Writing for Wall Street Journal’s Washington Wire blog, Luca Di Leo reports:

In an appearance Sunday on ABC’s “Meet the Press,” Mr. Greenspan used his strongest words yet to urge lawmakers to let them expire. The risk of a U.S. debt crisis, he said, is just too big. Mr. Greenspan, who retired from the Federal Reserve in 2006, had endorsed the cuts back in 2001 championed by then-President George W. Bush.

“This crisis is so imminent and so difficult that I think we have to allow the so-called Bush tax cuts all to expire. That is a very big number,” he said, referring to how much the U.S. government could save from letting income taxes go back up to levels last seen under former President Bill Clinton.

Mr. Greenspan was talking about re-imposing the taxes for all Americans. The Treasury has estimated that a permanent extension of all the Bush tax cuts would cost $3.6 trillion over the next decade. Allowing taxes to increase on those in the top income brackets would take the cost to the government down to $2.9 trillion, according to White House estimates.

Watch the particular clip below, courtesy of NBC News:

“I serve at the pleasure of the President” is like Pavlov’s bell for liberals, and other devotees of the sadly fictional Bartlett administration. However, string that together with “I’m having an enormously satisfying experience,” and you start to veer into chuckle-worthy, “Did somebody order a pizza?” territory.

On the substance, though, the rest of Summers’ interview was spot-on. He touted March’s encouraging job creation, while keeping a lid on expectations. Perhaps more encouraging was former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan‘s assessment that the economy is “gathering momentum,” and that a double-dip recession is now highly unlikely. Greenspan’s no Pollyanna, so it means a lot more coming from him.

Politically, the question now seems to be whether the slow move into recovery will be enough to help Democrats in November. The conventional wisdom, buoyed by recent polls, says it won’t. However, if the Democrats play their cards right (a big if), they could benefit from the same “you don’t switch horses in midstream” logic that buoyed President George W. Bush to a second term.

During the Roundtable, Tapper cited a poll that shows Americans trust Republicans slightly more on economic issues, a notion that Democrats need to dispel. In this case, though, the wise move is to wait a few months to press their advantage. Right now, the Republicans are busy undercutting the significance of the March numbers. Dems should let that sink in for a while, see how April and May go. If this summer is anything like last summer, that’s when they should turn up the heat.

Where to begin?

With how crazy it is that Sanford, Governor of South Carolina, is writing an essay about how useless government is to accomplish anything? Or with the irony of Sanford, who took off to South America to visit his mistress for five days while lying to his staff and the state he serves, writing about Objectivism — a philosophy centered on the Virtue of Selfishness? How about the fact that a resolution to impeach Sanford is hitting the South Carolina legislative floor on Tuesday? Missed that reference in the article. And let’s not forget the title of his essay: ATLAS HUGGED.

(I’m sure if Atlas had been in a romantic Argentinian hideaway, he would have done plenty of other stuff, too.)

The essay itself is fine — makes some decent, if banal, points about Rand’s primacy-of-the-individual schtick, demurs appropriately about how she leaves out compassion, affection and community, drops the obligatory Alan Greenspan reference (though in times like these, that’s not really a plus for the Randian position). But — there’s such a thing as context. And, well, it’s sort of hard to take Mark Sanford seriously on anything right now.

Mark Sanford may have at one time been considered a contender for the 2012 presidential race, but now he’s a national joke. His crazy disappearing act to Argentina launched hours of cable news coverage, a million Tweets, numerous solicitous press emails, and countless Evita references (he was crying! In Argentina!). “Hiking on the Appalachian Trail” has become a national punchline (Letterman used it in his affair-scandal comeback show; Mike Allen used it just this morning on Morning Joe in reference to those NorthWest pilots “using their laptops”). His rambling 18-minute mea-culpa press conference — complete with teary apologies to anyone and everyone plus tender appeals to amore — has become a TV classic. His wife’s writing a tell-all. The “Howard Roark standing naked on a cliff” jokes write themselves (assuming that the cliff’s in Argentina). See?

So — bearing all that in mind — it’s hard to just look at this piece and think, “Oh my! What a clever article about Ayn Rand!” Instead you think, “Why is Mark Sanford writing about Ayn Rand for Newsweek?” and then wonder how you can make an Argentina joke. (Someone cruder than I could find a way to work in ‘Galt’s Gulch,’ but this is a family publication.) But really, this piece has middling-to-no credibility, thanks to its source. In fact, it’s loaded with irony, thanks to how un-Randian Sanford’s behavior was. Yes, he did what he wanted (selfish!) — but would John Galt have groveled his way through an 18-minute press conference? Would Howard Roark have sniveled about how he was in loooove? No – he would have raped his way through that press conference* and then blown it up for good measure.

Never mind how ridiculous it is for a governor — agent of the collective, and paid by it — to disdain the notion of achievement by collective action. Roads and schools and social programs are built by teams of people; even an architect needs some help if he wants to see his building made. I mean, sheesh.

But actually, even though I am incredulous that this byline goes with this story, it’s also ironic, too, that therein lies its appeal: though “Atlas Hugged” was what initially caught my eye (great headline!), it was the byline that made me double-take. Poor Mark Sanford — he can dismiss the populist hack Ellsworth Toohey for only “writing what people want to hear,” but at the end of the day, he’s still basically just linkbait. Don’t cry for him though; Ayn Rand wouldn’t.

Related:
Atlas Hugged [Newsweek]
Bid to impeach Gov. Mark Sanford begins Tuesday [Christian Science Monitor]
How Sanford Unplugged [The State]
Jenny Sanford Ready To Spill The Beans [The Hill]

Related In Other John Galt-y Things:
Who Is John Galt? Writers Strike The Nerve That Counts: Public Opinion [ETP]

*Oh, calm down, Randians, I’m just being snotty.