In your guts, you know they're nuts

From the Republican proposal for solving the market meltdown:

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

In short, the proposal overturns the rule of law; the Secretary of the Treasury (who serves at the pleasure of the monarch president) can do what he thinks best, and nobody can do anything about it. Now, or ever.

The Secretary could hire and fire whoever he wants — and break whatever laws get in the way — with impunity. No bid contracts? Insider deals for cronies? Sweetheart deals for friends and family? Write himself a really big check? Send money to Republican campaigns? It's all fine.

What can they be thinking? (My guess: they hope that Congress will balk at writing a trillion dollar blank check, and that then McCain can blame the Democrats for the whole debacle. Good luck with that, guys.)

This truly is extremism, though not in the defense of liberty.