Abbreviated Pundit Round-Up

Your one stop pundit shop.

Bob Herbert, as usual, gets it:

Listening to President Obama, I was struck by how well he understands that most voters are not driven by ideology and are not searching for politically orthodox leadership. Most want leaders who speak to their needs — especially in this time of economic crisis — and a government that works.

Republicans in Congress — all but completely united in their effort to build a wall of obstruction in the path of President Obama’s economic revitalization effort — seem to be missing this essential point.

Eugene Robinson say that this is a presidency on steroids, and that:

All Barack Obama wanted was to be president. He may have to become an auto executive, a banker, a mortgage broker and who knows what else before this crisis is done.

Richard Cohen rambles about bipartisanship, and says that all the Republicans who voted against the stimulus were just doing what their constituents wanted. Seriously, Richard?

Amar Bhide warns against "stimulus scaremongers."

Lucien Bebchuk is concerned about executive pay caps:

They weaken executives' incentives to deliver the long-term performance that is needed to benefit banks, the economy, and taxpayers who have injected vast amounts of capital into these institutions.

Well, if their long-term performance hadn't sucked donkey snot, this wouldn't be an issue, would it?

Bruce Fein says that if America doesn't end its infatuation with Obama, "presidential powers will soon be indistinguishable from King George III."

Michael Barone disses the New Deal and says WWII ended the Great Depression. Hasn't that been debunked?

Steven Kaplan gives four reasons where executive pay caps are bad:

• Banks would avoid accepting government assistance unless the situation is grave. Only the worst firms would accept government help.
• Many executives would leave the "bailed-out" banks for jobs that pay more, and the best employees would leave the troubled firms at exactly the wrong time.
• It would be difficult to hire new executives because the best ones would choose other opportunities.
• Stronger firms that have accepted federal money would give it back to avoid the restrictions.

In order: Good, good luck with that, define "best," and great. We could use the money.

Jonah Goldberg worries that journalists are afraid to speak truth to power about the "coalition of the oppressed," a group that includes,"gays, blacks, Latinos, Asians, Jews, feminists, evangelical Christians and the handicapped." And especially Muslims. This column raises two questions: first, does Goldberg actually know any journalists, and two, did he really say "speak truth to power"?