Red Barry Roundup

***Guess who else is running for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination?:

Former GOP presidential candidate [and Arkansas governor] Mike Huckabee in an exclusive Newsmax interview says President Obama’s early job performance is “cause for alarm,” and warns his penchant for talking down the economy is “the worst possible direction he could take.”

Obama’s dark portrayal of the U.S. economy - apparently intended to lower the high expectations stoked by his rhetoric during the campaign - is on the verge of becoming a “self-fulfilling prophecy,” Huckabee adds.

The former Arkansas governor’s criticism followed a week that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a six-year low. The S & P 500, the index that most trading professionals rely on as a market barometer, closed the week at its lowest level in twelve years....

Noting that Obama has lost several high Cabinet appointees due to tax and other issues, Huckabee says early indications regarding the quality of the president’s judgment don’t look promising.

“I think it’s cause for alarm,” Huckabee tells Newsmax. “He seems to be tone deaf to his own music. I was very, very disappointed to see him abandon his own rhetoric, as it relates to transparency, ethics, about a new way of doing things in Washington.

“I mean, on and on he talked about how he wasn’t going to have a Washington run by a bunch of lobbyists, then about every appointment he makes is given the exception clause, [he’s] appointing people and then insisting they get confirmed who didn’t pay their taxes.

“Those are not the kinds of things that inspire confidence in the lives of people out there in the middle of America who aren’t given a free ride to wait years and years until they’re appointed to some federal job before they pay up,” he adds.

Remarkable, isn't it?  The Golden Child may be doing what nobody would have thought possible: building a political market niche for the resurrection of Huckles' economic populism gimmick in a right-wing guise.  Who says False Messiah isn't a miracle-worker?

***If my theory is correct that the Democrats are in a frantic rush to use the 2009-10 biennium to lock in the current political alignment in perpetuity, one of the things they would have to push the crap out of is the "comprehensive immigration reform" legislation that has gotten throttled in the previous two congresses.  Legalizing existing illegals would provide the Donks with twelve million instant new constituents, enough to perhaps turn states as "red" as Arizona and Texas "blue" and electorally bury the GOP for good.

Never mind the overkill of census gerrymandering, gentlebeings; shamnesty would do the job quite well all by itself.

And, sho' nuff....:

Despite the fact that federal, state and local governments are reeling from a fiscal crisis, President Barack Obama is sticking to plans to help an estimated twelve million illegal aliens gain citizenship.

Last week, Obama called into Univision Radio's Eddie "Piolin" Sotelo show, fulfilling a promise to be a guest if elected.

"I promised you that I would be on the show when I was president, and here I am on the show," Obama told Sotelo.

Asked by Sotelo about the issue of immigration, Obama promised action soon.

Obama said: "Well, as I've said every time I’ve been on the show, Piolín, we're going to make sure that we begin the process of dealing with the immigration system that's broken. We're going to start by really trying to work on how to improve the current system so that people who want to be naturalized, who want to become citizens, like you did, that they are able to do it; that it's cheaper, that it's faster, that they have an easier time in terms of sponsoring family members. And then we've got to have comprehensive immigration reform."

Obama added he was "very committed" to move on the immigration issue in the next several months.

Also in more than enough time for the 2010 mid-terms that might otherwise be gearing up for a reprise of 1994.  The prevention of which is doubtless something to which the Chicago Cherubim is also "very committed."

***A message to Bibi, perhaps?:

The respected Foreign Policy magazine's Web site column The Cable reported last week that President Barack Obama is set to appoint a fierce critic of Israel to his National Intelligence Council.

The web site reported: "Sources tell The Cable that Chas W. Freeman, Jr., the former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, will become chairman of the National Intelligence Council, the intelligence community's primary big-think shop and the lead body in producing national intelligence estimates."

The Cable quoted Freeman as telling associates that "he will occasionally accompany Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair to give the president his daily intelligence briefing."

The choice of Freeman, who will reportedly play a key role in shaping U.S. intelligence estimates, has pro-Israel groups in a tizzy.

Perhaps that's why the newly restored Israeli Prime Minister is pledging to "work with" King Hussein.  After all, leaving aside the precariousness of his governing coalition, even Mr. Netanyahu can't afford to bite the hand that's slapping him.

Until it's time to send the IAF into Iran to bomb the mullahs back to the stone age before they can do it to the Jews, anyway.