A Warm-Up to Today’s “Central Station”: The TARP Vote + Rahm Emanuel on Charlie Rose
By SusanUnPC on January 17, 2009 at 6:55 AM in American Consumers, Barack Obama, Economic Stimulus, Economy, Rahm Emanuel
This is an economics warm-up! Check in after 9:00 a.m. today for Larry Doyle’s terrific “Central Station” where you can quiz Larry, who’s also known as LD, on everything to do with economics. (And, if you missed it last night, you have to read LD’s original investigative journalism on SEC Chair nominee Mary Schapiro, a shocking story that no MSM journalist has checked out — except here at No Quarter, by Larry Doyle. And it is essential that you know that LD did the drudgery, including reading the entire 2008 annual report of the regulatory agency that Ms. Schapiro supposedly kept above Wall Street influence.)
Soon-to-be Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel appeared on Charlie Rose’s show for the hour last night. Rep. Emanual verbally swaggered in that oh-so-Chicago-Way, but perhaps a bit less than in times past. In the YouTube excerpt below, Emanuel points out that PEBO is the first pre-inaugural president to pass a major piece of legislation (Troubled Asset Relief Program aka TARP), awarding PBO the right to access the remaining $300+ billion.
Recommended: Check out Jake Tapper’s blog Political Punch at ABC News in which he reveals the names of those few independent-minded Democrats voted against giving President Barack Obama access to the remaining $350 billion. It’s a distinguished group, including my state’s eyes-like-a-hawk, no-nonsense Maria Cantwell. Tapper also learned, by using his many connections, that John McCain reversed his opposition after getting a letter of assurance from Obama’s economic adviser Larry Summers that the oversight will be greater than under Bush.
From our Senate booth, ABC News’ Z. Byron Wolf tells us that if you look at the roll call, you can see that nine Democratic senators opposed giving PBO the money (for the anti-TARP resolution).
They were:
Perennial vice presidential bridesmaid Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, Maria Cantwell of Washington, Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Bernie Sanders of Vermont (technically an Independent), Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Ron Wyden of Oregon.
Wolf and ABC News’ Vic Ratner note that of these nine, five are up for re-election in 2010: Bayh, Dorgan, Feingold, Lincoln, and Wyden.
Six Republicans voted to give Obama the money …
GOP Sens. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, Jon Kyl of Arizona, Dick Lugar of Indiana, Olympia Snowe of Maine and George Voinovich of Ohio.
Then there’s the hilarity of candidates promising one thing to win a race, and then doing the opposite once in office. Hey, they all do it, as Barack Obama’s followers have discovered. Ahem. (FISA, Iraq, Guantanamo, war crimes trials of Bush/Cheney, and on and on.)
Jeff Merkeley in Oregon ran an ad attacking then-Sen. Gordon Smith for supporting the TARP legislation, but on Thursday, after taking the seat from Smith, Merkeley voted to release the second half of the money he thought never should have been passed in the first place.
Now, here’s the video I promised you, plus a bonus video that you’ll love:
The full video of Friday night’s interview won’t be available on Rose’s site until Monday.
Next up is a must-see video from an earlier Emanuel appearance on Rose’s PBS show.
Did you ever catch this video? It’s quite something. You do know, don’t you, that Rahm’s mother famously said, before this year, that Rahm was the least accomplished of her three sons.
Ari Emanuel is a famous Hollywood agent on whom the character of Ari in HBO’s Entourage was based. And Ezekiel is a world-famous physician who has written an important book on health care.
A rebroadcast of a conversation with Ezekiel, Ari, and Rahm Emanuel. President-elect Barack Obama selected Representative Rahm Emanuel as his Chief of Staff.
Here’s the full program:






















