Phil Gramm Needs to Be Quiet Now

When you're safe and well-off, and there's money in the bank, there is a tendency to forget what it's like to have to struggle -- especially if you're not the one doing the struggling. Say, for instance, that you are a former senator from Texas, and you're now enjoying a very comfortable lifestyle in the private sector, high inside the upper echelons of a large banking concern.

But there comes a time when you, as they say in Washington, lose your political fingertips. As the putative Republican nominee's chief economic advisor, you'd probably want to realize that and keep it at the forefront of your mind, thereby ensuring your piehole remains shut. The difficulty, of course, is constantly having to remind yourself that your circumstances are far removed from those same white blue-collar wokers in the Rust Belt states you claim to be the champion of, and acting accordingly.

Phil Gramm didn't act accordingly. He was ad-libbing, disastrously so, when he said this week he'd diagnosed the situation, and guess what y'all -- the professor concluded that we're just going through a "mental recession," a phrase I'm sure is going to enjoy a half-life at least as long as "voodoo economics." Gramm, al close friend of John McCain's for over 25 years, added that America had "sort of become a nation of whiners."

As you can imagine that didn't sit too well with the residents of one Michigan town this week where John McCain was supposed to be launching or re-tooling his economic message. His listeners sat stony-faced. He got himself into trouble during the primary-election season when he boneheadedly made a remark the economy not being his strong suit last December. His opponents, particularly Mitt Romney, did not let him soon forget it.

Now, we've got Phil Gramm, the Ph.D who apparently doesn't have time to watch the nightly news. The last thing John McCain, the maverick from Arizona, needed was for his closest economic advisor to come along and reinforce the impression most people have in their minds anyway of Republicans: country-club joining, six-figure income earning, out-of-touch fat cats who wouldn't know a Wal-Mart from a Costco if it slapped them in the face (which I wish it would). In an ear of falling home prices, $4-a-gallon gas, rising unemployment and the dollar losing half its value against the Euro, it would appear with this -- and it can't quite be said enough -- boneheaded remark about a "mental recession," it's official: John McCain can't catch a break.

He's been outraised. He's outspent. He looked terrible in front of that green background. He has to dodge awkward questions about Viagra. One of his top aides is now in "serious consideration for ambassador to Belarus," according to the candidate himself. Great in town halls, but gives an awful speech. Can you imagine the hue and cry the Republicans would raise if someone close to the Obama campaign had said America's become "a nation of whiners" because of the economy?

With the economy sputtering along under eight years of Republican stewardship, McCain faced a hard fight already. Should Gramm step down from McCain's campaign? Of course he should and I wish there would be an outcry for it. There probably won't be. But if this Nixon-jowled snob doesn't realize $4-a-gallon milk along with $4-a-gallon gas -- with the latter going overseas -- has a devastating impact on the lives of the everyday Joe Six Pack, he has no business being anywhere near a Secretary of Treasury appointment or anything else; I don't care if he has a doctorate in economics or not.