The Left is following the Rahm Emanuel admonition to “never let a serious crisis go to waste” by filling the blogosphere with ideas to take advantage of the BP oil spill. Newsweek’s Eleanor Clift, heir apparent to Helen Thomas, has weighed in with hers:

Capitalizing on the crisis the way the administration did with the economic meltdown, advancing health-care reform even as the economy was tanking, requires bold ideas. With thousands of fishermen out of work and offering, even begging, to help with the cleanup, why not have the government do direct hiring with a modern-day Work Projects Administration modeled after the FDR-era agency that put millions of people to work during the Great Depression. Everybody is into branding these days, and it would be a great way to brand the government as a positive force in the cleanup.

The administration missed an opportunity with the stimulus money to have projects and workers that benefited from government intervention clearly identified. When the FBI storms onto the scene, agents wear shirts with “FBI” lettered across the back. Why not use the EPA as a brand, or find some other logo that would identify government workers saving the environment—and send BP the bill?

Great! Convert the figurative jack-booted thugs into the literal!