Daily Kos Stupidity

I'm a regular reader at DailyKos, though I never know whether I'll get my fair share of chuckles or an urge to up-chuck. I recently had a reaction that was somewhere between the two as I read a diary entitled "A Gift You Can Give Yourself: A Democratic Cabinet."

First off, talk about counting your chickens before you hatch, even as a motivational tool. That was a chuckle.

Some of the diarist's nominations then provoked an up-chuck. Russ Feingold for AG? Jim Webb for SecDef? Joe Biden for Secretary of State is somewhere between the two; I imagine we'd soon find our ambassador to New Delhi expelled after a crack about Indian being a country of more than a billion potential 7-11 managers.

And then I hit the writer's suggestion for Secretary of the Treasury, and I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but I knew that I had to quote it in full:

Denise Nappier (CT)

Why always someone from Wall Street? Denise Nappier has been Connecticut's State Treasurer since 1998 and has more experience than most of Wall Street (and would maybe be a little more independent from Wall Street, just saying).

Why always someone from Wall Street? Because when the economy's behaving like a sick puppy, you need a Wall Streeter to convince Wall Street that the sky isn't falling. Because the job of the Treasury Secretary is basically to be a liaison to Wall Street and an outsider isn't going to do a good job of it. Mine is a poor explanation, but it's one of those that if you don't get it, there's no helping you. While we're at it, I'm sure my town manager would be a great pick for Fed Chairman when Bernanke steps down.

But you know what's also remarkable? Not a single Republican in the lot - not even a Dick Lugar or Chuck Hagel ("R"). Hell even a Republican would find one or two Dems for his cabinet - Joe Lieberman and Zell Miller obviously jump to mind first, but it'd be difficult to get a non-Democratic HUD Secretary through Congress, to name one example. Which of course will be a whole new can of worms; if a Republican wins the White House, Democrats will ensure that he's got no Cabinet to govern with.