Toasted Friedman?

Given the stock market's tepid reaction to the news that Stephen Friedman would head the White House's economic policy team -- that and the total lack of evidence that the guy actually backs the kind of tax cuts Bush is expected to propose -- Team Bush now appears to be hedging.

Using the Rolodex method of staffing that this White House has taken to extremes, Friedman's chief qualification appears to be that he used to be the boss of deputy chief of staff Josh Bolten at Goldman Sachs. But that can't undo the fact Friedman serves as a vice chairman of the mopey, zero-sum Concord Coalition. This bunch doesn't believe in economic growth and was last seen taking out full-page ads urging national "sacrifice."

If that line of thinking appeals to the Bushies, the malaise master is available and on a roll.