this is an adventure

“A shrimpy, perma-tanned, hair-plugged, vulgarian gaffe machine who has survived 12 corruption trials, counts among the world’s richest men, gets all the girls, and still, unaccountably, remains his country’s most popular leader. Teflon is like flypaper compared to Silvio Berlusconi.” This guy doesn’t just hike the Appalachian Trail, he strip-mines it.

Geithner signals a massive new onslaught of regulation: “Geithner said the administration’s proposed regulatory revamp would offer better protection with the Federal Reserve overseeing the country’s largest financial firms, a new regulator for mortgages and credit cards, and tougher oversight of credit derivatives and hedge funds, among other things.”

A recent interviewer: “In the second term, he felt Bush was moving away from him… He said Bush was shackled by the public reaction and the criticism he took. Bush was more malleable to that. The implication was that Bush had gone soft on him, or rather Bush had hardened against Cheney’s advice.”

Un-American activities apparently net political gain: “34% say the sometimes heated protests at sessions held by members of Congress have made them more sympathetic to the protesters’ views; 21% say they are less sympathetic. Independents by 2-1, 35%-16%, say they are more sympathetic to the protesters now.”