UMMMMMMMMMMMM, Crap Sandwich
Posted on 10/01/2008 4:21:32 AM PDT by Kaslin
On Sunday evening, Republican House Minority Leader John A. Boehner explained his considered opinion on the $700 billion Wall Street bailout plan: It's a "crap sandwich," he said, but he was going to eat it.
Well, it turned out he couldn't shove it down his colleagues' throats. The bill failed on a bipartisan basis, but it was the Republicans who failed to deliver the votes they promised. Some complained that Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi drove them to switch their votes with her needlessly partisan floor speech on the subject. Of course Pelosi's needlessly partisan. This is news?
The Republican complaint is beyond childish. Democratic Rep. Barney Frank, a man saturated with guilt for this crisis, nonetheless was right to ridicule the GOP crybabies on Monday. "I'll make an offer," he said. "Give me (their) names and I will go talk uncharacteristically nicely to them and tell them what wonderful people they are and maybe they'll now think about the country."
Would that Frank had been imbued with such a spirit earlier. Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has spent the last few years ridiculing Alan Greenspan, John McCain and others who sought more regulation for Fannie Mae's market-distorting schemes - the fons et origo of this financial crisis. Now he says "the private sector got us into this mess." His partner in crime, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), a chief beneficiary of Fannie Mae lobbyists' largesse, claims this mess is the result of poor oversight - without even hinting at the fact he is in charge of oversight of banks. They sound like pimps complaining about the prevalence of STDs among prostitutes.
And let us not forget that House Democrats, with a 31-seat majority, could not get 95 of their own to vote for the bailout, largely because it didn't provide enough taxpayer money to their left-wing special interests. Would that they thought about the country.
The one man who truly tried to treat this crisis like a crisis - McCain - was ridiculed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who implored him to come to Washington to help in the first place. And the news media, which now treat any Republican action that threatens a Barack Obama victory as inherently dishonorable, uncritically accepted the bald Democratic lie that McCain ruined a bipartisan bailout deal last Friday.
This is not to say that McCain knows what to do. Faced with an unprecedented financial crisis involving frozen global credit markets and a maelstrom of moral hazard, his standard response is to talk about wiping out earmarks and eliminating waste, fraud and abuse. Memo to Mr. McCain: Waste, fraud and abuse are the only things holding the system together at this point.
Obama is no better. The man has spent two weeks irresponsibly excoriating his opponent for saying the fundamentals of the economy are strong - a perfectly leaderly thing for McCain to have said during a panic. Then, campaigning in Colorado on Monday, the day the Dow plunged 777.68 points, Obama proclaimed: "We've got the long-term fundamentals that will really make sure this economy grows."
Perhaps after al-Qaida seizes Baghdad, a President Obama would finally declare, "Hey, we can win this thing!"
Meanwhile, President Bush, his popularity ratings stuck at below-freezing numbers, has decided to cling to Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson for warmth on the grounds that the vaunted former Goldman Sachs CEO has the credibility to sell the solution to a problem he's been exacerbating for 18 months. When a reporter for Forbes magazine asked a Treasury spokesman last week why Congress had to lay out $700 billion, the answer came back: "It's not based on any particular data point. We just wanted to choose a really large number."
There's a confidence builder.
As for the reputedly free-market purists of the congressional GOP, with whom my sympathies generally lie, I cannot let pass without comment the fact that they controlled the legislative branch for most of the last eight years. Only now, when capitalism is in flames, does this fire brigade try to enforce the free-market fire codes without compromise.
I loathe populism. But if there ever has been a moment when reasonable men's hands itch for the pitchfork, this must surely be it. No one is blameless. No one is pure. Two decades of crapulence by the political class has been prologue to the era of coprophagy that is now upon us. It is crap sandwiches for as far as the eye can see.
Share:
Get rid of them all. It’s time to wipe the slate clean and start all over.
No, just get rid of the Dems. This is their fiasco.
UMMMMMMMMMMMM, Crap Sandwich
This piece should wipe the permanently sculpted crap-eating grin off Pelosi’s fake face.
.jpg)
That the dems loaded this up with Acorns just burns me up. BIG TIME
And of course, the media is complicit in blaming the Bush administration for all the ills of the world.
No, this is a dim only debacle.
LLS
Read through this thread first. Bush is just as to blame as anyone else.
There's a new word ~ "Feeding on excrement"
How horridly accurate.
Headline on CNBC web site a couple hours ago:
“GOP House Members Forging Alternative Bailout Plan”
Maybe, just maybe, our guys are gonna seize this issue.
How? During those years that Bush was supposedly "warning" the world about this problem he had a Republican controlled Congress. Why was nothing passed to prevent this?
If you saw Pelosi and Frank in their post vote speech crying crocidile tears it was obvious they never intended to pass this bill on the first vote. By the end of the press conference Barney was downright giddy. They’re playing the Republicans like a cheap drum. Just look at the polls. The Republicans are letting the media run their campaigns.
VP debate moderator writing a book on Obama?
The Republicans have no idea who we’re up against, talk about taking a knife to gunfight.
You can’t fight corrupt people and be nice about it
LLS
Sorry, this thing dates back to the Clonton era (courtesy of Jesse Jackson).
I do not feel obligate to blame Republicans when such blame is not justified.
I can't stand it when someone, especially somone like Jonah who knows better, says capitalism is in flames. If you are going to make lemonade out of lemons, I don't know how any more than jerks like Frank.
Maybe we should let an unbiased arbiter handle it. Let the market take care of it.
LLS
There's a confidence builder.
I'm just... speechless.
Would that it were.
The roots of the debacle are in government interventions pushed by Democrat ideology.
But just about all GOP politicians have been happy to go along. There were voters to pander to with mortgages they couldn’t really afford and political contributions to be gotten from businesses that made money by selling the mortgages and building the houses.
Dang few Republicans stood up and pointed out that it “wouldn’t be prudent” to put people into houses they couldn’t afford.
Nobody, especially not voters, likes a party-pooper.
Of course now all the party promoters, of both political parties, are acting like they never heard of the party before last month.
Bush is just as to blame as anyone else...... I agree, and would add the Republican Congress that couldn’t find the bottom of the cash barrel fast enough are as much to blame as Dims.
Draining the swamp, overlooking red alligators and removing the blue leaves a breeding population of red alligators. That just makes us look like fools in a couple of years where we look at the swamp and say “Hey, where did these red alligators come from?”
The Dems are desperate. Obama sympathizers need to constantly be exposed and shut down.
Pelosi got “played” by Boehner.
..in fairness, some of those courageous House Republicans-(Jeb Hensarling, Texas, for one--& he was strong Monday!)
... ... are fairly new to the political machinations of DC
.. and can't be held as acountable as the old guard--the more seasoned ones who should have protected us years ago.
Oh, you trust the waterboys but no one else. That's good.
Still, answer my question: "During those years that Bush was supposedly "warning" the world about this problem he had a Republican controlled Congress. Why was nothing passed to prevent this?"
Where are bills introduced and pushed by Bush? Show me proof of what Bush did. Don't just be a parrot.
Exactly! The Dims blocked every attempt to pass legislation by either bottling it up in committee or loading it with pork. They also had the full support of a compliant media and the rest of the leftist ‘community-activist’ set ready to demagogue and scream ‘Racism’ if the Republicans made any move to control these give-away ‘loan’ scams.
Jonah’s columns have gone from exceptional to mediocre as he has become more ‘established’ as a journalist. I’m afraid he has started down the path blazed by Kathie Parker and good,old Peg Noonan.
LLS
Bush PUSHED for expanding Fannie and Freddie's expanding purchases of GSE's.
Oh, wait, let me check my 3x5 cards......sorry, I guess we already fell for that one.......
Good one, after drinking the Koolade, you want more
"There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as a result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved."
---Ludwig Von Mises
I am constantly amazed at how so many on FR are beginning to look like the DailyKOS idgits in their blind devotion to the “party”.
These ideas included 1) requiring all assets be listed on balance sheets marked to market or with the valuation method explicitly stated [transparent balance sheets] 2) a regulated exchange for credit derivative securities 3) re-institution of the pre-2004 12:1 limit on leverage within six months (1/6 of the difference each month) 4) forcing all insolvent firms into involuntary receivership 5) paying off only that which was explicitly federally-backed.
No, Mr. Goldberg, many of us are clean in this. I suspect you agree. Perhaps we should invest the pensions of the congress critters and their staffs to buy any toxic assets before any of my tax dollars are invested. Let them take the riskiest tranch and I'll seriously consider backing a lesser risk one. Our congress critter's "skin" in the game is the only way to insure appropriate oversight.
NEXT
Mark Foley didn’t actually do anything illegal, just disgusting.
Pelosi got exactly what she wanted, another chance to keep the economy front and center with the Republicans taking the blame. Pelosi isn’t stupid. She didn’t get where she is by being nice. 14 democrats on Franks committee voted against the bill, 95 dims against and who gets the credit? The Republicans get the credit because Pelosi was mean to them and they couldn’t take it according to MSM.
At least when they saw how the dims were voting they did realize the fix was in.
dims blocked every attempt. Why should I trust you over someone that has earned my trust... day in and day out over 20 years? Some of you need a reality check badly. Like I asked... why should I trust you? What makes you so right and righteous? I really want to know.
LLS
I just miss the days when just the politicians were unethical.
I’m in the same boat as you. I stand to lose my retirement from this fiasco. I like your ideas.
Boehner has been an extreme disappointment these last couple of years....he needs to spend less time on his hair and more time doing the people’s work in the people’s house.
In case you haven't noticed there are plenty of threads blaming the dems. I want them in jail. But. Ignoring the fact that Bush and his cronies who headed up HUD (Martinez and Jackson) is just as bad. I know how this originated. I also know that Bush and the GOP are also to blame for letting it get out of hand. It's simply the truth.
Why do so many want to absolve the GOP from this?
I love Jonah but he is repeating the “crap” the Dems want repeated.
I was on the live thread. There were very few Rs who spoke in agreement. There were many Ds that spoke in disagreement.
This had nothing to do with Nancy’s speech but that’s what Boehner said (giving them a great soundbite, idiot) and every R pundit is running with it. He is an ass and this is ridiculous. It’s a rewrite of history. They didn’t have the votes on their side. That’s why it didn’t pass.
Rs and our “friends” need to stop making us look stupid.
The American people have done this to ourselves by continuing to put people in office for life. I have been hearing that we need to "throw the bums out" my entire adult life. But unless they die in office, some of the worst offenders will continue to get reelected until they finally can't hide they senility. And some (like Byrd and Kennedy) will continue even after that.
The House Republicans pulled-off a stunning victory Monday.
Therefore, Boehner is a hero in this matter.
I got that he was referring to politicians in this article.
Now,now, I read here on FR a couple days ago Boehner should lose his job. In 2006 it was teach the Rino’s a lesson,seems today we aren’t to thrilled with that lesson.
OTOH. . .the initial impetus that made it all possible; and the resistance for addressing abuse; the persistance in ensuring it's longevity, has - up to this moment - more Democrats 'brown-bagging' this lunch.
As for Pelosi. . .she should know that it is one thing to have an opponent eat a crap sandwich; and another, to have it publicly smeared all over their face before having the rest of the lunch stuffed down the the public's throat, as well.
Would have told her to 'stuff it', too. And have, actually. . .
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.