Phil Gramm Still Hustling For John McCain

Phil Gramm was supposedly unceremoniously dumped by John McCain from his campaign after Gramm said the economy was just in a "mental recession" and that the country was a "nation of whiners." 

Gramm has since stated that he is "just another citizen supporting McCain."

But it sure looks like Citizen Gramm is providing advice and working behind the scenes muscle for McCain.

At a recent private business roundtable, Gramm defended the campaign’s vetting of Sarah Palin to be McCain’s running mate by saying, “We went through a process of vetting all possible candidates.”

"We"?

Now, Ron Paul has spilled the beans that Gramm has been hustling for McCain to get a McCain endorsement out of Paul:

[At a press conference] Paul revealed that a McCain representative, who he did not name, had called him as part of what has been a recent effort to score an endorsement.

Later, Paul told The [Los Angeles] Times' Janet Hook the go-between was Gramm

-Robert Wenzel

Is Phil Gramm a Behind the Scenes McCain Advisor?

John McCain threw Phil Gramm under the bus as an advisor, when Gramm got into hot water in July for telling a newspaper that Americans are a “nation of whiners,” and that the United States only suffers from “a mental recession.”

But is Gramm really gone?

According to Bloomberg, Gramm excluded McCain elite supporters from his description of Americans as ``a nation of whiners.''

``If you're sitting here today, you're not economically illiterate and you're not a whiner, so I'm not worried about who you're going to vote for,'' the former Texas senator told attendees at a Financial Services Roundtable event in Minneapolis on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention.

Supposedly at the roundtable, Gramm also defended the campaign’s vetting of Sarah Palin to be McCain’s running mate by saying, “We went through a process of vetting all possible candidates.”

"We"? Is Gramm still provding Gramm sideline advice?

Gramm is beyond doubt the best tutor McCain could have as far as an economic advisor. The man knows economics. But as evidenced by his "nation of whiners" and "a mental recession" comments, though economically accurate at the time, they were politically tone deaf comments.

If the tone deaf Gramm was advising McCain on his vice-presidential that resulted in the pick of the daffy Palin, it explains a lot.

So Much for Bob Novak's Scoop

This morning Bob Novak reported that McCain and Gramm patched up ther differences. "McCain told Gramm not to worry about the expected pitfalls of a campaign surrogate. Gramm will continue as an adviser and surrogate."

This afternoon, Phil Gramm stepped down as co-chair of John McCain’s presidential campaign.

“It is clear to me that Democrats want to attack me rather than debate Sen. McCain on important economic issues facing the country,” Gramm said.

“That kind of distraction hurts not only Sen. McCain's ability to present concrete programs to deal with the country's problems, it hurts the country,” Gramm said. “To end this distraction and get on with the real debate, I hereby step down as co-chair of the McCain campaign and join the growing number of rank-and-file McCain supporters,” he said.

Novak: McCain and Gramm Kiss and Make Up

Robert Novak reports:

After Sen. John McCain publicly repudiated his close friend and adviser Phil Gramm's comments about a "nation of whiners" and a "mental recession," the two old political comrades patched up their relationship.

Gramm apologized to McCain for his remarks that gave Democrats an opening against the Republican presidential candidate and provided several days of ammunition for blogs, cable television and radio talk shows. McCain told Gramm not to worry about the expected pitfalls of a campaign surrogate. Gramm will continue as an adviser and surrogate.

Gramm remained a steadfast supporter last year when it appeared that McCain's campaign had collapsed. McCain was a loyal backer of Gramm's failed 1988 campaign for president and did not leave until the candidate dropped out of the race.

This is very good news out of the McCain camp, although, I personally thought the split might have just been political posturing.

Gramm was right about his "nation of whiners" comment, and he made a good point, in a sloppy manner, about a "mental recession", but it is obvious that he is politically tone deaf.

It is also obvious that McCain's comments on the economy are getting more sophisticated, clearly, Gramm is tutoring him and McCain is absorbing it.

Greg Mankiw Headlines: Pessimism Abounds

And tells us that Bloomberg reports:

Optimism about U.S. stocks among newsletter writers slid to the lowest level since July 1994.

Sounds like a 'mental recession' to us.

McCain Adviser: Raise Retirement Age To 70

It's coming.

According to Phil Gramm, senior economic adviser to John McCain, the retirement age will have to be raised.

Gramm told the Washington Times that a bipartisan deal might include raising the retirement age to 70 over 30 years, indexing the benefits of wealthier retirees to inflation rather than the more generous wage rate, and creating a private account program for younger workers.

This means that if you are 40 and under, you will be working as much as 5 years longer than your parents did.

The Best Move John McCain Has Made...

...is to make Phil Gramm part of his advisory team. You can clearly see the influence Gramm is having on the economic positions of McCain.

The former senator is a first rate economist and a tough, tactical politician. For the take on Gramm as a tough, tactical politician, see these not necessarily flattering comments about him from the economist Murray Rothbard and from former Citibank chairman, Sandy Weill, here.

For a sense of Gramm as a brilliant economist, be sure to read an interview of Gramm by the senior economics writer for the WSJ editorial page, Stephen Moore, here.

Gramm on entrepreneurs versus do-gooders, from the interview:

When you help a company raise capital, to put its idea to work, and you create jobs, those jobs are the best housing program, education program, nutrition program, health program ever created. Look, if a man in one lifetime is responsible for creating 100 real jobs, permanent jobs, then he's done more than most do-gooders have ever achieved.

Gramm takes a swipe at Obama:

Why is America the richest country in the world?...It's not because our people are more brilliant; it's because we have a better free-market system. Why has Texas created 1.6 million jobs in the last 10 years whereas Michigan has lost 300,000 jobs and Ohio has lost 100,000 jobs? Because governance matters, taxes matter, regulation matters. Our opponents in this campaign are so dogmatic in their goal of having more government because they love the power it brings to them that they're willing to let it impose costs on the working people that they say they want to help. I am not.

On Phil Gramm

Of late, we have been reading a couple books where the name Phil Gramm keeps appearing. The former United States Senator from Texas once sought the presidential nomination of the Republican Party.

The Irrepressible Rothbard, edited by Llewellyn Rockwell, contains a 1995 commentary (pgs 137-8) by Murray Rothbard where he analyzes Gramm as a presidential candidate:

Gramm is first of all the brightest of the candidates: unlike Gingrich, he is an intelligent academic, having taught economics at the Distinguished Friedmanite economics department of Texas A&M.

Unlike other candidates, when Gramm sells out principle, which he will do often, he knows he is selling out and why, which I guess is a virtue...Since he bends to the political winds...he is the likeliest of all the major candidates to be an opportunist [in favor of free markets and small government, when he
can].

More recently, and from real world dealings, former Citigroup chairman, Sandy Weill, in his autobiography, The Real Deal, writes of his experience with Gramm, whiich seems to backup Rothbard's take:

...Phil Gramm..appeared uninterested in serious reform and never missed a chance to remind me that there were no important banks, brokers or insurance companies domiciled in his state of Texas. In other words, financial services companies were far from his natural constituency...Just as we were about to cross the goal line, one last obstacle arose. Senator Gramm, ever the savvy horse trader, took exception to a provision of the bill which forced banks to invest in poor areas, a long-running political football in Washington. One afternoon he called and threatened, "Call your friend Clinton and get him to change the provision or else I'll fire my rockets and blow your bill apart."...Gramm called again the next day to
repeat his demand, and this time the president and Texas senator found some way to compromise.

On November 12, President Clinton signed into law the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and in a stroke, modernized the structure of financial services.

On Tuesday of this week in an op-ed piece for WSJ, Gramm endorsed John McCain for president. Wrote Gramm, "He might not be the right president for all times, but he is the right president for these times."