Why Are You Reading This Junk?

One of these days, I hope President-Elect Obama can start off a weekly address with "Good morning, this week has brought us great news of prosperity for all Americans" or at least "good news of increasing prosperity amongst all Americans."  Realistically, it will be "Good morning, this week has brought us the news of increasing layoffs/home foreclosures/credit markets freezing/dogs getting kicked/other bad things happening."

With all the turmoil that the U.S. economy is facing, I'm glad Obama is concentrating on the issues that matter to Americans and is detailing what he plans on doing to help.  His nominee for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Shaun Donovan, seems like a fine one based on the information given about him.

Meanwhile, there are other folks who don't care to focus on the critical issues and make as much noise as possible about Blago-gate....

In an interview with Sen. John McCain by George Stephanopoulos on today's episode of ABC's This Week, Stephanopoulos brought up the fact that Republican National Committee Chair Mike Duncan has released a series of daily statements about the Gov. Rod Blagojevich situation and the involvement of Obama's team.  The quote from one of the statements used on This Week was "Obama's promise of transparency to the American people is now being tested."

On one hand, that quote is absolutely true.  On the other hand, Blago-gate is an excellent opportunity for certain members of the Republican party to create a scandal around Obama and yammer on just to hear their own voices.  It's a nice continuation of the guilt-by-association game they played during the course of the campaign.

My vision of the future for the Republican party is that of a strong opposition party that keeps the Democrats in check when they overreach.  No matter how good the Democratic party platform was over the course of the campaign, and no matter how much of a liberal I can be, unfettered monopolistic control of government by one party is not a good idea no matter who the party is.

I hope the Democrats can use their majority in Congress to pass progressive legislation that puts people back to work, transitions us to a new energy economy, reforms healthcare, etc.  I hope the Republicans can come together around a platform that's based around helping the American people and not partisan politics and become the voice of reason when the Democrats make a boneheaded move.