The Political Whore

By Peter Schweitzer
PoHo contributor

UPDATE 8:46 a.m.: Barack Obama will announce later this morning his selection of Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the Federal Appeals Court as his nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, The New York Times reports. If confirmed by the Senate she will be the third woman on the court and the first Hispanic justice.

The MSM will undoubtedly cast Obama’s first Supreme Court choice in terms of liberal vs. conservative. While the consequences of Barack Obama’s decision will have political overtones, the real debate centers around how the document in question (the U.S. Constitution) should be interpreted.

In the one camp, there’s Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas.

In the other, Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and John Paul Stevens are firmly situated.

And Obama could announce the next member of the high court as early as today.

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It’s not unexpected news that General Motors today started notifying some 1,100 dealers that they no longer want to do business with them, as we’re learning today, so why does President Barack Obama’s minions feel the need to euphemize the job losses?

Here is the top of the news release from Treasury:

Treasury Department Statement
on GM Dealer Consolidation Announcement

WASHINGTON – Today, General Motors initiated the dealer consolidation plan it laid out in its interim plan on April 27, 2009.

Under that terminology, we’ve got one helluva jobs consolidation situation going on right now.

The real story, from CNN/Money:

General Motors notified 1,100 of its 6,000 dealerships Friday that it is terminating their contracts with the struggling automaker, the first step in cutting up to 40% of its retail network.

GM spokeswoman Susan Garontakos said that the dealers receiving notice Friday are being told that their contracts will not be renewed in October 2010. Many of them are expected to close shop this year.

The shockwaves from the government-labor takeover at Chrysler is reverberating in the Tampa Bay area, as seven dealerships are set to be closed as part of nearly 800 dealer closings across the nation.

The local dealerships are:

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CNBC’s reputation-damaged investment show host Jim Cramer just told The Today Show that the “banking nightmare” is over as a result of the stress tests on banks being released today.

His point? That even though a few banks still need billions to shore up their balance sheets, they are making money and likely can raise those extra funds in the market – not from taxpayers.

Bloomberg reports that the market indeed likes the results of the financial stress tests:

Stocks rallied after the news, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Financials Index to its highest level in four months. The results are the culmination of weeks of investigations, led by the Federal Reserve, into the banks’ lending practices, funding strategies and securities and loan portfolios.

“The markets are telling us we’re in a recovery and the banks are beginning to heal,” William Isaac, former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., said in an interview today. The end of the stress tests after “three months of water torture” is providing investors some relief, he said.

The regulators put an emphasis in their reviews on tangible common equity, and will give firms needing bigger reserves six months to meet their requirements. Citigroup’s assessment reflects the New York-based bank’s previously announced plan to convert some of its preferred shares into common stock.