Posted on 10/09/2008 2:39:52 PM PDT by fightinJAG
Chris Dodd, the populist hero? Chris Dodd, the protector of taxpayers? Chris Dodd, the Sheriff of Wall Street? Puh-leeze.
How about Chris Dodd, the guy who helped steer us into this mess in the first place? Or Chris Dodd, the guy who spent a career passing laws friendly to banks and taking gobs of their money whenever election time rolled around?
[snip]
But Dodd's record is marked by votes to loosen controls over the banking and securities industries that his Senate Banking Committee was supposed to be overseeing. Most notably, Dodd voted to repeal the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act, therefore allowing commercial banks, investment banks and insurance companies to merge into the risk-taking goliaths such as Washington Mutual, at the heart of this recent meltdown.
[snip]
Dodd says campaign contributions he gets from Wall Street have no influence over his decision-making. Do you believe him?
No, because he's been getting them for 25 years. And he told me once he didn't even have to raise money in Connecticut in the Democratic Party because he gets so much from the securities industry. He gets their mind set. He knows how to be panicked when they panic. He supported the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act [of 1995], which insulated the corporate law firms and accounting firms from security class actions. He was the big protector.
This is a great story: Chris Dodd was co-chair of the Democratic National Committee, which means usually they are loyal to their president. The minute Clinton vetoed the Securities Reform Act, Dodd raced over to the White House to mobilize an override. The firms wanted immunity and Chris Dodd gave it to them.
Does this crisis all go back to the 1998 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act?
Sure. And Chris Dodd supported the repeal.
(Excerpt) Read more at newhavenadvocate.com ...
Go Ralph!
Geesh, even Ralph Nader gets it!!! Bush IS STUPID since he doesn’t!!
RALPH! Ol’ buddy! Pleeeeze peel off about 10% of liberals who want to vote for change and not Obama or McCain! Pretent you are Ross Perot!
Please???
Good someone is saying it, and it should be flung around the necks of the Democrats in Congress. They should not be allowed to weasel out of their responsibility in all this; and should certainly not be allowed to have their fingers in managing the bailout money. If they could lay it on a Republican, they would be building his gallows now.
Nader is one odd duck. Odd frames of reference, but occasionally he has moments of real insight...
I don’t generally agree with Nader on the issues (understatement), but I admire the guy’s tenacity and his willingness to blast Dodd and Frank on this mess.
I am confused. Reading this and from what I have heard, I’m thinking that President Reagan also worked to cut regulations on the banking industry or maybe it was Wall Street, I don’t remember. But then as a Conservative, I want less government in my life. So, if they worked to deregulate it, how, besides them all being greedy b*st*rds, and the Dem’s pushing to get more poor people beholding to them did deregulating hurt? Were the regulations that they worked to get rid of the “good” regulations? Usually regulations are what stifle business. Help
Chris Dodd’s father, Tom, himself a US Senator, was censured by the Senate for using campaign contributions for himself. The fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree, as history instructs.
In general, conservatives have been for deregulation or for decreasing regulation of private business.
But Fannie and Freddie were quasi-government agencies. They held out the implication that all their transactions were “insured” by the U.S. Government. (As it turns out, the implication basically was correct, eh?)
Fannie and Freddie needed the depth and type of regulation that was otherwise imposed by the market on “free” enterprise. That didn’t happen because the Rats defeated every single attempt to avert the catastrophe that was Fannie and Freddie.
This is our job over the next year or so. We have to do it. And we can.
Thanks.
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.