which he always likes — yet with little to no risk of a Cabinet member setting an agenda other than “the White House” prefers. Any nod to conservatives he makes now will only help him balance and prepare the way for more liberal moves later (his pattern all the way back to Harvard Law Review days).

(b) And after all, a good deal of what Obama stands for actually is classical conservatism — transparency, no waste, lower taxes for lower earners, etc. In other words, Judd Gregg and he are apt to continue to agree on a goodly number of things, and a conservative voice in the mix will help him in ways that some farther Left may not grasp or approve, but that well-balanced governance requires.

How important is the 60th seat?

Some but maybe not much, I have the impression. For one thing, when Joe Lieberman is one of your 60, it can turn into 59 at any given moment (same goes for the Nelsons, Ben and Bill, too — and then there’s the Find Harry Reid’s Spine problem). But as long as the Snowes, Specters, Collinses, and Voinoviches of the world are also in play, “60″ may not hold much meaning after all. Red Senators in Blue or Blue-ing states are just looking at trouble if they wander too far from Obama for the foreseeable future.

So? What’s he gonna do?

Beats me, but in the meantime I’m sure this is driving the wingnuts crazy, so what’s not to like?

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With even Fox News reporting that “More than a quarter of Americans say they were moved to tears during Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremony. And after his first week in office, there is widespread approval for the job Obama is doing as president,” I’m not sure we can safely put away the Kleenex yet . . .

To CNBC, unnamed “Goldman Sachs economists” suggested that “the cost of restoring confidence in U.S. financial firms” may reach $4 trillion — as Obama himself called Wall Street bankers “shameful” for giving themselves nearly $20 billion in bonuses. “There will be time for them to make profits, and there will be time for them to get bonuses,” he said. “Now’s not that time. And that’s a message that I intend to send directly to them, I expect Secretary Geithner to send to them.” But as Hullabaloo’s dday puts it, “There’s minor value in angry missives about bonuses, but there’s major value in, uh, four trillion dollars. Especially when the more elegant solution is to take over the insolvent banks and stiff the shareholders. But such things are forbidden hippie-talk.”

WSJ runs in to report that

The nation’s top economic officials are discussing a new way to stabilize the financial system by buying a portion of banks’ bad assets and offering guarantees against future losses on some of the remainder, in an effort to help banks while trying to mitigate the cost to taxpayers.

This approach, which merges two competing ideas, was discussed this week at a meeting that included Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair, according to people briefed on the meeting. …

Under the concept being discussed, the government “bad bank,” possibly run by the FDIC, would buy only assets banks have already marked down heavily. This could avoid crushing the value of other assets held by banks. It could also potentially sidestep the pricing dilemma because banks have already recognized the low value of the assets being purchased. …

The remaining troubled assets — likely a sizable amount — would be covered by a type of insurance against future losses. This would apply to mortgages, mortgage-backed securities and other loans that banks are holding until they mature. Banks have probably given these assets an overly optimistic value because they plan to hold them. This would be similar to a structure set up recently to protect Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp., in which the government and the bank would share future losses on a set pool of assets.

This intricate story has one sentence of especially-good news: “The plans under discussion suggest Washington expects Wall Street to pay a higher price for being bailed out.”

For most of us, there’s also good news in what Nate Silver suggests, “Perhaps the House Republicans voted against delaying the digital TV changeover because they don’t want Americans to see the carnage“:

If the stimulus bill proves to be unpopular — and it might well — a House Republican can tout the fact that he voted against the package. But with the unanimous vote — as well as the near-unanimity on measures like the Ledbetter Act and Digital TV — the Republicans remove the emphasis from their individual judgment to that of their party. …

[T]he Republicans, arguably, are in something of a death spiral. The more conservative, partisan, and strident their message becomes, the more they alienate non-base Republicans. But the more they alienate non-base Republicans, the fewer of them are left to worry about appeasing. Thus, their message becomes continually more appealing to the base — but more conservative, partisan, and strident to the rest of us. And the process loops back upon itself.

Speaking of loopy, the RNC has to elect its new chairman this morning, like it or not. WaPo’s Chris Cillizza handicaps here what the WashTimes’ Ralph Z. Shallow calls “the dirtiest ever” race for that spot (as OWIL and I wave our tear-dampened hankies at the departed Chip Saltsman).

Congressional Dems have had an early bellyful of their GOPer counterparts, with Speaker Pelosi announcing that she “didn’t come to Washington to be partisan, I didn’t come here to be bipartisan. I came here, as did my colleagues, to be nonpartisan, to work for the American people, to do what is in their interest.” Back at the office, her top spokesman was telling reporters, “There’s a pattern here of Republican economic mismanagement and Democrats stepping up to do what’s needed for the good of the country while Republicans acted in a partisan and irresponsible manner.” (Oh lord, don’t we know it.) And John Kerry said it’s time to ignore them, he and others House and Senate Dems lobbying the leadership to yank back those tax breaks dangled as GOPer-bait.

As for the Judd Gregg-for-Commerce rumor, Yglesias allows, “If that were to come to pass, I’m sure Senator Gregg’s unique qualifications for this crucial post would be the sole consideration. The fact that Gregg joining the cabinet would lead to Gregg being replaced by a Democratic Senator is surely something nobody in the White House would give even a moment’s consideration to.” Yea. Verily. And we’d need more Kleenex to cry for happy . . .

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Given that transparency ain’t exactly Jackson city government’s best lick, it’s challenging to figure out the latest stinky news. But at least one local reporter-blogger is having a run at it, so let’s peek in . . .

Yesterday in the Clarion-Ledger, Kathleen Baydala reported that, for the second time in less than a year, deputy police chief Ron Sampson has been demoted (before, he was busted down to commander, now he’s hit lieutenant).

Lt. Ron Sampson (Clarion-Ledger)

Three days ago WLBT, reporting the demotion, couldn’t nail down either the reason for it or Sampson’s new assignment: Hinds County Sheriff-JPD Chief Malcolm McMillin would said only that it was a personnel matter he wouldn’t discuss. All McMillin gave Baydala as the reason was “reorganization”: “‘We are going to redistribute his duties among the other (four) deputy chiefs,’ McMillin said.”

Both reports mentioned Sampson’s demotion last February after two female officers filed EEOC complaints against him, alleging racism and sexism (he spent three months assigned to the chief’s office before McMillin reinstated him to deputy chief, saying the case had been resolved). But Baydala also noted that

Among Sampson’s primary duties was overseeing the department’s fuel expenses.

JPD’s usage of the Fuelman system, a discount gasoline-purchasing program, has come under scrutiny in recent months after a city auditor found problems citywide with recordkeeping and questionable purchases.

Jackson uses Fuelman to fill up city-owned and city-operated vehicles. The service gives the city a 30-cent-per-gallon discount at participating stations.

In December, a report obtained by The Clarion-Ledger showed widespread misuse of the cards. The city has since reported some improvement.

From July 9 until Oct. 7, 86 percent of employees who had gas cards made at least one flagged transaction. That number was cut to 61 percent from Oct. 8 until Dec. 31. The total of number of flagged transactions fell from 9,288 to 6,709.

(If you want to pay the C-L for these archived stories from January 6 and December 30, check out Council scrutinizes gas cards and Audits spot city vehicle woes.)

Now along comes WAPT reporter/independent blogger Othor Cain to jump in with gusto (h/t duckweedpond) on what he’s hearing from his (rather talkier than Baydala’s or WLBT’s) JPD sources. With the caveat that folo has none of those of its own, so can’t independently confirm his tale, here’s the gist according to Othor . . .

Seems things hotted up on Monday, when a towing-company owner showed up at a city work session “mad as hell” over his company’s being pulled from the contract rotation pool. Alleging that Ron Sampson “used his position of power and influence to have [Bill] Smith’s company removed from the rotation because Smith failed to ‘hook’ one of his boys up,” (etc.), Othor reaches his main theme, Sampson’s supervision of the Fuelman program. In this telling (emphasis mine), problems with Fuelman

are hot and heavy inside of the Jackson Police Department..as the auditor had already duly noted. I’m told that the FED’s and AG’s office are involved in this investigation.

Seems as if Sampson along with Ernest Perry who worked in vehicle mgmt were saying that everything was ok in the arena of gas usuage [sic]…….when in fact Perry had a long list of pin numbers for Fuelman Gas Cards for himself… and so the investigation is coming from the arena of forgery. Same pin numbers being used in two different cities around the same time.

Chief Mac summons a meeting today and divides Sampson’s job responsibilities up….and Sampson is busted back done [sic] to the rank of Lt. (which is his only tested level) Funny thing he wasn’t sent home pending an investigation..he wasn’t suspended without pay…NOTHING …

Othor later updates,

I am now being told that this situation is even deeper….Sources tell me that Internal Affairs alledgedly [sic] went to the homes of Ron Sampson and Ernest Perry and supposedly found and seized vehicles that had not been inventoried (Cadillac Escalade and Mercedes Benz)…

In the comments he adds,

Sources say..The vehichle [sic] that was found at Ron Sampson’s house… The Caddillac [sic] Escalade hadn’t been released by the courts…being told he tried to not only make it his own…but he tried to get a fuelman card for it. … Sources also say that the missing vehicle report that ch 16 did….6 of the missing cars were found at Perry’s house. … I did speak with [JPD's] Lee Vance last night and while he couldn’t really talk about this situation he did say “it is what it is.” “This is nothing that we can’t handle, we will survive and get thru this.”

With Othor, we might well wonder:

Does that mean in a few months Ron will be reinstated to Deputy Chief again? What happens with all the unaccounted for cars? Will the money from the unauthorized gas purchases be returned? Will these people be prosecuted and or terminated? And…will it simply be business as usual at JPD?

Whatever the reliability of Othor Cain’s sources, this anarchic mess sounds like something else warranting the attention of the new U.S. Attorney in S.D.Miss.

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The prosecutor is pissed. Calling the move “shocking” and “one of the most irresponsible pleadings I have ever seen in my career,” Mark Blumberg fussed at Michael Recio’s attorney Cynthia Stewart for subpoenaing three JPD internal affairs investigators to appear at Friday’s pre-trial hearing in Mayor Frank Melton’s case — where, presumably, Stewart hopes for testimony discrediting Blumberg’s star witness, Marcus Wright.

The subpoenas were served Thursday on Jackson Police Department Lt. Alan White and Officers Ricky Robinson and Tina Wallace. Robinson and Wallace were the officers in a Feb. 27, 2006, interview with Torey Smith, a transvestite prostitute who told the investigators he saw two male prostitutes get into Officer Marcus Wright’s car sometime in 2005 and that they later claimed to have had sex with the officer for money.

Wright, another of Melton’s former bodyguards, originally was charged in July in the same indictment with Melton and Recio. Wright now is the star witness for the prosecution, having accepted a plea deal in October.

We originally learned of this veer in the case in November, and now we’re assured of some testimony my momma would no doubt call “lurid.”

Last month, prosecutors and defense attorneys traded sealed motions on the topic. Those motions will be taken up during Friday’s hearing, according to an order issued by U.S. District Court Judge Dan Jordan.

Defense attorneys have alleged that federal prosecutors used the Smith interview as a wedge to force Wright to cooperate. Blumberg said Smith’s statements are contradictory and based on hearsay and should not be admitted as evidence.

For instance, Smith, who was in jail on a shoplifting charge when interviewed by defense attorneys in November, said he called Wright after being interviewed by the FBI and Wright told him he already had pleaded guilty and asked him not to talk to authorities. What is not explained is why Wright would ask Smith not to tell the FBI about the alleged encounter if it already had been used to force Wright’s plea.

Stewart also subpoenaed city attorney Sarah O’Reilly-Evans for Friday, with jury selection set to begin Monday.

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S.D. Miss. US Attorney Dunn Lampton announced today he will retire effective Saturday; First Assistant Stan Harris will serve as Acting U.S. Attorney until the next USA is named (h/t Sun Herald). Here’s the announcement.

Best wishes for more effective and honorable federal law enforcement in the District in future.

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The Chow blog on Chowhound reports a trend in “restaurant-style entrées for pets.” The blogger went looking for them, and…

Then I hit major gold with a company called Merrick Pet Care selling doggy turducken in a can that promises to make “even vegetarians reconsider their pledge.” Would that be human vegetarians, hard-core dog vegetarians, or those poor pets that belong to hippies and really don’t want to be vegetarians but are by default? In any case, Merrick also makes reinterpreted classics like Grammy’s Pot Pie and Campfire Trout Feast, all described in high J. Peterman style:

“French Country Café: Whether it’s a corner café on the streets of Paris, a Cottage tucked along the French countryside or a trip up the Eiffel Tower with your significant other, they all spell the romance of France. This savory delight inspired by the many culinary artists from across the pond will have your dog begging for more in a heavy French accent in no time.”

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(h/t Joe Benevides)

Last night and this morning (between reboots after Firefox crashes), I’ve been reflecting on stuff —

the Team Obama approach to Iran

the House vote on the stimulus bill

the votes on delaying digital TV

Norm Coleman’s screwy election challenge

the pathetic RNC meeting

the bathetic suck-up to Limbaugh

Bernie Marcus’s conference call

the Warr story

— etc., etc. And you know, it all keeps taking me back to David Sedaris‘s metaphor of Dems and GOPers:

To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”

At local, state, and national level, I just don’t see the Republican Party surviving much longer. But what, d’ya reckon, will replace it?

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Gallup has news: in 2008 four states qualified as “solid Republican” — the four most sparsely-populated ones.

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The other day, I posted a picture of my law office, with a note that local friends would recognize its significance.  Yesterday’s  Oxford Eagle told the whole story in a report by Alyssa Schnugg, along with a picture (above) by Bruce Newman:

Being next to several popular night spots on the Oxford Square has left the historical fence surrounding the Freeland & Freeland Law Firm broken, battered and abused.

But thanks to Ornamental Metal Museum in Memphis, the fence has recently been returned to its former splendor.

The cast-iron fence was originally around the second-floor balcony of a house built in the 1840s or early 1850s, where Stone Park Center is now located. Over the years, the house belonged to Edward Mayes — former chancellor of the University of Mississippi and biographer of L.Q.C Lamar — and the Stone family. Phil Stone practiced law with Hal Freeland in the office on East Jackson Avenue, next to Taylor Pub (formerly Parrish’s Bar). Stone was a mentor to William Faulkner.

The house at Stone Park burned down in the 1940s and the cast iron was salvaged and stored in the basement of the law office, which had an unfenced front yard at the time. The lawyers who had the office in the 1960s — Hal Freeland and Gerry Gafford — put the fence around the front yard, mounting the pieces of cast iron in a new brick fence.

The law firm itself dates back to the 1870s, said attorney Tom Freeland, who now practices with his wife, Joyce, in the office.

The fence had been gradually vandalized and large portions of the fence were broken off and lost.

“This became much worse with the advent of all the bars around the west side of the Square,” Freeland said.

Freeland took parts of the fence to the Ornamental Metal Museum, where he finally made contact with Jeannie Tomlinson-Saltmarsh who took on the project of returning the fence to its former condition.

“We took the original eight sections of cast iron and took them apart and salvaged what we could,” Tomlinson-Saltmarsh said. “From those, we were able to make four sections. We used aluminum to make up the other four sections.”

Tomlinson-Saltmarsh said the fence was sandblasted to remove the rust, primed and then assembled for painting.

“It’ll be there for 100 years,” she said. “Be there longer than us.”

A stone mason finished the job over the weekend and now only a trained eye could tell the difference between the original and new sections.

Freeland hopes having the fence intact again will help prevent future vandalism.

“It’s an important piece of the history of downtown Oxford,” he said.

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On Monday we heard that in Gulfport “it’s been all over town” that Mayor Brett Warr met with his department heads over the weekend. Now Anita Lee confirms the main rumor: on Friday Thursday, Republican Warr and his wife Laura

TIM ISBELL / THE SUN HERALD

were indicted by a federal grand jury on 16 counts of fraud (11-page pdf). The indictment alleges that the Warrs sought and received a grant for replacing a residence in which they weren’t living pre-Katrina.

Passed-along courthouse gossip has it that Warr refused a plea deal including fines and probation but no prison if he would resign.

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