WEEK IN REVIEW: FEB 2-6

Without a doubt, the honeymoon is over...
President Obama's third week in office seemed to have been his worst yet. He had been hoping to push his monstrous stimulus package through Congress. There was some 'progress' early on, but after a very long Friday, the Senate adjourned after having accomplished nothing of any real significance. It seems there is no shortage of problems with the proposed legislation; it is a weak attempt at a quick fix with potentially devastating long-term consequences. Barack stepped up the rhetoric in an effort to get the bill approved. Something is likely to pass next week... then we can start looking into the issues affecting its implementation.

But concerns over the ECONOMY were not limited to the stimulus bill:

• Obama is going to need all the help he can get, and on Friday he named an economic advisory panel to do just that. Another speech...
• In a move that received mixed reviews, the president announced that executives whose companies are receiving federal aid will have their salaries capped at $500,000. Personally, I think that figure is a little bit high... and undeserved (to say the least).
• Perhaps the most disappointing act pertaining to the economy was the executive order backing the use of union labor for all large-scale federal construction projects. It's worth noting that over 80% of construction workers are not unionized... but I guess that doesn't matter to a Democratic politician who received over a billion dollars in campaign contributions from labor unions. It's also worth pointing out that this was a resurrection of an order from the Clinton administration that W had scrapped.

There were several other important developments that are not directly related to the economy and the current financial crisis:

• Bad HUMAN RESOURCES continued to plague Obama's growing administration. The latest casualties were the nominees for Secretary of Health and Human Services as well as Chief Performance Officer. It wasn't Tom Daschle's bad taste in glasses that cost him the job but his failure to properly pay his taxes; the same was true for Nancy Killefer. The president did the very least he could do by admitting he made a mistake. It seems as though we have yet to see the end of this drama - Obama's pick for Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis is now under scrutiny as well. On the more promising side of things, the new nominee for Secretary of Commerce is a Republican; he replaces another one of Obama's picks who was forced to keep it moving...
• There was marginal progress on the HEALTHCARE front despite the Daschle setback. After the House approved the legislation, President Obama signed a new bill that extends health insurance coverage to millions of children from low-income families. This was an initiative W shot down at least twice during his eight years in office. In some other good news, the president tried to hold the miserable FDA accountable for failing to do its job.
  
• One of the issues that needs serious attention is EDUCATION. Obama must have had that in mind when he and his wife visited a DC charter school where they read to a second grade class. The president had a lot of good things to say about charter schools during the campaign so his choice of venue was not surprising, nor were his remarks when it was all said and done. Maybe next time the Obamas can go to a rundown DC public school where learning (and teaching) is a real challenge. Unfortunately, it seems that education is not a real priority for the US government.
• RELIGION continued to play a central role in the life and times of our new president. Thursday February 5th started with a National Prayer Service where the despicable Tony Blair delivered the keynote address. President Obama also spoke and explained what he hoped to achieve in establishing the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships (a remixed version of W's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives). Later on in the day he announced that the department would be headed by Joshua DuBois, a 26 year old pastor who found his calling after the murder of Amadou Diallo. As a 17-year old freshman in college, he stood in front of the MLK monument in Boston for 41 hours - one hour for each bullet. He seems like a good guy...
• Attention shifted to the SUPREME COURT early in the week when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg disclosed her treatment for pancreatic cancer. Her openness was exemplary, but she plans to return to the bench in a couple weeks. Even if she does end up stepping down, the court's makeup would not change much - she is one of the most liberal of the justices and it is highly unlikely that Obama would appoint another Clarence Thomas.
• FOREIGN POLICY & NATIONAL SECURITY remained high on the new administration's list of priorities. After the Department of Defense finally dropped charges against the alleged mastermind of the USS Cole bombing - bringing the department in compliance with Obama's executive order calling on all proceedings at GITMO to be suspended - he met with family members of the attack and 9/11 to assure them that his administration had only pushed pause on prosecuting the bad guys. In an effort to maximize maneuverability, officials also announced that two different withdrawal plans were being considered for Iraq. Of course, the new quagmire is likely to be in Afghanistan (and Pakistan).
• Finally, in a bit of good news for the ENVIRONMENT (and US consumers), the president ordered the Department of Energy to set new effiency standards for most household appliances.