I’d like to see what the Dodd looks like all pissed off:
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Ct., delivered a blistering 20-minute speech that included the revelation of a political talking points memo from a Republican strategist that was virtually verbatim to the criticism voiced Tuesday by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
McConnell had accused Dodd of drafting partisan legislation, even though the Banking Committee chairman has worked for roughly half a year with key Senate Republicans and incorporated many of their ideas into his bill. McConnell also said the bill continues controversial bank bailouts, which it does not.
“It’s a naked political strategy,” thundered a visibly upset Dodd. He held up a leaked memo attributed to GOP strategist Frank Luntz that advises Republican lawmakers to accuse Dodd and other Democrats of perpetuating bailouts for giant banks.
“Nothing could be further from the truth. The bill as drafted ends bailouts,” Dodd said, describing how regulators would get new powers to dissolve large financial institutions, even healthy ones if their size is deemed to threaten the broader financial system.
I’m sure McConnell sat their with pursed lips looking a little perplexed, because Senators usually don’t call each other liars. Normally, they are all on the same payroll, so decorum is never breached.
liberal
Well, that part is BS.
Menzies
Maybe Dodd’s willing to breach the code now that he’s retiring anyway?
GregB
Frank Luntz really does hate America.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Menzies: Partially, but I think Dems are starting to understand they have to fight back. It’s a slow process, and painful for those of us screaming at our computer screens/TVs, but I think it’s happening.
fourlegsgood
I’m glad Dodd is mad, but I wish he would call McConnell a liar. While he’s at it he should point out that McConnell is also an asshole.
Oh, and I’ve met Frank Luntz. He’s just a big of a prick as you probably imagine that he is.
Roger Moore
If they’re going to lie through their teeth, it’s about fucking time somebody started calling them on it. Maybe it will make Senators like McConnell think twice before spouting lies this egregious.
Xenocrates
Yeah, I’m going to be optimistic for now (yes, I enjoy self-abuse) that Dodd and the Dems have finally grown a spine. It is clear that the GOP will continue in its policy of obstruction and denial, and hopefully the public will finally see them for the lying, greedy, disgusting rabble that they really are. Also. Mitch McConnell is fat and ugly. I’m not in the Senate, therefore exempt from the code.
fourlegsgood
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): IMHO, dems should skip the guns at the knife fight and bring a bazooka, a few nukes and a ray gun.
Never hurts to be sure.
dmsilev
From the end of the article:
Emphasis added.
Dear Beltway journalists. It’s things like this that represent actually doing the job that you claim to be doing.
dms
MattF
Also, because the Dems will lose a few seats in the Senate in the coming mid-term election they will need to actually engage in public combat with the Republicans, rather than trying to ignore, or excuse, or work around the Repubs bad behavior. Broder will be unhappy, but otherwise, that might be a good thing.
Cat Lady
Twice in one day I see that word “incorrectly” attached to a Republican lie. Granted it’s McClatchy, and they’re more inclined towards journalism, but is our media learning?
Tom Hilton
Nicely played–holding back the memo until McConnell had already parroted it.
JGabriel
John Cole @ Top:
It sounds like McConnell breached it first.
.
Cat Lady
@dmsilev:
I owe you a Coke.
Short Bus Bully
No, McConnell sat there looking like the albino sleestak he so obviously is.
sssssssssss…
Keith
Zell Miller?
fourlegsgood
Feh. Fuck civility. When the republicans stop being punk-ass liars and cheats, I’ll be ready to treat them with civility.
Lisa K.
Maybe we can get our president on board with this, too. That fiestiness and readiness to call a spade a spade is one thing I miss about a President Hillary.
colleeniem
I know this is OT-but I work in a federal building, paid for by federal money, and am surrounded by federal and contracted employees. They are relatively young (between 30-40). One of them, not five minutes ago, literally said—“Taxes don’t do anything for me.” A federal employee.
I got pissed, interjected myself and said, “Well, taxes pay you.”
I don’t think they liked it. But I mean, gah! These are educated people.
Bill E Pilgrim
@MattF:
Repaired a pothole in an otherwise good sentence.
If David Broder thinks that you’re being mean and unreasonable to Republicans, you might just actually be standing up for yourself. Maybe.
Roger Moore
@Tom Hilton:
Excellent point. It does make it harder to disown the point.
JGabriel
@Keith: Red beams shoot out of his eyes, and all the Nazis topple over with giant sucking wounds in their chests and asking for their mommy and then expiring.
.
mai naem
So where’s the Democratic Frank Luntz?
AxelFoley
@Menzies:
Yup, homeboy’s goin’ out in a blaze o’ glory.
Face
Maybe not the best use of the word, considering you’re talking about a Black president…..
dmsilev
@Cat Lady: The joys of simultaneous posting. Just nice to see some reporter not dancing around the idea of “he lied”.
dms
Bill E Pilgrim
That makes it sound far more interesting than I ever thought.
Mum
I’ve seen Dodd angry before, and it’s not a pretty sight. I think it may have been when the Military Commissions Act was being debated. He’s almost Kennedyesque in his passion at those moments. I think we’re going to miss him.
Menzies
@MattF:
Normally I would think this just nails it. Given the last four years of Democratic control, though, I’m not sure it’ll happen under Harry Reid.
If Schumer or Durbin take over, though, we’ll see what happens.
rickstersherpa
I am actually somewhat amazed at how closely McConnell followed Luntz’s memorandum verbatim. With the exception of N.Y. Times financial stenographers its existence and what it said was well known. It had been dancing around the Internet for months and the Huffpost had several articles on it. Apparently, the saw that the Democrats had acted liked “stunned ducks” (see A. Lincoln on General Rosecrans) last summer to their “death panel” talking points and figured that they would repeat letting their opponents frame the bill. Apparently they did learn something.
El Cid
Wait – isn’t someone going to bring up how nice Frank Luntz is, and how great a guest he is on all the talk shows? I mean, that’s what’s important, isn’t it?
cmorenc
A central GOP tactic depends on their counting successfuly on two interconnected things:
a) their ability to entice the media (by creating a verbal shiny object) into repeatedly broadcasting even their most egregiously false lies for long enough to create inertia for whatever assertion they’re making;
b) the inability and unwillingness of the media fact-check or challenge their lies in any effectively timely or persistent fashion – by the time that happens, if and when it ever happens, the media’s focus has long since moved on to the next shiny object.
Chris
Am I the only one who has an overwhelming urge to stuff Mitch McConnell in a locker every time I see his stupid little face?
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@colleeniem: Someone I know in the military complained about Obama trying to create socialized medicine. I haven’t figured out how you can be that oblivious.
AxelFoley
@Short Bus Bully:
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
I was trying to think of what creature McConnell looks like. He IS a strange looking fellow, is he not?
LOL
Mum
@fourlegsgood:
Not a surprise really. He does give off an air of prickishness.
Rosalita
@Menzies:
This. A scorched earth say-it-like-it-is ending to his Senate career would be satisfying to watch
Cat Lady
@Roger Moore:
Think about how long Dodd’s been in the Senate doing his job, agree with him or not, and to have the Republicans deliberately act in bad faith must just totally infuriate him especially since he probably has the goods on McConnell and the rest of the clown show which is the Senate GOP. It’s a small club, and it’s a big deal for Dodd to go off. The Repukes have taken a bridge too far, and I’m detecting the Dems have had enough. Better late than never.
Citizen Alan
@colleeniem:
Taxes don’t just pay that jackass, they give him totally awesome benefits. I clerked for five years, and would probably be willing to commit cold-blooded murder if I could get a career government job as an attorney in this economy. Hell, I’ve sent resumes to cities more than 2000 miles away from where I presently live because of the mere hope that I could get a career government job even though I would have to leave behind every single person I know in the world.
Like you, I am so tired of feeling like I am surrounded by selfish ingrates.
debbie
Aren’t McConnell’s lips always pursed?
dmsilev
@Mum:
Does he turn green and burst out of all of his clothes (except for a pair of shorts which magically grow along with him)?
dms
fourlegsgood
@El Cid: No, because he’s universally hated.
He’s really an ass.
fourlegsgood
@debbie: Yes, just like the asshole that he is.
flukebucket
@debbie:
I didn’t know McConnell had any lips.
Proton
McConnell has that perpetual receiving-an-ice-cube-enema expression.
Joshua Norton
Whoopsie. Cranky old men are cranky.
Dino
I hope we don’t get a democratic Frank Luntz. That asshole has done more to degrade our discourse than Rush Limbaugh.
Although I did see something about any Republicans who signed Grover’s no tax pledge are supporting the exportation of jobs overseas. It’s pretty good because answering the charge takes more than one sentence fragment.
But that charge has a grain of truth; they have to try harder to play in the big leagues. Something like: “Republicans have pledged to have a scary brown man sleep with your wife.”
Linda Featheringill
@Face: Word. [to use an old-fashioned term. :)]
Toni
In many ways what’s happening with the Democrats is what happens when you win. They took their lumps with healthcare but they got it over the finish line and I think when they were home for the last two weeks it wasn’t anywhere as heated as last summer. Financial reform is the perfect populist issue for them to ride for the next couple months.
Athenae
“Albino sleestak” for the MF WIN.
The Dodd all pissed off? Remember the FISA fight? He was good and fired up then. Course, his own party then fucked him over, thanks Harry. But his speech about how he has “rarely come to the floor with such anger” and “if I did not speak today, my conscience would not let me rest?” SWOON.
And I voted for him in my state’s primary. Me and like six other pathetic people.
A.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@fourlegsgood:
I’m all in favor of civility – of precisely the sort which Grant offered to Lee at Appomattox Courthouse, i.e. the Republicans can keep their mules. McConnell looks like a mule, so they can keep him. Good luck plowing the north 40 with him, but hey, that’s the breaks.
licensed to kill time
Speaking of angry old men, McCain says the U.S. keeps pointing a loaded gun at Iran but “failing to pull the trigger”.
Speaking “figuratively”, of course.
Sheesh, bullet, we dodged, etc..
MTiffany
Maybe now that Dodd is retiring he’s answering to his conscience.
HumboldtBlue
Republicans — the cilantro of the Senate.
Jim C.
I absolutely WANT to see key Democrats openly calling Republicans liars and bigots.
Put them on the defensive. Make them get on TV and respond to questions along the lines of, “Democrat X said today that you’re flat out lying about approximately 50 different things. Are you a liar?”
Comrade Mary
He’s a sphincter on both ends and everywhere in between, too.
EDIT: @fourlegsgood: Gah! Beat me to it.
(Hey, the reply function has been cleaned up to use relative addressing instead of the full path! W00t!)
Nick
@cmorenc: Here’s how this will play out;
REPUBLICAN: This bill will lead to more bailouts!
DEMOCRAT: No it won’t, that’s an egregious lie, this bill does not lead to more bailouts….
REPUBLICAN: This bill will lead to more bailiouts
DEMOCRATS: That’s a lie, because…
MEDIA: The Republicans are saying the bill will lead to more bailouts, next, Republican Senator/Congressman X tells us why it will lead to more bailouts.
A month later…
MEDIA: Democrats have a messaging problem.
Montysano
@Chris:
No. SATSQ.
McConnell, along with… lessee… maybe Pat Roberts, is the face of GOP venality and mendacity. Fucker makes me want to kick holes in the wall. Cantor, too. Also.
Seanly
Isn’t Frank Luntz that douchebag pollster CNN always has on? He likes to do focus groups who seem to lean rightwing and stupid. Of course, CNN never mentions that he concurrently holds jobs as a Republican douchebag.
Did I mention he’s a douchebag?
And McConnell looks like a cross between a pedophile priest and Skeletor’s older uncle.
Rosalita
@Comrade Mary:
the pursed lips are a hemmoroid (sp?)
Bulworth
Well, I’m sure the Luntz memo is an Acorn-Chicago Thug plant anyway…
licensed to kill time
@Comrade Mary:
Yay! I was hating the full reload of the page when I just wanted to jump up to an earlier comment.
eemom
McConnell is a big fat pompous lying tub of lard with too many chins, and I do not care if it is politically incorrect to say so.
RSR
That strategy keeps paying off *so* well.
Imagine what they could do if they didn’t capitulate as their opening move in negotiating.
colleeniem
@Citizen Alan: Citizen, I would give you that job in a heartbeat. It’s worse though-the person in this scenario is a she, who is also pregnant. I can guarantee you, she has better maternity benefits than half the fucking working people in the U.S.
Full disclosure–I’m active duty, and I just want to thank Mr. and Mrs. John Q Taxpayer for my living and education. I’ll gladly give back more if necessary.
fourlegsgood
@RSR: Notice that Obama pulled the plug when Corker demanded that pay day lenders be exempted from reform provisions.
Everyone relax – this is a winning issue. More than one gooper senator will be smart enough to realize that they dare not vote against reining in Wall Street.
jl
No responsible bill will END bailouts of some sort or other if the financial system crashes. When a crash occurs somebody or somebodies will have to be ‘bailed out’ in order to keep the real economy (jobs and making useful stuff) going.
The question is who gets bailed and on what terms, and how are the risks and rewards spread around, and is it consistent with efficient restoration of the real economy (jobs and making useful stuff and providing useful services).
I am not saying that the Democratic bill is good or adequate.
But I think the question of whether a bill does or not does not end something somebody decides to call a ‘bailout’ is the wrong way to look at the problem of responding to large financial crashes.
Just my friendly Keynesian economist opinion.
MikeJ
@HumboldtBlue:
Some people actually like cilantro. And regardless of how foul it tastes, cilantro won’t actually hurt you.
fourlegsgood
@Seanly: CNN fired him after media matters and others pointed out his rethug credentials.
burnspbesq
@Chris:
Proving once again that life is just like junior high school.
I’ll hold him down while you slather Atomic Balm on his dick.
Pococurante
pix pls
AxelFoley
@burnspbesq:
lolwut?
b-psycho
@jl:
Why not? It can’t be designed to make and keep financial sector players small enough to where we can finally not give a fuck if they fail? Why should the rest of us be penalized for their fuckup, they want to run in that kind of business it should be their ass, period.
Oh, wait, this is the case because cushioning concentrated wealth is, has been, and will permanently be the entire damn point of this government, never mind. Carry on…
Linda Featheringill
Headline and article in WaPo:
U.S. forces leave Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley
This is a retreat. They can call it whatever they want but it is a retreat.
That is not necessarily a bad thing. It might be very wise. I am not sure.
But it did remind me of the USSR.
TooManyJens
@Xenocrates:
Hey, who doesn’t?
scav
@Pococurante:
pls no
reality-based
@dmsilev:
yes, but the story is from McClatchey – and McClatchey’s Washington Bureau (former Knight Ridder) – has been practicing actual journalism for years now.
(cf. the Iraqi WMD – the Bill Moyers speciak on the topic was great. )
(sigh) – too bad nobody else notices how it’s SUPPOSED to be done .
– BTW, why DIDN’T McClatchey get a Pulitzer for being the only news organization to tell the truth about Iraq?
asiangrrlMN
It’s like when Al Franken called out the Republican men in the Senate for supporting rape. “He’s so mean to us,” they whined. “He hurt our fee-fees!”
Yeah, well, get use to it, bitchez. I hope this is the face of the new Democratic Party because while I am not one for gratuitous incivility (really, in real life, I’m not), bullshit has got to be called out. Repeatedly. Emphatically. With as much factual information as possible.
@reality-based: Do you really need to ask that last question, or was it rhetorical? Kathleen Parker won a Pulitzer. Enough said.
randiego
I have a facebook friend who is a military spouse, who is constantly going off about soci@lism, healthcare reform, you name it.
Everytime she does, I always post up “Soci@lism for me, but not for thee”.
We’re still friends, so maybe she hasn’t figured out what I mean.
eyepaddle
McConnell looks like a sad cartoon turtle. Just thought I’d clear that up for y’all.
Although the “pedophile priest and Skeletor’s uncle” description is definitely in contention.
Tonal Crow
@dmsilev:
The article is from McClatchy, which, in my limited experience, evaluates political claims much more thoroughly than any other MSM organ.
dww44
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): You are absolutely correct. Why do our elected democratic representatives continue to believe in the good faith and intentions of the GOP? We have known that this was a losing strategy for years. Ya know, fight fire with fire, and all that. Turning the other cheek is not a winning political strategy.
Maybe Dodd wants to reclaim some honor. I hope he succeeds and we are able to get some really viable financial regulation from him and his committee and the Senate.
Redshift
@fourlegsgood: Actually, though he did it in a very civil manner, Warner came pretty close to calling McConnell a liar, too:
Considering that Warner is about as obsessed with bipartisanship as David Broder, this is pretty amazing.
Michael Sweeney
If you’d actually like to see what angry Chris Dodd looks like, TPM has the video: http://tpmtv.talkingpointsmemo.com/?id=5363884
Tonal Crow
@HumboldtBlue:
Huh?
Comrade Mary
@HumboldtBlue: You mock the good name of cilantro, the most noble of herbs.
I have no choice but to — challenge you!
Roger Moore
@Cat Lady:
I think people need to get a basic point straight: lying is uncivil. McConnell started this by publicly lying about Dodd’s bill, and Dodd should be well within his rights to call McConnell out over his lies. Any system that says that it’s perfectly civil to lie through your teeth about a bill and impugn the author’s motives, but it’s beyond the pale to point out the lies is horribly broken. Anyone who truly values civil discourse should be backing Dodd.
Redshift
@Nick: I’m not so sure. That happens all the time because the Dem will say “that’s inaccurate” or “that’s not correct.” If they actually said, “Yeah, he’s just lying, so there’s no point in trying to argue with that” the MSM figures might well be so shocked (like they are with Grayson) that we’d get endless fainting-couch segments about how the Dems were calling the R’s liars.
Arguably, that would be a good thing, and might have a chance at actually derailing the talking-point conveyor belt.
Violet
@asiangrrlMN:
Exactly. Call them liars if they are lying. It’s not that hard.
Nick
@Redshift:
But that’s what happens already, and because Dems don’t respond, because they can’t imagine anyone stupid enough to believe the crap, they “lose the message war”
kay
So, this is the essential element they have to explain, right?
“The Democrats’ bill, sponsored by Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, would give the Federal Reserve oversight of the largest financial institutions, those with at least $50 billion in assets. And it would let the Treasury secretary — with support from regulators and the approval of a special panel of three bankruptcy judges — take over any giant company that posed systemic risk to financial stability, and essentially force it out of business
Under the bill, once the Treasury stepped in to take over a failing firm, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation would be appointed as a receiver. The Federal Reserve could punish any institution that failed to submit a “resolution plan” — also known as a living will or a funeral plan — that would spell out its orderly demise.
A $50 billion “orderly liquidation fund,” created from fees charged to the largest banks, would help pay for the takeover. ”
So, this is what they have to repeat 50,000 times:
take over any giant company that posed systemic risk to financial stability, and force it out of business
That doesn’t seem all that hard to explain. I think even Democrats in the Senate can manage that. Perhaps I’m being overly optimistic. Maybe they should settle on three “spokespeople”.
22state
@AxelFoley: Just like his promise to stand up for the Constitution and filibuster FISA.
It’s just his turn to be Lucy with the football. Just wait until the vote comes and Dodd will be all about expressing his sorrow that they just didn’t have the 60 votes, so he HAD to water down the bill, again and again and again.
Dee Loralei
@22state: But Dodd did have his FISA fight. He ranted about it on the floor and put a hold on the bill and Reid went around the hold. Dodd was a hero in that fight. Harry Reid was the bad guy. And Obama was wrong too, since he voted for the damned thing. See Athenae up there @50 or so. She got all goggly-eyed over Dodd and wanted to marry him. ( I had the same crush so I hope I remember the episode well.)
ETA to fix a damned typo. Hero not gero.
Jennifer
My brother used to do this really obscene thing where he would pinch the skin on his neck right over his adam’s apple, jerk it up and down, and make fake spitting noises.
That’s the image that comes to my mind, unbidden, every time I see Mitch McConnell.
Also, too, Steve Forbes.
Sentient Puddle
@b-psycho:
Because it’s not terribly realistic. The nature of the game is that enough banks holding at least X amount of money topple, you either bail them out or let the economy crash and burn. You can reach X by a few giant banks failing or a whole bunch of smaller banks failing.
Unless you want to completely change the way our financial system works (which among many other insanely complicated and ill-advised steps, would probably amount to us returning to the gold standard, and is thus not recommended), you have to accept the risk of some crisis that requires a bailout to save the economy. And given that, the best you can do is come up with a bill that makes it really fucking difficult for banks to position themselves in a way that sets up that potential crisis.
eemom
someone may have linked this already, but I am proud of my Senator:
From Steve Benen.
See?? Not all Virginia elected officials spend their time sucking up to white-supremacist lunatics and filing stupid-ass lawsuits.
eemom
block quote fail : (
David in NY
@burnspbesq:
Are they still doing that in school (like 50 years ago)?
Plus ca change …
J. Michael Neal
@b-psycho:
No bill will end bailouts, because Congress can always pass one, no matter what legislation is already on the books. It’s not that you couldn’t write legislation that would prevent bailouts if followed. It’s that the current Congress can’t prevent any future Congress from passing bailout legislation. Given that bailouts tend to be one-offs, nothing changes.
The current legislation, if followed, would prevent bailouts. Yes, it sets up a $50 billion fund to use in the event of the failure of a large bank not covered by the FDIC. In order to use it, the shareholders get wiped out, the executives get fired, and the debt holders probably take a haircut. If that’s your definition of a bailout, I’d hate to see what you would define as liquidation.
El Cid
@kay: Republicans: ‘This means Nancy Pelosi can take over any business where somebody says somethin’ about health care or wants to sell French fries or tries to survive without a union.’
Menzies
@eemom:
Hear, hear.
Sentient Puddle
I see that TPM has video of Dodd on the floor. It is indeed pretty awesome.
kay
@El Cid:
Ha! I thought about that. “Take over” right? You don’t like that. You see that starring in a future Tweet.
Just take it out. It’s not like anyone ever understood why they needed authority to “seize” anyway. Just skip that part. Water under the bridge!
I’m not expecting them to explain this to Republicans. That can’t be done.
I’m just talking about general chit-chat with the bobbleheads.
kay
@El Cid:
They should say “GIANT” and “50 billion” a lot, too. I personally love the word “giant”. A giant bank.
No one likes those.
liberal
@jl:
Uh, I rather thought the point was to enact reforms that will dramatically lessen the chance of the system crashing in the first place. Not that I think that either party is interested in doing that.
Tom Betz
Henry Wallace was a freakin’ prophet.
liberal
@Sentient Puddle:
There are many things that could be done to radically restructure the financial system, and not all of them involve returning to the gold standard.
Tom Hilton
@mai naem: Bad news: his name is George Lakoff, and he doesn’t know shit about what works.
trollhattan
@Short Bus Bully:
Made me look, you did.
http://www.google.com/images?q=sleestak&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=wyzGS9nRB4HasQO1zMS2DQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CA8QsAQwAA&safe=active
FTW, etc…
b-psycho
@Sentient Puddle:
By definition if a bailout is necessary, then, w/r/t the design of the financial system Ur Doin It Wrong…
That said, if it honestly can only be accessed if the morons that trigger its necessity get nailed to the fucking wall like J Michael Neal describes*, then I suppose it’d make sense in context. And for that reason, I fully expect it to be gutted to nothing.
(* – another measure to be considered: a ban on the executives involved from holding future board positions with a financial company. Seriously, if we’re going to bother perpetuating this system, threatening systemic failure should damn near be death.)
SomeoneWhoOncePostedUnderaDifferentName
You were referring to Wall Street’s payroll, right?
Sentient Puddle
@liberal:
If any of these things also have the side effect of not ever having to be in the position of ever having to bail out banks ever again, then please, by all means, pass those ideas along to congress. They’d love to hear about them. Otherwise, it totally misses the point I was making (is there any reason you chopped off the rest of my quote?).
@b-psycho:
What definition? I’m not even sure we’re on the same page with your premise.
Jay C
@fourlegsgood:
Sorry, but disagree on this – Republicans (well, those in power, anyway) are slaves to the Money Power (and have been since Grant’s day), and are the creatures of Wall Street – despite parroting the phony Teabagger BS they think will get them “populist” cred, I’m sure they will find something – anything – to oppose any real financial-market reform over: the only trick will be finding the right “hook” to hang their reflexive oppositionism on. I don’t think their failed strategy a la HCR (i.e., lie, stall, vote “NO” on everything, and them blame the Dems/liberals/the Media when nothing gets done) will work this time: but given the caliber of GOP intellect at work in Congress (especially in the Senate), gthey just might think it worth another go….
Alex
The Dodd has got no mercy.
David in NY
@Jay C:
“Republicans (well, those in power, anyway) are slaves to the Money Power (and have been since Grant’s day)”
Oddly, I recently read pretty much these words in my great-grandfather’s diary from around the election of 1912, I believe. Not that the Democrats or Wilson were so great (though great-grandpa really liked Wilson, whom he saw as a successor to Bryan, probably wrongly), but the Republicans were pretty bad.
The Populist
@kay:
In the good old days that the tea bagging right like to talk about (the days of the founding fathers) there were corporate charters:
Basically corporate charters could be revoked over any abuses or if the company was working against the will of the people. It surprises me these buffoons who talk about our founding fathers do not realize how LIBERAL they saw things.
The Populist
@jl:
The government should reserve the right to save any corporate entity that is vital to our national identity. Having just said this, I do believe that a special tax be enacted for any corporation “too big to fail” that follows what the dems are pushing: All companies over a certain size must pay into a kitty to be used solely for covering losses created by any large corporation that brings down many smaller ones if it were to fail.
DBrown
What a find! A demorat with a spine! Could this strange aliment be contagious? Could the win in Florida be a sign that if you support Obama, have a backbone, and tell the truth about the lying thugs, then good things happen?
jl
To commenters who object to ‘bailout’.
The problems with responses to my comment that we cannot end bailouts after financial crashes are the following, IMHO:
1. we do not know of any measures that will surely prevent financial panics and crashes in the future. We know of ways to prevent them from being really humungous, but that is about all. Despite the best efforts, future panics and crashes might be big enough to cause a serious recession in the real economy
2. Any measure that spreads buying power around after a panic and crash can be called a bailout. The proposal to create something similar to the government holding company in the Great Depression that bought up distressed homes at a discount and then later sold them at a modest profit back to ordinary people, was called a ‘bailout’ of irresponsible mortgage holders. Bankruptcy proceedings are a form of bailout for certain stakeholders.
3. Bank and financial company runs that cause a huge financial panic and mess up the real economy can occur among medium and smaller firms. That is what happened when the previous Great Recession of 1929 spiraled out of control in the early 30s into the depths of the Great Depression.
So, IMHO, there will be bailouts in the future. The only question is whethre they are ‘good’ bailouts that help the ordinary people doing useful real things, or ‘bad’ bailouts that reward useless financial shenanigans and fraud and irresponsibility and gaming of the system.
frosty
@colleeniem:
More proof that one’s political bias is set by who was president when one was 18. The Reagan era. I know some colleagues around that age who make a living trying to protect and restore the environment who parrot the remainder of the Republican line. Gah indeed.
frosty
@Nick:
Nailed it FTW.
aimai
I haven’t read this yet but “Slavery By Another Name” is supposed to be a stunning book about the effective re-enslavement of african american men in the south right up until the modern period. And, of course, it was one of the key compromises on the original social security act that it wouldn’t apply to field labor/black labor because the southern senators didn’t want mere security from want in extreme old age to keep elderly black men from working in the fields.
aimai
Slomo
I’m waiting for someone to sue the SEC about Reg D as it stands, much less if it becomes more discriminatory.
Why should any class of investors be able to invest in a company just because of that investor’s net worth or annual income. Are they supposed to be fucking smarter because they have a trust from the grandparents or some fucking thing?
This is complete bullshit and unconstitutional. Where does the SEC get this bullshit power in the first place. Why should smart investors who have less than a million dollars in annual income or less than 2.5 million or some other fucking arbitrary number not get to invest in startups, while rich people can? I’ll tell you why. Because the fucking lawyers in the Senate are a bunch of fucking sycophants to the rich people club. The US Senate is the modern monarchy of America. They fill their pockets by pandering to the rich.
This whole idea that the SEC or these regulations protect unsophisticated investors is the biggest crock of stinking bullshit on the face of the earth. What. We don’t have access to information? Anyone with a fucking computer and a free Google spreadsheet has more than enough tools to decide whether to invest in a startup.
Fuck DODD. Fuck the SEC. All they are doing is protecting the already wealthy, not helping the average investor. When are Americans going to wake the fuck up and tell their bullshit, monarchist government to fuck off. Fuck off and leave us alone. We don’t need your fucking 1940’s laws to protect us from fraudulent securities brokers. We can do just fine without the help of our fucking US government, you fucking arrogant assholes. Stick with delivering the mail, checking luggage at the airport, and writing check to welfare recipients, you fucking incompetent government hacks.
Stay the fuck away from me and out of my life.