RedState’s leader and my friend, Erick Erickson, wrote a piece today titled “The Peter Principle”, in which he compares Peter’s thrice denial of Christ to Republicans who dismiss the views of Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, and Dick Cheney. Cheney was at least an elected leader. The others are not.

Rush Limbaugh is not my savior. He is neither my savior for my personal spiritual needs, nor the savior of the Republican party of modern conservatism. Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer. Period. He often says things I agree with, but he is driven by ratings. In order to ensure these ratings, he must incite and inflame. It is his job to keep “the base” irritated and agitated. And in doing so, he very often turns off those in the squishy middle that so many here are willing to purify from the party. The problem is, we need their votes to return from minority status.

Semantics about comparing Peter’s denial of Christ to Republican’s criticizing Limbaugh aside, the larger point of Erickson’s commentary is the suggestion that we should not be attacking our own, but instead be attacking “the left”. Using various references to scripture, he chides those of us who would criticize these modern day apostles:

Their typical means of ostracism is to condemn the rest of us for daring to say nice things about them. Reasons abound for this. Many of these weak minded fools are not really fellow travelers. Like a vulture flying in flock with swans, they benefit from the work the rest of us are doing to gain themselves credibility. The media plays along calling the vultures swans so others, they hope, see ugly ducklings around the vultures instead of swans.

Some mean well. Unfortunately, their high mindedness fractures and divides the rest.

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From the diaries, by Erick.

Today’s New York Times features Paul Krugman continuing his role in Obama propaganda machine while pretending to be an Economist. In today’s installment of “I have a Nobel, so I must know Economics”, Krugman lashes out at “The Destructive Center”.

Before I spend a few paragraphs taking issue with Krugman’s direct points, I think we first have to reflect on how far we’ve come as a country. Just one decade ago, it was a “vast right wing conspiracy” that was the enemy of the left, the only thing holding them back from a collectivist utopia. Today, the “destructive center” is thwarting their attainment of nirvana. These poor guys just can’t seem to catch a break.

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Cross-Posted from Erick’s other little blog, PeachPundit.com

Southern Regional Medical Center is not the only hospital on Atlanta’s South side dealing with the credit crisis and slow economy.   Piedmont Healthcare, operators of Piedmont Hospital in Buckhead, Piedmont Fayette in Fayetteville, Piedmont Mountainside in Jasper, and Piedmont Newan Hospital in Newnan, has halted the construction of their new Newnan campus to replace the aging facilities they currently operate.

Piedmont officials blamed the “current instability of the debt market” in its decision to “pause” the project for the next few months.

“We had planned to go to the bond market to finance most of the project, and there’s just not a market out there now,” Piedmont spokeswoman Nina Montanaro said Thursday. Financing the hospital now “would cost us millions more,” she said.

An update in today’s AJC outlines the problems faced by Southern Regional Medical Center that I posted about earlier.

Without the county’s help, the hospital will likely have to write a $40 million check to SunTrust at the end of the month. The hospital has $48 million in reserves, Bonn said.

But note that while Southern Regional is operating at a small operating loss, the current crisis is their inability to renew existing financing, even though they have enough cash to pay both the existing note, and fund two years of losses at the current burn rate:

The hospital ended the 2008 fiscal year with a $7.07 million loss, $3.76 million of it on hospital operations and the rest from investments, hospital officials said.

These are not two new “Grady” problems of hospitals who have had financial issues for decades without any form of accountability.  Quite the contrary.  Piedmont Healthcare is probalby among the most financially sound organizations in the South.   Given the size of its organization and the community that Southern Regional serves, an operating deficit of less than $4 Million is hardly a signal to pull a panic button, much less shut down the entity.

Both of the above problems stem directly from the on-going credit crisis.   Southern Regional is having its financing pulled from a bank that has received one round of TARP funds for $3.5 Billion, and has decided to go back for an additional $1.4 Billion.   Southern Regional clearly has both the cash available and reserves to service the debt, and yet they can’t get their financing renewed from a bank that the feds are giving $49 Billion in additional borrowing ability.   So, anyone want to say the TARP program is working thus far?

Piedmont’s decision, however, illustrates another angle to the credit crisis.  While headlines abound about interest rates being “near or at zero” this week, the hospital has decided that the cost of borrowed funds would be prohibitively expensive to continue at this time.  Where is the disconnect?  It is in the risk premium.  Banks and other lenders are still afraid that when they lend money, even to the absolute safest customers like a Piedmont Hospital, they still are so afraid that they will not be repaid that they are putting a huge premium on money that they are getting for almost nothing before they will lend it.

While there are many problems facing healthcare providers today, the problems experienced by these two entities are not best illustrated by uninsured patients or by low medicare reimbursements.  They are just two organizations like many others caught in the current credit crisis.

When Piedmont Hospital can not find a lender that will loan them money at an acceptable interest rate in this “low rate” environment, imagine what an average small business must be facing.   Regular posters like UMustBeKidding (auto body) and DrJay (Dentistry) have already presented some issues their businesses are facing.  And available credit to all but the best individuals has essentially disappeared as well.

Fear has replaced rational expectations in today’s credit market.  Stories like the above will become more common in the weeks ahead without a change in direction.  I remain convinced that the federal goverment must get behind some plan to get consumers and businesses the credit they are able to prove they can handle.

There are a lot of easy to explain reasons why Barack Obama probably won’t come to Georgia to campaign on behalf of his newest best friend, Jim Martin. (I say newest because former Senate opponent and DeKalb county CEO Vernon Jones is still taking great pains to point out that Jim Martin voted for John Edwards in the Georgia Presidential Preference Primary, even though Edwards had already dropped out of the race).

Obama is, as he should be, building his team to manage the country through a set of unprecedented crisis. In addition, he may not want to unnecessarily risk capital on a race that is probably a loser for his side. The contrarian in me tells me there is one possible other good reason: Obama doesn’t want Jim Martin in the Senate.

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As the financial and political world continues its hand-wringing in the aftermath of the failed Wall Street bailout bill, the blame game has begun, and financial institutions continue to fail. The Republicans, specifically those in the house, stood firm against a huge transfer of wealth from the taxpayers to failed bankers, as well as a virtually socialized financial system.

Defense is good, but you have to score points to win the game. It’s time to go on offense.

The average voter still has difficulty understanding the complexity of the bailout and its implications. They seem to understand that the direct benefit is a select few, while homeowners remain saddled with property that is declining in value, often with payments they can’t afford. I believe the Republicans should attack the problem from the other side, with a government guaranteed mortgage refinance program. The benefit to Wall Street should be as great or greater, but market forces, rather than a new bureaucracy, will force the fix.

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Republicans got the rarest of 3 a.m. phone calls this morning: One that contains good news.

The problems of Joe Biden as a candidate have already been well documented at RedState. He is the sound bite that doesn’t stop giving. Ads are already prepared with Biden pointing out the need for Obama to have on the job training.

But for a candidate that has generally followed Bill Clinton’s 1992 election playbook very well, he seems to have whiffed pretty badly with this pick. Clinton kept to one simple message: “It’s the economy, stupid.”

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