KCRW'S Left Right & Center 12.12.08

GOP to Detroit-NO! Oy Blagojevich! Obama Nominees

All four are with us today. And the Senate GOP rejection of the House/Admin deal is top of the news. All believe that W's "kick the can down the road" of taking the a portion of the banks' TARP and applying it to the auto bailout is inevitable, but Arianna marvels at the double standard that allow the banks to get free money while Detroit and its workers could hang themselves with the attached strings. Illinois governor Blagojevich: what more need we say? Bob takes the opportunity to condemn the media for hoisting this story above the other important news, like Afghanistan and the reporter condemning Bush admin for use of torture. Arianna says the whole thing's more fascinating psychologically than politically citing Julius Caesar (the fault is not in our stars but in ourselves), while Tony says Rahm Emanuel and other Obama transition team members seem act as if they have something to worry about. He reminded us that Nixon didn't know about Watergate but got in trouble when he tried to cover it up. And in the energy arena, is Dr. Steven Chu, noted and respected physicist and Obama's nominee, a mad scientist? We know he wants to make gas prohibitively expensive--but electricity, too? Is he nuts? Or right?