Posted on 04/22/2010 12:58:32 PM PDT by seanmerc
WASHINGTON -- Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell met with two dozen top Wall Street executives recently and got his marching orders:
Just say “no” to any new regulations designed to prevent another Great Recession, the worst economic calamity since the Great Depression in the 1930s.
But something happened soon afterward. Faced with the politically tough strategy of defending Wall Street amid widespread public anger, McConnell stepped back and has begun talking about how a bipartisan bill to regulate Wall Street is likely to emerge from the Senate.
I bet he got some strong advice from fellow Republicans, especially those facing re-election in November, along this line: This is not a great time for Republicans to be in bed with Wall Street, their natural constituency.
And I can imagine that the mail and phone calls from constituents made it clear to McConnell that he was on the wrong side of the Wall Street issue, especially in the aftermath of the SEC charges against Goldman Sachs for its double dealing.
The SEC may not win its legal case against Goldman, but Goldman has certainly lost its luster in the court of public opinion as the result of the charges and the apparent facts that underlie them.
It was certainly timely for the SEC to go after Goldman Sachs just as Congress was taking up financial reform legislation. Perhaps the Goldman Sachs fiasco will reignite voter rage over the greed and the Wild West mentality that anything goes on Wall Street, as long as you don’t get caught.
I grew up in the Depression and saw big men selling apples on the corner, men and women huddled against the terrible cold, scrounging to buy coal to heat their homes. There was hunger and hopelessness and much sacrifice.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt did not hesitate to act. He drew political support for his sweeping legislative program by capitalizing on Wall Street’s bad name. In his 1933 Inaugural address (best known for the “Fear itself” sequence), Roosevelt zeroed in on Wall Street excesses.
“The practices of the unscrupulous moneychangers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men,” FDR proclaimed. . ..”They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision, the people perish. The moneychangers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. ‘’
President Barack Obama should read those penetrating insights of one of his greatest predecessors when he travels to Wall Street on Thursday to deliver a much anticipated speech about financial reform at Cooper Union, the college where Abraham Lincoln made a historic speech against slavery in 1860.
I have to pinch myself every now and then to remember that it really is true: Nothing has been done to prevent the kind of financial meltdown that began three years ago. Nothing. I blame the cowards in Congress for failing to act during this time. And I assign partial fault to Obama for not putting financial reform higher on his agenda.
The time to act is now. And Congress and Obama need to act with courage and toughness. It’s time to stand up to Wall Street.
Yoo-hoo, Helen Thomas ping list members! Another dose of liberal lunacy from our intrepid newsbabe...
By giving back all that campaign money, Helen??
Yeah, didn't think so. Now, go be fat & ugly somewhere else.
Hey Helen, I hear that old fart at CNN, Larry King is on the market and available for you sweetie!
Why does “standing up to Wall Street” mean never ending bailouts?
Only a couple trillion dollars worth of nothing, but I guess that's chump change compared to what Zero has in mind for the future.
Like Camille Paglia says, how has my party (Democrat) developed the desire to rush to a central all powerful government?
It's amazing, how totalitarianism is the fashion among Democrats.
Which is why the great recession became the Great Depression.
I like Wall St. I like money. I like capitalism. I like freedom, even the freedom to fail. America and Wall St. has created more wealth and made more people happy and well off than any other system in the world.
That it was. How's things at Pravda Helen?
did they take Helen to a taxidermist when she died?
It doesnt ...congress wants to take it over so they can fix it like they do everything else...
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.