Today, speaking of the bonuses, Obama says, “I, like most of the American people, don’t begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free-market system.”

Not that long ago he was calling those bonuses obscene and shameful.

Which is it?

Larry Summers was in full support of anything that the Wall Street casinos wanted. Tuesday he was calling it the “bloated financial system” as he claimed to support Obama’s plan to develop strict regulatory controls.

Which is it?

Larry may have decided it was momentarily more politic to go along after Obama seemed to finally put Volcker in the driver’s seat. It is difficult to credit this apparent 180 from a career dedicated to the complete absence of regulation. It is also difficult to credit Volcker’s advancement absent the firing of Summers and Geithner.

So, Larry’s zig, or zag, is easily understandable. What about Obama’s?

I am beginning to try to apply a combination of psychological and political approaches to the President’s multifarious positions. His oft-stated desire for political comity, i.e., bipartisanship, seems to be more deep-seated than a mere political position.

His approach, however, seems to be to stake out a position on what people usually, superficially refer to as the left, then follow that with a position, equally superficially, referred to a being of the right. Is he hoping that people will average them out? Is he hoping he is defining the range of positions? Neither seems realistic.

Leaders lead. Leaders do that by issuing clear-cut marching orders. Confusion is destructive of effective leadership. The general public needs a slogan. It needs something that fits on a bumper sticker. Complexity lends itself to easy attacks.

We have a perfect example before us. Medicare-For-All is simple, easy to understand. Two thousand pages of intentionally obscure prose meant to hide an even greater ripoff by the health industry has confused the public. Complexity simply offers more targets. It is more difficult, if not impossible, to defend.

Beyond simplicity, the public needs drama. It needs spectacle. Look at what is most successful at the movie theater: car chases, explosions, computer graphics, 3-D. Avatar garnered a “Best Movie” nomination. It did so without accruing a single nomination for any of what are considered to be essential elements of a best movie. Where are its nominations for writing, acting, directing, etc?

Ostentatiously firing Larry, Tiny Tim, Rahm Emanuel and a few others would catch the public’s attention. It would indicate to them an as yet unseen degree of firmness. It would engrave a line in stone, rather than drawing a line in disappearing ink.

Giving Congressional Democrats their marching orders instead of hinting that he might be willing to go with reconciliation or recess appointments, if forced into it, would be dramatic. It would be seen as leadership. People will only follow a leader if they think he is leading. Other politicians and media mavens may find the nuances of congressional maneuvering fascinating. John Q. Citizen does not.

Professors of Constitutional Law can get by without being famous for their leadership skills. Those skills are not requirements for the backbenchers in Congress. They are necessary to command the potential of the bully pulpit. When times are tough, the people become desperate for leadership. That desperation in troubled times explains why the Germans accepted Adolph Schickelgruber. If good men don’t provide the needed leadership, the people will turn to almost anyone claiming to provide it. Have you heard of the Teabaggers?

Leaders also need an enemy. The Republicans are benefiting from the fact that they have identified an enemy. Why are they questioning Obama’s birth certificate? Why are they constantly calling him by the names of past enemies? They are giving their dupes an enemy. Obama needs to give his followers an enemy. He needs to quit trying to bring to the table one or two of those mythical, reasonable Republicans. Declare them the enemy. That should be easy, as they have already self-identified themselves so.

They accuse him of being soft on terror. He could, with greater accuracy, call them soft on the Constitution.

Exhibit a backbone. Give us a bumper sticker. Identify the enemy. Rid himself of the dead weights. Issue a call to arms. He would be pleasantly surprised how much more productive his administration can be.

Let me say that, as a former politician and someone degreed in political science, the above represents what I know to be the reality, the Realpolitik. I wish it were different. I wish the public was politically sophisticated enough to understand the complexities of the issues. I wish they were able to sit back, unemotionally, and evaluate the statements and actions of politicians of all stripes. The problem is that we live in the real world. We rarely get our druthers.

I want our country to succeed. I therefore want Obama to succeed. His presence in the Oval Office has been grounds for hope, hope for change. But, however needful we are of hope, it does not guarantee change. The change has to begin with him. He must change before he can lead the country to the change it needs. Oration is a great tool of leadership but few complex projects require only one tool.

By the way, Obama should have learned enough by now not to throw around the term free market without understanding its meaning. Perhaps, if he replaced his economic team of ideologues, he could find someone to provide the real definition.

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We need to send some senators to Guantanamo. They are far more dangerous to our country than any of the people already in residence there.

I’m certain you have at least heard the name of Christopher Bond, Senator from Missouri. You, however, may be forgiven for not recognizing Martha Johnson’s name.

Miss Martha was the President’s nominee to head up the General Services Administration. It’s difficult to think of a political appointment to a less political position. The GSA is primarily the nation’s landlord and maintenance arm. They do the grunt work so that government employees have a roof over their heads.

What connection is there between these two?

Little Chris (Kit) was pissed about something to do with a new Federal building in Kansas City. So, he did what any grammar school kid would do. He took “his” ball and refused to let the others play. He put a hold on her nomination.

Believe it or not, the Democrats finally showed some backbone and forced a vote. What was the outcome of this controversial nomination? She was confirmed: 96-0.

Senators are so impressed with themselves that they refer to the Senate as the world’s most exclusive club. Sometimes they call it the world’s most exclusive debating club. One problem – they no longer debate. They just pose for the cameras and talk past each other.

Given how impressed they are with themselves, they feel they deserve special privileges. So, they give themselves a bunch of special considerations. My problem with that, beyond the attitude that engenders it, is that essentially all of these privileges are anti-democratic. Somehow that doesn’t seem meet in, arguably, the world’s most successful democracy.

The privilege pertinent to the above embarrassment is the rule that permits any Senator to put a hold on any nominee or bill, for any reason, or for no reason. Any single Senator can put the whole country on hold, at his pleasure. It this any way to run an airline?

Now, another Senator has taken the next illogical step. He has put a hold on all nominations. Who is this terrorist? He goes by the American-sounding name of Richard Shelby. Unsurprisingly, he comes out of Alabama, our leading state – at least alphabetically.

Surely there is a serious national danger that calls for such a drastic measure. What could it be?

Old Dick wants a government contract to go to a defense contractor who would do assembly work on a new tanker back home in Alabama. I’m convinced that he merely wants government-funded jobs for his constituents. It has nothing to do with his being on the contractor’s payroll.

Actually, the Dick has another reason, as well. He wants the FBI to build an explosives testing facility in Alabama. We mustn’t locate such a facility too conveniently to the FBI’s primary offices in Virginia. That would only help one part of the government function more efficiently. That would violate one of his “conservative” tenants.

The Dick is famous for how tentative his tenants can be. He once pontificated, “Far too many of the president’s nominees were never afforded an up or down vote because several Democrats chose to block the process for political gain.” That, of course, was when Bush had a majority of Republicans in the Senate.

Another rule has become a “privilege.” That is the rule requiring a super majority. When the Democrats had 60 votes, that meant any Democratic Senator could stand in the way until he/she got what they wanted. That worked out so well we ended up with a joke called a healthcare reform bill. It was more like a ménages à cent.

Now, with the Republicans having 41 votes, one of that group can either stop the majority or broker a deal to get what they want. What about what the people want? Silly question.

How do they justify these privileges? They sometimes resort to calling them a part of the system of checks and balances. Pure BS.

The Constitution provides for several checks and balances. There are what are considered to be the main ones: between the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches. We also have another between the two branches of Congress. The primary one was to be between the people, on the one hand, and Congress and the White House on the other. That one has been effectively eliminated by the Senate.

There are several ways to eliminate these anti-democratic privileges. The Vice President could, at the beginning of the next session, declare them eliminated. It seems he is not so inclined. The Senate Majority Leader could also lead. Not much chance of that.

The Constitution begins, “We the People.” Forget the Constitution. The Rules of the Senate take precedence. The people have been beaten into complete submission. Do you really think the people are prepared to take time away from their 50″ flat screens and video games to regain the power promised by the Constitution? Sure, there are the teabaggers but they are a thankfully small group of yoyos that are too easily led by faux populists such as Dick Armey and the corporate interests he represents. They are ready and willing to blindly follow con men to support policies that are against their real self-interests.

It doesn’t make much sense to depend on such as the corporately mislead teabaggers to help rid us of the corporate-owned legislators. What is the solution? Realistically, there seems not to be one. They say knowledge is power. How I wish that were true.

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I am going on a little trip. This coming Saturday I will be off on the first leg – to North Carolina. I depart from New York on Sunday.

It has been some time since I last visited Scotland; 1971, in fact. I lucked out and left the States the day after Nixon allowed the Dollar to float. No one had any idea how much it was worth relative to any other currency. It was a time ripe for ripoffs.

I exchanged some pocket money at Kennedy Airport prior to departure – a ripoff. Luckily, the Royal Bank of Scotland had a branch in the airport at Prestwick. It turned out to be about the best rate available anywhere. Later, we learned that the biggest gougers were the American hotels in London.

With both Crawford and Harris being Scottish names, it should be no surprise that my genealogy points in that direction. Other family names include Fraser (from around Loch Ness), McJunkin (Scot-Irish) and Morgan (Welsh, but also Gaelic).

The most success in tracing our genealogy has come with the Frasers. In that part of our family was a U.S. Representative, his father, a Governor and Senator. Further back, Simon Fraser, chief adjutant to William Wallace, he of Braveheart fame was found to be in our family.

I will be visiting Sterling, site of the famous Wallace victory of Sterling Bridge. Braveheart was a wonderful movie but atrocious history. Its Battle of Sterling Bridge was filmed in Ireland, with no bridges anywhere in the vicinity. I will also visit Culloden Battlefield, site of a horrific defeat for the forces of the Jacobite Rising of 1745. It was the last battle fought on British soil.

It is also where we got the phrase ‘beyond the pale.’ Pale means white or light-colored. It came to be used as referring to a paling fence. Then such a fence became a pale, meaning a safe enclosed area. Being ‘beyond the pale’ was to be in a bad situation. There was a pale at Culloden.

Our Harris family is a sept, or sub-clan, under the Clan McLeod. There is an Isle of Harris. You may have heard of Harris Tweed, sometimes called iron cloth. The name is protected by the British Crown.

The lead picture is of the rear of the Castle Dunvegan, home of the head of the clan. It has been the home of that family for over 800 years. That makes it the residence continuously occupied for the longest period of any in the world. Immediately above is a picture of its entrance.

While the interiors for the recent movie, Maid of Honor, were filmed at Dunvegan, the exteriors were of a nearby castle, Eilean Donan. It is the most photographed castle in Scotland.

Much of the staff of the Castle Dunvegan was used as extras in the movie.

I will be taking a netbook, a laptop, a video camera and a still camera. If I have a few down moments, I may try to post a few pictures and a minimal travelogue. Don’t count on it though. I hope to spend my time enjoying what likely will be my last visit there.

My hope is that it won’t be the last. While there I will be contacting literary agents and booking agents. It would be great if I am able to put together a book tour. That might pay for a return and a 2-3 month tour of Europe. Wouldn’t that be nice?

My wife refuses to fly. But, she says, she is concerned that I might enjoy myself so much that I would decide to remain over there. No, it wouldn’t be for the universal healthcare. After all, I am on Medicare.

More likely it would be due to the beauty of the country, the sense of history, and the chance to get away from the birthers, the deathers and the teabaggers.

Don’t begin celebrating prematurely. I’ll be back.

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