Is McCain Still Planning To Make Gramm His Treasury Secretary?

Although the McCain lobbyist brigade put on a strong face and defended fellow lobbyist Phil Gramm, McCain's chief economic advisor-- and first choice for Treasury Secretary in an administration that will never be-- the handwriting was on the wall from the moment the public focused on what an ass he is. Giving a candid look at the thinking inside the Double Talk Express, the multimillionaire and elitist Gramm, who's gotten every cent he has by working the government for his own self interest while decrying the very concept of the government having any role in the common good, complained that Americans are a "nation of whiners." He claimed that there is no recession, and that the falling home prices, steadily growing unemployment numbers, bank failures, inflationary spiral are... no big deal and "just in people's minds."

And, indeed, among people like the Gramms, Bushes, Cheneys and McCains, who have profited so handsomely by sucking at the government teat, life is good. Life is very, very, very good. And they wouldn't change a thing-- except to bring on more of the same-- lots more.

This morning's NY Times makes it official: after trying to rehabilitate Gramm earlier in the day-- he's had his "time out," they said and was back on board-- McCain bowed to intense public pressure and finally jetisoned Gramm as his campaign's co-chairman, or at least says he did. McCain and his lobbyists and media allies keep calling Obama an elitist and an arugula eater. McCain has more corrupt multimillionaires on the Double Talk Express than even Bush had on his campaign, more, in fact, than any other candidate in history. There's another scandal every week and today's was all about a particularly sleazy operator and major McCain fundraiser, Juan Carlos Benitez, one of McCain's many connections to Jack Abramoff and the Republican Culture of Corruption that has ruined Washington during the Bush presidency.

But it was Gramm's inevitable "resignation" last night that got the most media attention.

Mr. Gramm, a multimillionaire banker, has been under fire since last week, when he dismissed concerns about the troubled economy by referring to “a mental recession.” He also said the United States had become “a nation of whiners,” a remark providing fodder for Democrats to portray Republicans as out of touch with the concerns of ordinary Americans.

Since the start of his campaign, but particularly since the onset of the most recent economic turmoil, Mr. McCain has been struggling to convince voters of his ability to manage the economy, an area he has acknowledged in the past as a weakness. Mr. Gramm, in addition to being a close friend, helped design his economic program and, until last week’s gaffe, was being mentioned as a possible treasury secretary in a McCain administration.

The Obama campaign, of course, pointed out what the media has missed here, what it far more important than another body tossed off the bus to nowhere. Hari Sevugan: “The question for John McCain isn’t whether Phil Gramm will continue as chairman of his campaign, but whether he will continue to keep the economic plan that Gramm authored and that represents a continuation of the polices that have failed American families for the last eight years."

Keith Olbermann summed it all up last night-- and very well: