Dan K. Thomasson

THOMASSON: Unions in driver’s seat?

What American needs the most right now is a responsible Congress whose members put aside their own well-being and those of their narrow constituencies for the collective good. But, hey, don't hold your breath, especially if you're Barack Obama and you have big plans to create 3 million new jobs and spend nearly a trillion dollars doing so.

January 7, 2009

THOMASSON: SEC in the hot seat

With the disclosure of the gigantic swindle perpetrated by some dude most Americans never heard of - Bernard L. Madoff - one doesn't have to look hard to find at least a partial enabler in this stultifying drama. It is, of course, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the institution created during the Great Depression to stop just such an activity.

January 5, 2009

THOMASSON: Euphoria for how long?

Peter Hart, the veteran and highly respected Democratic pollster, talks almost reverentially about the political benefits that accrue to politicians from an association with Barack Obama. Nearness to the president-elect, he says, is worth at least 5 percentage points to any aspiring candidate. It is an illusion of near Messianic proportions, the therapeutic results of a touching of the hem.

January 3, 2009

THOMASSON: Felt was just one FBI leaker

In the summer and fall of 1972, the FBI, in turmoil over the death of its longtime director J. Edgar Hoover in May of that year, was literally leaking like a sieve about the burgeoning implications of the break-in at the Democratic national headquarters in the Watergate complex.

December 24, 2008

THOMASSON: Familiar graft scenario

The sheer monotony of it is overwhelming. A once-popular politician turns out to be corrupt - or at least has aspirations of being so, but may have been more inept than successful at it - often after promising to clean up government. Over and over again, history repeats the scenario.

December 14, 2008

THOMASSON: Guns in the parks

As a parting shot from the Bush administration, courtesy of the gun lobby, those who seek the solitude and beauty of some national parks and wildlife refuges will face the fact that the visitor standing next to them just may be packing heat and is ready to use it at the first sign of any unfriendliness, such as an argument over a camping space.

December 13, 2008

THOMASSON: Paid well for doing badly

This could only happen in America. The insurance giant AIG that is more than a little responsible for the current economic crisis reportedly has decided to lay out $503 million of early deferred compensation to top employees so they won't abandon a ship being kept afloat only by billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars.

November 20, 2008

THOMASSON: Saving Detroit

Not too long ago most Americans accepted the adage that what is good for General Motors is good for the nation. That symbolic concept of U.S. industrial might certainly has slipped dramatically over the last four decades, but at this moment it just may be truer than ever.

November 16, 2008

THOMASSON: No knockouts

If the final presidential debate were a boxing match, and in many ways debates are, one would have to score it as relatively even. That is not what Republican John McCain needed, not by a long shot.

October 19, 2008

THOMASSON: Open license to snoop

This is a cautionary tale. In 1947, Gen. William "Wild Bill" Donovan proposed a new agency for gathering intelligence to replace the Office of Strategic Services OSS that he headed so successfully in helping win World War II. The legendary spymaster would have been the logical choice to lead an effort at the forefront of the fight against communism throughout the Cold War.

October 9, 2008