Knicks: One step forward, two steps back

In a world ruled by sane men — which generally leaves the folks at Madison Square Garden outside of the mix — the Knicks would have retained Donnie Walsh as president and general manager and let Mike D’Antoni go at the end of his coaching contract. Walsh, after all, has done a remarkable job of cleaning up the mess he inherited and getting the Knicks into the playoffs.

So, where does this team go now?

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The debt debate: Taking bets on Democratic cave-in

Moody’s has issued a warning that should shorten the debate over the debt ceiling.

Moody’s Investors Service warned on Thursday that it might downgrade the nation’s sterling credit rating if Congress does not increase the nation’s debt limit “in coming weeks,” putting a spur to sputtering talks between party leaders and the White House to reach agreement on a long-term deficit-reduction plan. 

The debt ceiling has been used as a political football by the GOP this year, though Democrats have been unwilling to acknowledge that some of the questions raised by their Republican opponents about mounting debt are legitimate.

Debt is a long-term problem and will need to be controlled, but the prescriptions being pushed by the GOP are downright mean-spirited and disingenuous. We can deal with the deficit by ending our multiprong war on terror, reducing our military footprint world wide, creating jobs (a healthy economy will go a long way toward generating added tax revenues), reversing the Bush tax cuts and closing corporate tax loopholes. We don’t need to gut Medicare or Social Security.

But don’t expect Democrats to fight for these kinds of remedies. Instead, we probably should be taking bets to see how quickly Democratic leaders cave in to Republican demands as a way to avert a catastrophe created by GOP recalcitrance.

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Chris Christie, family man

Gov. Christie arrives by state police helicopter Tuesday afternoon at St. Joseph Regional High School in Montvale for the school’s baseball game against Delbarton. Christie’s son Andrew plays for Delbarton. Credit Christopher Costa for Patch

At another time, this might be just the cliched tempest in a teapot, just another governor abusing the perks of office.

But in 2011, with a great budget-balancer slashing state spending and being talked up for national office, Chris Christie’s arrogance gets placed on full view for national consumption.

The story goes like this (broken by our colleagues at the Ridgewood Patch):

Governor Christie landed in Bergen County in a state police helicopter late Tuesday afternoon to attend his son’s baseball game against St. Joseph Regional High School in Montvale.

Christie arrived shortly before 4 p.m. to watch his son Andrew play baseball for Delbarton School. He was driven from the helicopter about 100 yards to the field in a black car with tinted windows.

The governor then flew back to Princeton for a meeting with Iowa Republicans — you know, Iowa, where the first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses will be held in 2012.

Previous governors — Jim McGreevey, Jon Corzine — were criticized loudly by the Republicans for their use and misuse of taxpayer-paid transportation. I would have thought the governor, who is as savvy a politician as there is in the state, would have seen the controversy coming. But, and this is key, he not only is savvy, but horribly arrogant — probably the most arrogant and imperious man to occupy the New Jersey State House in memory.

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Dramatic, yes, but missing the point

http://www.hbo.com/bin/hboPlayerV2.swf?vid=1175400

I just watched HBO’s Too Big to Fail and I have to say that, dramatically, it lives up to the hype. The story moves along at a brisk pace and the star-studded cast turns in a collection of powerful performances.

And yet, Too Big to Fail fails in the same way that historical recreations often fail: It simplifies the 2008 financial disaster, turns a massive systemic derailment into a story of individuals. Hank Paulson and Timothy Geithner and Ben Bernanke and the leaders of the big banks and investment houses — these are the players, the decision-makers and the men (almost exclusively) who nearly drove the nation off a cliff and then, at the last minute, righted it.

This makes for great cinema and storytelling, but it is lousy history. The 2008 financial crisis had far deeper roots than the film implies. They go far deeper than just the Clinton-era financial reforms that turned the Street into a casino, deeper than the deregulatory mania of the Carter and Reagan years. The problem is capitalism itself, which is prone to boom-and-bust cycles and demands profits at all costs.

Too Big to Fail is, in the end, insider baseball, the story of how Washington insiders averted a crisis of their own making.

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It ain’t easy being green, when all you are is mean

In October 2009, the New Jersey Environmental Federation did something it had never done: It endorsed a Republican for governor.

Four years after endorsing Democrat Jon Corzine, the NJEF concluded that Corzine’s environmental record was a disaster — an accurate assessment — but rather than sit out the election or back the third party candidate, Chris Daggett, it opted to back the conservative Republican based on a set of promises.

Christie won the election, of course, and has made the NJEF look foolish, running up the worst environmental record in memory — worse than both Corzine and Christie Whitman.

The New York Times today, placing his most recent assault in a larger context, offers us the list:

Running for governor in 2009, Chris Christie vowed to become “New Jersey’s No. 1 clean-energy advocate.” That was a hollow promise. As governor, Mr. Christie proceeded to cut all the money for the Office of Climate and Energy. He raided $158 million from the clean energy fund, meant for alternative energy investments, and spent it on general programs. He withdrew the state from an important lawsuit against electric utilities to reduce emissions.

On Thursday, he took the worst step of all: He abandoned the 10-state initiative in the Northeast that uses a cap-and-trade system to lower carbon-dioxide emissions from power plants. The program has been remarkably successful, a model of vision and fortitude. Lacking that, Mr. Christie has given in to the corporate and Tea Party interests that revile all forms of cap and trade, letting down the other nine states trying to fight climate change.

The governor also eliminated the office of the public advocate and has slashed DEP funding, but those seem minor given the entire green — or should I say antigreen — record.

It should be noted that Christie’s 2009 campaign featured another important element — an attack on Corzine for breaking promises made during the Democrat’s 2005 campaign. Someone should play those attacks back to Christie and remind him that the promises he has been breaking carry no less weight.

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  • Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. It can be ordered here.
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Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.