Mr. President:  Rahm Emanuel has left to run for Mayor in Chicago.  In an
elaborate send-off ceremony for a Chief-of-Staff you lauded him for his public
service; of course, one can hardly forget his short stay with the investment
bankers Wasserstein-Parella after leaving the Clinton Administration.  In two and
a half years at the bank, he was included in eight deals earning him $16.2 million.  
A singular achievement made even more remarkable by his qualifications:  he has
a BA in Liberal Arts, a Masters in Speech and Communication, and no legal or
business experience to contribute.  Also, for a 14-month stint on the Board at
Freddie-Mac just before it went belly-up, he received $320,000.  It was during his
time on the board supposedly overseeing shareholders interest, that Freddie-
Mac was found guilty of overstating earnings to ensure executive bonuses.  
Unlike the Daleys, who have always lived in a modest part of Chicago, Rahm grew
up in the affluent North Shore lakefront suburb of Wilmette, where income is
three times the national average and houses similarly priced.

The other prominent departure, Larry Summers, returns to Harvard in December
where rules would have lost him tenure if he had been absent longer.  He made
only $10 million in consulting and speaking fees from the banks after leaving the
Clinton Administration.  Among other things, he is famous for his irascible phone
call to Brooksley Born (the distinguished Stanford lawyer heading the CFTC who
wanted to regulate the toxic derivatives that finally brought the house down) in
the presence of 13 bankers who claimed regulation would cause irreparable
harm to the industry and economy.  Mr. Summers led the chorus shouting down
Ms. Born and we know what happened.  He helped pass the Commodity Futures
Modernization Act of 2000 barring the regulation of those self-same derivatives,
and Ms. Born's fears were proven correct.  No matter, Mr. Summers' consulting
yielded well and will surely continue to do so.  No surprise then that the Financial
Reform Bill has no real teeth to prevent the recurrence of another crisis and the
derivatives remain unregulated.  And no surprise also in the tepid support for
Democrats by a public seeing little change.  The fact is, Democrats have to
decide if they wish to be Republican-lite, just more benign overseers of
capitalism, or want to stand for something substantial like a more equitable
society brought about by a fundamental change in the balance of power and
wealth.

The wars continue unabated.  The civilian toll in Iraq is not unknown; it is not in
the 'tens of thousands' the phrase most often used; it has been established as
exceeding a million by the best demographic science known and has been
reported in peer-reviewed articles in the prestigious journal Lancet that has over
a century-long history.

In Af-Pak helicopters in "hot pursuit" crossed over into Pakistan territory and
killed three lightly-armed border guards.  The Pakistani public is incensed.  The
Government has closed down several border crossings into Afghanistan and 27
truck tankers bringing aviation fuel for our forces have been attacked and
destroyed.  The drone strikes continue.  Having lost the hearts and minds of the
Pushtuns in Afghanistan, we are working on their brethren (and the rest of the
population) in Pakistan.

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