Marginal Utility

by Ken Houghton

Chris Suellentrop—not Tobin Harshaw—tried pushing the Tom Maguire line yesterday:

Tom Maguire, who blogs at Just One Minute, has perhaps the most novel theory: it helps John McCain, Rudy Giuliani — and Hillary Clinton. Maguire writes:

Dare we state the obvious — this news takes the wind away from the Dems who have been asserting that Republicans will lead us inexorably to war with Iran....Meanwhile, insinuations that McCain or Giuliani (or Huckabee!?!) will take us to war with Iran have been dramatically undercut. [emphasis mine]

Unfortunately for the NYT and especially Maguire, the Rudy and his Advisors Are Not Insane Defense has already been undermined (h/t Sadly, No, of course)

But I entertain an even darker suspicion. It is that the intelligence community, which has for some years now been leaking material calculated to undermine George W. Bush,* is doing it again. This time the purpose is to head off the possibility that the President may order air strikes on the Iranian nuclear installations. As the intelligence community must know, if he were to do so, it would be as a last resort, only after it had become undeniable that neither negotiations nor sanctions could prevent Iran from getting the bomb, and only after being convinced that it was very close to succeeding.** How better, then, to stop Bush in his tracks than by telling him and the world that such pressures have already been effective and that keeping them up could well bring about "a halt to Iran’s entire nuclear weapons program"—especially if the negotiations and sanctions were combined with a goodly dose of appeasement or, in the NIE’s own euphemistic formulation, "with opportunities for Iran to achieve its security, prestige, and goals for regional influence in other ways."

Someone is still saber-rattling, and Tom Maguire should already be regretting his optimism.


*Either "Facts are stupid things" or W has been saying things that he should have known were not true, since "leaked" information has been distributed throughout the Administration already. Which is more likely is left as an exercise to the reader.
**Just as he was with that other I-r-a country.

Labels: 2008, Brad DeLong, Intellimigence, Iran, Politics, RudyG

by Ken Houghton

Amidst some great competition, this one stands out as being (1) accurate and (2) topical in so many ways (and not just because the Pats won):

Mario @ 4:

Rudy wouldn't be elected dog catcher today in NYC if he was running vs Michael Vick.

Labels: NYC, Politics, Republicans, RudyG, sports

by Ken Houghton

In the midst of claims that Northeast real estate is going to drop 15-40%, some transactions are off-market:

As for Hazleton,[Pennsylvania,] the Giulianis are buying more than gas there these days. On Nov. 1, records show, the couple purchased Nathan's childhood home from her parents for an unspecified sum.

There is, of course, no reason to believe there would be anything suspect about such a transaction. Contrast, for instance, this statement:

"Nobody was trying to hide anything."

with the reality:

One document dated June 26, 2000, shows how money from five such offices - the Mayor's Office of People with Disabilities, the Community Assistance Unit, the Assigned Counsel Administrative Office, the Loft Board and the mayor's liaison to the United Nations - was used to prepay an American Express account to the tune of $60,000...

Carbonetti said that the document - dated four days before the end of the city fiscal year - simply showed how unused money from agencies was being used to prepay bills. [emphases mine]

And the follow-up statement to it:

"It's fiscally responsible to anticipate predictable expenses and prepay them," he argued.

It's also fraud.

Then again, it's the lovable and much-loved-by-the-Beltway Rudolph, so it must not be important.

Labels: 2008, fiduciary responsibility, High Finance, Housing Bubble, Mannion, Politics, Republican Party, RudyG