Byrne: Obama's lean into GOP territory

Who are these guys?

Barack Obama and his agents are looking more and more like Mitt Romney and the Republicans that Team Obama maligned to win the presidential election.

I'm not just talking about last week's gone-viral Oval Office photo of senior advisers Obama has lined up for his second term. So far, they're all men, except for Valerie Jarrett ? a New York Times photo caption assured us that's her leg "just visible in front of the desk." Barely visible, I'd say. But I take the Times' word that it's Jarrett's leg. They probably know better than I.

There are other signs of liberal apostasy popping up all around. It's as if Democrats, including the now filthy rich Al Gore, have been bitten by a Republican werewolf and transmuted overnight into GOP wing nuts.

What fun, watching liberal apologists on Sunday ? like those on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos ? trying to justify the male appointees by arguing that sometimes merit, the need for fresh ideas, fresh energy and the times we live in require "looking like America" be put aside. How Republican.

That merit-over-gender argument reminded Joe Scarborough on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" of the ridicule heaped on Mitt Romney and the "binders full of women" that he considered for appointments when he was governor of Massachusetts. "So Mika," Scarborough said to co-host Mika Brzezinski, "I think Mitt Romney should FedEx that binder of women that he has to Barack Obama."

The binders issue, Scarborough said, was a "fake controversy that liberals churned up for a month. And now that Barack Obama ? again, I hate to say this because it gets so tiresome saying it ? if a Republican in 2013 had a Cabinet that looked like that ? that Republican would be savaged."

Nice try Joe, but liberals don't even hear themselves.

They ripped George W. Bush for the money he collected from government and rich donors for his inaugural hoopla, but turn a blind eye to the $170 million or more that will be spent on Obama's inauguration. Unlike 2009, when individual and corporate donations were capped at $50,000, this year individual and corporate donations are unlimited. And some biggies are giving bundles.

Where are the liberal rages against Big Business and the filthy rich's influence now?

Liberal bluster was all but invisible when Obama insisted that corporate tax breaks be included in the deal that pulled America back from the fiscal cliff. Beneficiaries of this largesse are huge outfits like GE, Caterpillar, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, racetracks, railroads, Hollywood film companies and rum producers, among others.

Then we come to Gore, the former vice president who has made millions investing heavily in companies that benefit directly from his legendary green advocacy. The Washington Post reported that he was worth less than $2 million when he left government in 2001, but now his wealth is estimated at $300 million.

Said the Post, "Fourteen green-tech firms in which Gore invested received or directly benefited from more than $2.5 billion in loans, grants and tax breaks, part of President Obama's historic push to seed a U.S. renewable-energy industry with public money."

Talk about leaving a rich man's Bigfoot carbon footprint: His energy-guzzling mansion, use of a private jet and limo to preach self-sacrifice as the only planet-saver, the father of four instructing that smaller families are necessary to save the planet.

Selling his share of the failing cable channel Current TV to Al-Jazeera and harvesting a cool $100 million makes Gore worth more than Mitt Romney, according to Forbes magazine. The source of this boon is that nasty fossil fuel money, but never mind.

Obama hasn't been sworn in for his second term, and he and some Democrats already are looking like they're moving into the GOP neighborhood. Hypocrisy? Sure. But it only demonstrates that when rhetoric is done, Democrats are doing what comes naturally ? making money and picking people based on their competence instead of political correctness.

Dennis Byrne, a Chicago writer, blogs in The Barbershop in chicagonow.com. dennis@dennisbyrne.net

Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/ct-oped-0115-byrne-20130115,0,1217485.column?track=rss

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