1/13 Roundup: I can has $350 billion?, Senate Seats like Candy, Trading Tickets for Love

Submitted by Sam duPont on 1/13/09

Barney FrankLeader: I Can Has $350 Billion?

- President-elect Barack Obama is trying to get his hands on the second half of the TARP funds.  President Bush put congress on notice yesterday, and requested that our representatives make the funds available for Obama on his first day in office.

- He's running into unexpected difficulty in the House, where lawmakers are asking for more specific details on how Obama plans to spend the money. Says Rep. Barney Frank: “We should not allow our disappointment at the Bush administration’s poor handling of the TARP program to prevent the Obama administration from using the funds in more appropriate ways..." His bill "sets forth the conditions we believe are necessary to assure that the public gets the full benefit of these funds.”

Politics

- According to the NY Times, Barack Obama plans to use an executive order on his first day in office to order the closing of the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay. It may take up to a year for the camp to actually close.

- Sen. George Voinovich announced that he plans to retire after the 2010 election, joining Sens. Brownback, Bond, and Martinez.  All four are Republicans, which means the GOP could be looking at another rough election year. To a lot of people, it's sounding like Republicans are looking at a long road back.

- Roland Burris got a seat in the Senate!  Now Al Franken wants one, too. Come to think of it, can I have a seat in the Senate?

Economy

- The folks at the World Economic Forum have released a report in advance of their annual meeting in Davos this month. The risk of serious fiscal crisis has "doubled if not tripled" in the past year.

International

- The NY Times calls John Kerry's chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations committee "a bit of a gold-plated consolation prize." Sad but true... but then, it's not so bad, either.  The Washington Post sees him more generously as one of a triumvirate leading US foreign policy. 

- Another third of that triumvirate, Hillary Clinton, is planning to emphasize "smart power" in her tenure as Secretary of State.  It looks as though this is "soft power" with a much more politically useful name. 

- The third member of the triumvirate is planning to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan-- curiously, not as a strategy to win the war, but as a strategy to buy time while the administration and the military reassess our overall strategy in the theater. 

One More Thing

- Diane Feinstein doesn't want you to sell your inauguration tickets.  But what about trading them for love and a cash gift?   

- Last, our Congressional leadership is going to do the YouTube!