Michael Flynn is Editor-in-Chief of Big Government. He has almost twenty years experience in policy development, legislative affairs, media relations, political campaigns and crisis communication. He has testified often before the U.S. Congress and before at least two-dozen state legislatures. His work has been cited by the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Post, Reason and numerous magazines, regional newspapers and radio. He is a frequent guest on a number of broadcast and cable networks. His work recently won top awards from the Western Publishing Association and the Los Angeles Press Club.
Mike Flynn
The Little Fed Report that Could…and Did Create a Housing Bubble
by Mike FlynnWhile most of the public is consumed by the health care-death-march spectacle, Senators Bob Corker and Chris Dodd are making serious progress on the Senate’s “financial services reform” legislation. The legislation was dead just a couple weeks ago, but Sen. Corker thought he could snag a seat at the grown-up table and stepped forward to ‘cut a deal.’
As is the new DC operating procedure for major legislation, there are almost no firm details on the current language. We know there will be a large new federal bureaucracy, somewhere within government, to provide “consumer protection” for financial products. We know there will be a $50 billion tax on banking customers to provide a permanent bailout fund, or as Sen. Corker would describe it, a “wind-down” fund. Unfortunately, we also know that the bill will do nothing to reform Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, who continue to drain billions from the U.S. Treasury.
We’re told the Corker-Dodd Bailout Bill is a necessary response to the financial melt-down triggered by the collapse of the housing bubble. But, if it doesn’t take even small steps to reform Fannie and Freddie, then, simply, it isn’t a serious proposal. Its like rebuilding the porch on a house, while ignoring it’s cracked foundation.
Washington politicians would rather ignore this, but the housing bubble was the result of very explicit government policy. Throughout the 90’s and early 2000’s, officials from both parties became addicted to forever pushing homeownership rates higher than the laws of economics would otherwise allow.
If you want to identify the roots of the homeownership-cult among elected officials, fire-up the way-back machine and check out a little report issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston in the early 90’s. Under the leadership of Richard Syron, then-President of the Boston Fed (more on him later), the report was the result of discussion among the bank’s staff and the usual collection of academics and professional activists. It was to make recommendations to the nation’s bankers on addressing alleged discrimination in mortgage lending.
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Pelosi Fact Check: Rangel Did Violate House Rules
by Mike FlynnIts been another week that I’m certain the Democrats in DC are happy to put behind them. Happy too, probably, that another snowicane slammed the Northeast. Anything to distract any part of the populace from what can only be described as a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad week.
A few weeks ago, the Democrats loudly proclaimed they would “pivot to jobs” and public concerns about spending. But, their addiction to ‘comprehensive health reform’ proved too powerful, culminating in one last, ‘we really mean it this time’ effort to pass a proposal opposed by a majority of the public. Yesterday’s surreal six-hour gab-fest/lecture on the topic was almost too bizarre to invite further comment. I mean, the spectacle speaks for itself. How did this ever seem like a good idea, even on paper. Giving the GOP a national platform to talk intelligently on health care is certainly an interesting strategy to pass ObamaCare. Clearly, too brilliant for me to understand.
As if the ’summit’ debacle weren’t enough for Democrats to welcome the weekend, we now get the revelation that, according to the House Ethics Committee, Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY) did in fact violate House ethics rules. (Shock!) Of course, simple facts aren’t really a problem for House Speaker Pelosi. If they are inconvenient, she’ll just pick some new ones. From today’s The Hill:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she’s once again sticking by embattled Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) — at least for now.
Pelosi (D-Calif.) said during a Friday press conference that she had not yet read the full report from the ethics committee, which admonished Rangel, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, for improperly accepting reimbursement for two trips to the Caribbean.
“All I saw was the press release where they said he did not violate the rules of the House,” Pelosi said. “And I think that’s an important statement that they made.”
Fine except, you know, he did violate the rules of the House.
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You’re Invited…to Help Scrub ACORN’s Image
by Mike FlynnYesterday came the news that ACORN was ‘dissolving’ its national structure, allowing many of its local chapters to go ‘independent’. ACORN’s destruction of its brand had threatened the existence of every ACORN office in the country. Shedding the ACORN brand will give them a chance restart the flow of public money and leftist donors.
Make no mistake, however, that while their names may change, the personnel groomed by ACORN and the tactics they employ will remain the same. To paraphrase a famous verse, “A Rose by any other name…has just as many thorns.”
Below is an invite to New York ACORN’s first ‘re-branding shindig.’ This Thursday, long-time political allies of ACORN and its Working Families Party will host a high-dollar fundraiser for “New York Communities for Change,” the presumptive heir to ACORN NY.
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Now, Even Speeches Fail President Obama
by Mike FlynnPrior to last night, we could have all agreed that President Obama had one undeniable and great skill; the man could deliver a speech. His national political career, after all, had been launched with a speech, at the Democrat Party Convention in 2004. More than that though, his entire political history–and trajectory–can be mapped by speeches. When his primary campaign for the Presidency was sputtering, a rousing speech at the Iowa Democrat’s Jefferson-Jackson Dinner created the momentum he needed to win that state’s pivotal caucus. When inflammatory video of his long-time pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, surfaced and threatened to derail his campaign, a well-received speech on race allowed him to turn away the controversy. A Will.I.Am video riff of one of Obama’s speeches was such a potent piece of political propaganda that even I developed a bit of a man-crush on the One.
Obama seemed to have a gift for perfectly capturing the tone and mood of the public. It may seem a tired cliche now, but his speeches did much to inspire the hope people attached to his candidacy. Even rather vague or pedestrian phrases seemed to soar in his gifted hands. I had accepted it as a given that, if his political fortunes were ever down, Obama would be able to reverse his troubles by pulling just the right speech from his rhetorical bag of tricks.
No more.
Obama’s State of the Union address last night was not just overly long and dull, it was totally tone-deaf politically. Coming on the heels of a political upset in Massachusetts, with deteriorating poll numbers and anxious members of his own party, Obama badly needed a home-run to change the political dynamics. He struck out.
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Brown Wins Massachusetts Senate Race
by Mike FlynnWith 70% in, Brown leads Coakley 53-46%. From what we’ve seen, there is no scenario where Coakley can win. Also no scenario to prolong the race with a long legal fight. Ladies and Gentlemen, Senator Scott Brown.
**Update**
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Full text here.
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Coakley Blame Game in Full Swing
by Mike FlynnI’ve been involved in politics for longer than I usually care to remember. I’ve been in and around countless campaigns at all levels of government. One of the more intense times in political campaigns is the period immediately following a campaign; when operatives are busy taking credit or assigning blame. And let me tell you, they take this spin-battle very seriously.
That said, this is a battle that takes place AFTER the returns are in. Politico has a “leaked” memo from the Coakley campaign blaming national Democrats for their poor showing:
National Dems Failed to Aid Coakley Until Too Late
— Coakley campaign provided national Democrats with all poll results since early December
— Coakley campaign noted concerns about “apathy” and failure of national Democrats to contribute early in December. Coakley campaign noted fundraising concerns throughout December and requested national Democratic help.
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Hide the Job Decline: $500k in Stimulus Funds to ClimateGate Professor
by Mike FlynnThe American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (the Stimulus Bill) has been such an epic failure, that even the mainstream media has started to notice. The White House has tacitly acknowledged this and recently announced that it would no longer ‘count’ jobs ‘created or saved’ by the Stimulus. The basic problem is that the bulk of the spending went to programs or projects that have nothing to do with economic growth.
The latest example of this is a $500,000 grant to Michael Mann, Professor at Penn State University and unintended c0-star of the ClimateGate e-mail scandal. The leaked e-mails revealed collaboration among scientists to stifle dissenting views on the extent of man-made global warming.
Mann is also the creator of the “Hockey Stick” graph, which purported to show a sharp increase in recent temperatures. That work has been thoroughly discredited by researcher Stephen McIntyre. Yet, in June 2009, the National Science Foundation awarded Mann a three-year $500,000 to further study the climate’s response to human activity. According to the grant award:
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Coakley Staffer Who Attacked Reporter Is an Obama Appointee
by Mike FlynnBig Government contributor Dana Loesch has reported on the Coakley staffer who attacked a Weekly Standard reporter outside a Martha Coakley fundraiser on Capitol Hill. A number of outlets have identified the culprit as Michael Meehan, a long-time Democrat political operative. Mr. Meehan was dispatched to the struggling campaign by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committe (DSCC).
Mr. Meehan, however, also happens to be a recent Obama appointee. On November 19, President Obama nominated Mr. Meehan to serve on the Broadcasting Board of Governors.
From the White House press release:
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Harry Reid: Obama ‘Light-Skinned’ ‘with No Negro Dialect’
by Mike Flynn
Saturday is my favorite day to read the newspaper. That’s the day reporters and editors print stories they know they have to cover but don’t want to get wide attention. The latest evidence for this theory is the Washington Post’s treatment of the revelation of remarks made by Sen. Harry Reid during the 2008 Presidential campaign:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) apologized today for referring to President Barack Obama as “light skinned” and “with no Negro dialect” in private conversations during the 2008 presidential campaign.
“I deeply regret using such a poor choice of words,” said Reid in a statement. “I sincerely apologize for offending any and all Americans, especially African Americans for my improper comments.”
Poor choice of words? Exactly what other combination of words could Sen. Reid have used to convey his point? And what, exactly, was his point anyway? What was the relevance of these observations? We don’t have the full context for the remark in the Post’s reporting. It simply notes that Reid’s comments are revealed in a new book, “Game Change”, authored by reporters from Time and New York magazines.
Interesting that the two magazine reporters, Mark Halperin and John Heileman, have been sitting on their knowledge of Reid’s remarks for so long. Holding onto such a scoop to promote book sales would be understandable, except that the incident doesn’t even make it into the promotional blurb for the book. Just move along, nothing to see here.
Which got me thinking about Trent Lott.
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UN Security Stops Journalist’s Questions About ClimateGate
by Mike FlynnA Stanford Professor has used United Nation security officers to silence a journalist asking him “inconvenient questions” during a press briefing at the climate change conference in Copenhagen.
Professor Stephen Schneider’s assistant requested armed UN security officers who held film maker Phelim McAleer, ordered him to stop filming and prevented further questioning after the press conference where the Stanford academic was launching a book.
McAleer, a veteran journalist and film maker, has recently made a documentary “Not Evil Just Wrong’ which takes a sceptical look at the science and politics behind Global Warming concerns.
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The Complete ACORN Whitewash Report: Nothing to See Here Folks, Move Along…We Have to Pass ObamaCare
by Mike FlynnWell, ACORN retained a law firm to investigate its operations and, surprise, the law firm found that ACORN hadn’t done anything wrong in the undercover videos filmed by James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles. The review, overseen by former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harschbarger, a long-time ally of ACORN, found that any problems within ACORN are, gosh darn it, simply because ACORN was too successful, i.e. grew too big and too fast. The problems are also mostly, conveniently, the result of people who are no longer employed by ACORN, i.e. Wade Rathke.
Full report below:
The entire report can be summed up: Wade Rathke really made a mess of things. The current management, i.e. Bertha Lewis, has been trying to reform the organization and she is really, really committed to it now. ACORN has a “roadmap” for reform that, while it may take a while to implement, will really fix everything you thought was wrong with ACORN. Just trust them.
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ClimateGate Roundup: All the News Not Fit to Print
by Mike FlynnA little known corollary of Copernican law tells us that, like the Earth, Big Media is also not, in fact, the center of the Universe. Just because the ‘journalists’ willfully choose to ignore ClimateGate–the proverbial tree falling in the enviro’s beloved rainforest–doesn’t mean the public and the political class aren’t paying attention. Of course, other than Barbara Boxer calling for criminal investigations into the hacked/leaked e-mails, it is mostly the political classes in other countries paying attention. (If Boxer’s fantasy comes to pass and there are criminal charges pressed, how, pray tell, will Big Media report on it, since their readers presumably know nothing about the scandal.)
Fortunately, with the internet, we are no longer captive of Big Media for our news. The government-owned Canadian Broadcast Corporation, of all things, has been covering the controversy extensively. In this clip, noted commentator Rex Murphy lowers to guns to deck level on the scandal. It should be noted that Murphy is a former man of the left, having served in the leadership of the Liberal Party in Newfoundland.
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Landrieu: I’ll Vote for New Government Health Care, If You Fix Old Government Health Care
by Mike FlynnThere has been a lot of talk about Sen. Mary Landrieu’s new-found 100 million reasons to support Sen. Reid’s health care bill. As she channeled her inner-Hamlet about whether or not she would support her majority Leader on a procedural vote today, Sen. Landrieu won language that would pump at least another $100 million into Louisiana’s Medicaid system.
Many have framed this as Sen. Landrieu “selling” her vote, which makes me think that she’s a pretty cheap date. When fully implemented, the Reid health care plan–under the most optimistic assumptions–will cost at least $200 billion a year. An extra $100 million here or there is a rounding error. $100 million is what you get to vote for the Postal Reauthorization, not the most sweeping revamp of our nation’s health care delivery system. If I were cast in the role of one of the “undecideds” on this bill, which to Sen. Reid is numbers one, two and three on his priority list, I’d hold out for at least $1 billion. But then, I’m from Illinois.
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Obama Stimulus Numbers: The Return of Enron-Style Accounting
by Mike FlynnThe Sarbanes-Oxley Law was rushed through Congress in the wake of an enormous corporate accounting scandal that shook Wall Street and investors across the country. CEO’s and officers at several large companies were found to have “cooked the books”; i.e. knowingly falsified earnings statements to maintain stock prices or propel them higher. The practice came to be known as, Enron-Style Accounting.
The new law had many provisions, but one of its more sweeping was the requirement that corporate officers and executives assume personal responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of financial reports. In some cases, corporate officers could face civil or even criminal penalties if the numbers they reported to the public turned out to be inaccurate.
If only the law applied to politicians.
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Obama’s Shock Troops: SEIU and Political Intimidation in St. Louis
by Mike FlynnYesterday, Pastor Himes provided powerful, and courageous, witness to the union violence he and his wife saw in St. Louis on August 6th. They provided strong testament to the union attack on Kenneth Gladney. But, his comments only dealt with the events of that day. Evidence is emerging that the events of that day went far beyond St. Louis and may have been part of a nationally orchestrated campaign to intimidate and silence dissent.
When Congress went into its summer recess at the end of July, an organic movement erupted to protest Congressional proposals to inject government deeper into our health care system. The ferocity of citizen’s reactions caught most congressmen off-guard. The citizen’s spontaneous protests against Congress dominated the news coverage. It was only a matter of time until the left struck back,.
On the morning of August 6th, Sam Stein reported at the Huffington Post that labor unions had released a comprehensive memo, detailing tactics to counter what were called “town hall protestors”. That same day, a White House official said to reporters, “If you get hit, we will punch back twice as hard.”
Those both happened the morning of the assault on Kenneth Gladney. Is it any surprise that on the specific day that Big Labor and the White House signaled a commitment to ‘punch back’ at the town hall protests, an innocent bystander, Kenneth Gladney, was brutally beaten?
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The Long, Dark Tea-Time of the GOP’s Soul
by Mike FlynnThe withdrawal of Dede Scozzafava from the special election for Congress in upstate New York has predictably set off another wave of media-led hand-wringing about the health of the GOP. (See here and here, for example.) These stories are like crack for reporters, especially those with a hard-left slant. It is always framed as a battle between ‘conservatives’ and ‘moderates,’ but the focus is actually much narrower.
To Big Media, conservatism comes in only one flavor, social conservatism, namely anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage and a smattering of other issues that would fall flat over canapés and seltzer (liberals don’t seem to drink anymore). That Dede was pro-choice and pro-gay marriage fits the narrative perfectly for the media. End of story.
But, the media, and political leaders would be wise to dig a bit deeper into the story. Yes, Dede was pro-choice and pro-gay marriage, but she was also pro-government spending, pro-taxes and pro-Big Labor, to name just a few other issues. When a Republican candidate regularly seeks out the endorsement of ACORN and wins the endorsement of DailyKos, it isn’t much of a stretch to imagine that large segments of the party might have some misgivings about supporting the candidate. (And they would be right, since she has now endorsed the Democrat in the race.)
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That Unhinged Florida Reporter: Act II
by Mike FlynnOn Friday, we brought you the story of the little reporter who could…corner the market on nuttiness in under 5 sentences. As rants go, it was pretty impressive. What it lacked in eloquence or, even, coherance, it made up in pounds of rage per square inch. (Since the reporter so clearly aligns himself with the Democrat party, the rant does beg the question: Dude, why so angry? “Your side” controls everything in Washington and most states by a wide margin. Given the current state of the GOP, they are the least of your worries.)
These days, uncovering the fact that a reporter has a strong leftist political bias is a ‘dog bites man’ story. What was surprising, though, is that he felt perfectly comfortable expressing his rage through his work e-mail, in response to an elected official’s press release. (He even sent the email in the middle of the afternoon, suggesting that the three-martini lunch is alive and well in the Florida Keys.)
Most editors, one imagines, would typically frown on their journalists displaying such raw partisan anger. The reporter’s boss, Tom Tuell, however, isn’t like most editors…
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High Noon in New York 23rd: A Ref Would Have Called It By Now. Time to Dump Dede
by Mike FlynnOnce upon a time, ‘Republican’ Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava was the front-runner in the special election to replace actual Republican Rep. John McHugh. That was then, the video below is now:
In politics, a good rule-of-thumb is that the candidate calling for more debates is the candidate that is losing. It usually means they are just about out of money and need staged, public events to even hope to get their message out. For a big government liberal like Dede, it figures she would resort to this. It seems noone is buying what she’s selling, so she’s trying to orchestrate her own bailout. That is fairly typical.
What isn’t typical, however, is her campaign’s apparent–and total–lack of competence. Who stages a press conference and fails to control its visuals? City council races in Nebraska have more discipline.
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The Mau-Mauing of Rush
by Mike FlynnRush took to the pages of the Wall Street Journal to address the mau-mauing that scuttled his NFL dreams. Personally, I’m a little mystified why Rush would want to own part of a football team. Oversized, preening and pampered athletes set in strictly defined roles and running elaborately orchestrated “plays” designed by a full bureaucracy of coaches seems, frankly, I dunno…unAmerican. Quite unlike the other football, where there are no plays, few coaches and wide latitude for individual initiative and improvisation. (How did we get stuck with the collectivist top-down heavy sport?) But, to each his own.
Of course the NFL is a private institution which can invite–or deny–whomever they’d like to join their owners’ club. But the manner in which Rush was sidelined is, at best, distasteful and definitely more than a little troubling. Alas, it was also utterly predictable. To wit:
Shortly thereafter, the media elicited comments from the likes of Al Sharpton. In 1998 Mr. Sharpton was found guilty of defamation and ordered to pay $65,000 for falsely accusing a New York prosecutor of rape in the 1987 Tawana Brawley case. He also played a leading role in the 1991 Crown Heights riot (he called neighborhood Jews “diamond merchants”) and 1995 Freddie’s Fashion Mart riot.
Not to be outdone, Jesse Jackson, whose history includes anti-Semitic speech (in 1984 he referred to Jews as “Hymies” and to New York City as “Hymietown” in a Washington Post interview) chimed in. He found me unfit to be associated with the NFL. I was too divisive and worse.
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Fool Me Hundreds of Times: Who Gets to Clean Up ACORN?
by Mike FlynnImagine: In the days following the public revelations of the accounting scandal at Enron, then-CEO Ken Lay convened a news conference. He forcefully expressed his disgust with the actions of his subordinates and vowed to begin “cleaning house” at the company. Taking a few turns to slam the company’s critics and the reporters who had uncovered the scandal, he stressed that, this time, there would be a thorough revamp of the company. He even said that people would be fired! Reassured, reporters, lawmakers and regulators shrugged and went back to their daily lives.
ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis and Former Enron CEO Ken Lay
Substitute Bertha Lewis for Ken Lay and ACORN for Enron, in this hypothetical situation, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what was asked of us at Lewis’ tour-de-force theatrical performance at the National Press Club earlier this week. She alternated between attacking her critics, expressing disgust with the actions of her employees caught on tape by James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles and vowing to pursue a lawsuit against the filmmakers for capturing on film her employees’ misdeeds. Oh, and by the way, she really, really—she means it this time—intends to “clean house” at ACORN.
Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank captured the surreal tableau best:
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