Another Dis-Appointment: Ford For Commerce?

There are apparently murmurings among the chattering classes that Obama might ask former Tennessee Congresscritter, DLC/BlueDawg, "big-bidness" Dim Harold Ford to the Commerce Secretary post. I have one word for that: Sheeeee-it! That'd be another 'poke-in-the-eye' for those who still cherished the illusion of 'change.'

Over on Open Left, David Sirota reveals Ford's possible selection for what was to me the first time, in the midst of trying to exhort the captive SCUM (SoCalledUnbiasedMedia) to acquaint themselves with the actual responsibilities of the job before conferring it on Ford, for his business-friendly record.

In telling us that Merrill Lynch vice-president Harold Ford could be the next Commerce Secretary, NBC News' Chuck Todd tells us a lot more about how the D.C. media views government in general:

On paper, Ford checks a lot of boxes for a an easy-to-confirm nominee for this post: He's a pro-business Democrat (remember, this is Commerce Secretary so the job is to be a promoter of business)...

Sorry, but "being a promoter of business" is not the official job of Commerce Secretary - not even close. As Todd would have seen had he spent six seconds looking at the front page of the department's website, the Commerce Department oversees economic data, trade enforcement, the Census Bureau, climate change policy (the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration) and patents/trademarks. Only a fraction of the Commerce Secretary's official job are the economic development agencies (ie. being "a promoter for business"). But to Washington reporters, the government's responsibilities are regularly depicted as being a conduit or appendage of Corporate America.

Now, it's certainly true that the government has been used an instrument of corporate kleptocracy. However, the idea that that is the government's official role is preposterous - and it's particularly preposterous that reporters could portray an office like Commerce Secretary as just "a promoter for business." Any objective look at what the Commerce Department does would suggest that a Commerce Secretary's jurisdiction could make him/her at least as much a regulator and enforcer as a corporate sycophant. But, according to the D.C. press, the only major prerequisite for the job should be a potential nominee like Harold Ford's loyal subservience to business interests.

It disturbs me, and I am sure it will disturb others, that the Obama 'team' may have selected Ford for the actually quite important post of Commerce Secretary, a man who will be pretty much guaranteed NOT to regulate his 'friends' in bidness/industry, while scrupulously preventing any infringements on their perqs by the Government.

Not to put tooooo fine a point on it: Harold Ford Is NOT "Change" anybody but a timorous tool quivering before the muscle and might of the USCoC and the Manufacturers Assn. If I thought it would matter, I'd cry "BETRAYAL" in anticipation of the accomplished fact.