Fluffer to the Bush Administration, David B. Rifkin: "U.S. attorneys are emanations of a president's will."

vs.

"The oath of office is taken by the by all executive and judicial officers, as well as all Federal government employees. It reads as follows:

I (name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God."

Find me the word "president" in that oath. Go ahead. I'll wait.

(Via TPM.)

I'm no economist, so I probably don't have any business commenting on this. Of course, I'm going to anyway. The NYT has an article on the "new tycoons of a new Gilded age." As you might expect, there are some wealthy types who believe that incomes should be made more equitable through higher taxes. And then of course there are others who say "uh, not so fast, comrade."

But I enjoyed the quotes from this one guy. I don't think he realizes he is contradicting himself in the "paper of record":

[...] Kenneth C. Griffin, who received more than $1 billion last year as chairman of a hedge fund, the Citadel Investment Group, declared: “The money is a byproduct of a passionate endeavor.”

[...] His own team at Citadel, he said, “loves the problems they work on and the challenges inherent to their business.”

[...]

“The income distribution has to stand,” Mr. Griffin said, adding that by trying to alter it with a more progressive income tax, “you end up in problematic circumstances. In the current world, there will be people who will move from one tax area to another. I am proud to be an American. But if the tax became too high, as a matter of principle I would not be working this hard.”

Eh, Kenneth? Thought you said it wasn't about the money, big guy. What, those challenging problems, that passionate endeavor, those are lessened by that looming knowledge that Uncle Sam is going to get another 4% or 5% come tax time?

Gotta work on that rhetoric, sir.