a day late and month disappointed

yesterday marked one month since the hat.

one month since "my count...try tis of thee." magic 8-ball says the republican party is disappointed in president obama's first month. (i hear a collective, "awwww.") the republicans list several reasons to be disappointed on their website (a couple of which i actually agree with), but i picked out the ones i thought were the most fun.

here's a good one. this is one of the most important reasons they voted en masse against the stimulus bill. they talked about it all the time: nancy peolsi's field mouse! read carefully:

The Bill Even Includes $30 Million For Salt Marsh Harvest Mice In San Francisco. "Lawmakers and administration officials divulged Wednesday that the $789 billion economic stimulus bill being finalized behind closed doors in Congress includes $30 million for wetlands restoration that the Obama administration intends to spend in the San Francisco Bay Area to protect, among other things, the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi represents the city of San Francisco and has previously championed preserving the mouse's habitat in the Bay Area." (S.A. Miller, "Pelosi's Mouse Slated For $30m Slice Of Cheese," The Washington Times, 2/12/09)

see that last part there? the part in italics (mine)? the part about what "lawmakers and administration officials" say that the "obama administration intends to spend" the money on? not in the bill.

that's a lie.

i know, get out my surprised face. despite being debunked over and over again, the republicans are still using the salt marsh mouse to mislead people (sound familiar?) but hold on one minute. what exactly could helping an endangered salt marsh harvest mouse mean for our economy, or for jobs? what exactly would wetland restoration entail?

well, it would entail hiring heavy equipment operators (bulldozers, front-end loaders, backhoes), hiring landscape architects, gardeners, project managers, biologists, hydrologists, ecologists, environmental engineers, geomorphologists, private mitigation bankers, computer support staff, real estate staff, attorneys, hydrologists, biologists, and ecologists.

for a start.

but you're right, republicans. i bet none of those people are struggling or out of work.

the g.o.p. disappointment list also includes obama's difficulty in appointing people to fill top positions in his administration. ouch. here, you're right republicans. tom daschle and nancy killefer both withdrew their names from nomination because of past unpaid tax issues (speaking of which, did you know that alaskan officials now say sarah palin, your nominee for vice president – oh, it seems so long ago! – owes in the neighborhood of $18,000 in back taxes? if she were vice-president right now could we withdraw her?)

add in bill richardson (withdrawn) and judd gregg (republican peer pressure) and there have been a total of four obama cabinet picks who all voluntarily withdrew their names from consideration. (obama's tied with our tenth president john tyler, but tyler's nominees did not withdraw, they were rejected.) yep, sucks. and shhhh...we won't talk about this last president picking people like linda chavez (labor - withdrawn), harriet meyers (supreme court - withdrawn), bernie kerik (homeland security - withdrawn), or alberto gonzalez (attorney general - resigned) for that matter.

the repubs also claim obama has not been the bipartisan leader he promised to be. interestingly enough, the american public, by a wide margin, seems to disagree. they give president obama an approval rating of 63%, while republicans in congress score 19% approval and democrats are at 43% in the latest gallup poll.

in the meantime, a vast majority of the country is focusing instead on what this new president has actually accomplished in only 30 days in office:

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