A quick look at what Eric Holder’s public statements on the issues swirling around the Bush Justice Department suggest about his potential tenure as attorney general.
The old rascal finally admits defeat in Alaska’s protracted election process.
Today was the first day recounting in Minnesota. And Al Franken made up some decent ground against Norm Coleman. The day started with Coleman ahead by 215 votes. And after recounting 18% of the precincts, Franken had picked up 41 votes, bringing the deficit to 174. As you can see, that’s about the pace Franken has to keep up if he’s going to catch up with Coleman. But of course there’s no reason to think that the ‘pace’ tomorrow will be better or worse than today. So there’s still really no telling what’s happening.
Another point to keep in mind is that these shifts are in ballots that neither side disputed. In other words, these were changes based on based on ballots where the voter intent was clear enough that neither campaign questioned it. There’s a whole other pile of ballots that one or the other campaign challenged. And those won’t get looked at until mid-December.
According to the Star-Tribune, Coleman’s people challenged 146 today and Franken’s 123.
From Reuters …
Citigroup Inc faced a crisis of confidence on Wednesday as investors questioned the survival prospects of the U.S. banking giant, and its shares tumbled 23 percent to a 13-year low.
The second-largest U.S. bank by assets has been reeling on concerns that mounting losses from credit cards, mortgages and toxic debt could overwhelm its efforts to slash costs and add deposits. Last month, Wells Fargo & Co dealt a blow by derailing Citigroup’s bid to buy Wachovia Corp.
Citigroup shares closed down $1.96 at $6.40 on the New York Stock Exchange and have fallen 33 percent this week as some investors concluded that Chief Executive Vikram Pandit’s plan to shed 52,000 jobs and cut expenses by one-fifth won’t restore the bank to health.
“People are looking at their business model and wondering how on earth they’re going to be able to survive,” said William Larkin, a fixed-income manager at Cabot Money management in Salem, Massachusetts.
Investors cheer as Saudi Prince buys bigger stake in Citigroup.
Last night I was mulling a ‘deep thought’ post suggesting that GM should just reorganize as a bank holding company and get TARP funds that way. Looks like I snarked too soon.
In our new economic era, I think we need a new catchphrase for CEOs like Mack Whittle of the South Financial Group, who pushed up his retirement ahead of schedule so he could bag his mega-Golden parachute a few weeks before he sent his company hat in hand to the government for bailout funds.
Total bailout for Whittle’s company: $347 million. Total parachute for Whittle: $18 million.
Seriously, what’s the catchphrase? Because I think we’re going to see a lot of this.
Late Update: The unfortunate truth is that the tried and true ‘golden parachute’ is an even better name for what these new guys are doing than what we’ve usually known as a golden parachute. But since that’s already taken, we must look elsewhere. The best entry I’ve seen so far is TPM Reader RB’s ‘bail jumping.’ Or, as I might shift the words around, ‘jumping bail.’
Latter Update: Perhaps just TPM Reader LP’s simple ‘Golden Bailout’?
Late High Altitude Update: A slew of readers mention some play or another on the name D.B. Cooper, which is extremely clever and really captures what the game is, though I fear may be too obscure for the younger set.
Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano is reportedly Obama’s pick for Homeland Security secretary. That and the day’s other transition news in the TPM Election Central Morning Roundup.