It's happening in the Republican gubernatorial primary in Texas, and the high - profile GOP Senate primary in Florida. Sarah Palin is doing it too. Conservatives are running against Wall Street and the influence of big money special interests.
The GOP's fealty to whatever their lobbyist bosses tell them to do should be the party's biggest vulnerability. But Republicans are simply ignoring reality and pretending to oppose their K Street overlords. The question in my mind is why are so many Democrats letting them? We don't have time to waste here. We're already going to be playing catch - up.
Wall Street and K Street's best friends are acting like bitter enemies. And if we don't start calling them out on it more forcefully, the Cons' latest deception is going to be surprisingly successful.
President Barack Obama on Thursday is expected to propose new limits on the size and risk taken by the country's biggest banks, marking the administration's latest assault on Wall Street in what could mark a return, at least in spirit, to some of the curbs on finance put in place during the Great Depression, according to congressional sources and administration officials.
Wall Street is a bully that is viscerally and rightfully hated. President Obama and Congressional Democrats need to punch the bully in the mouth.
William M. Daley, President Clinton's Secretary of Commerce recently wrote an op - ed that unintentionally underscored something the Democratic Party needs to come to terms with: Team I Love the 90's is either disingenuous or out of its depth. If the "analysis" of Wall Street Dems like William Daley gains traction, the challenges facing the party will only intensify.
To paraphrase "Ronaldus Magnus," the most terrifying words for a 21st Century Democrat to hear are "I'm a Wall Street Dem from the 90's, and I'm here to help."
Economic recovery, the kind of relationship leading Democrats have with Wall Street and other special interests, and whether the health insurance legislation that is passed is defensible will do a lot towards determining who turns out this November, and who persuadable voters support. At this point, trying to downplay the enthusiasm gap, or thinking that it's going to improve without concrete achievements on major issues (the issues the Democratic trifecta was elected to deal with), is borderline delusional.
Here is some weekend reading that drives these points home.
Finally a Representative body, that knows WHO they work for ...
Class war breaks out in the U.K. The Labor government announces a tax on exorbitantly-paid bankers. American populists gnash their teeth in envy
By Andrew Leonard, Dec 9, 2009
Unsurprising headline of the year: "U.S. Probably Will Avoid Matching U.K. 50 percent Bonus Tax."
Alistair Darling, the U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced the tax -- aimed squarely at overpaid bankers
[...]
From Bloomberg:
"There are some banks who still believe their priority is to pay substantial bonuses," Darling said in Parliament. "I am giving them a choice. They can use their profits to build up their capital base. If they insist on paying substantial rewards, I am determined to claw money back for the taxpayer."
Paul Krugman says the move is "entirely reasonable." Justin Fox asks, "why the heck not?" Felix Salmon says "well done."
Members of the House Populist Caucus, chaired by Representative Bruce Braley (IA-01), held a press conference on Thursday to endorse a bill that would "assess a small fee on Wall Street day traders to pay down the national deficit and invest in America's middle class families."
The Democratic Party is careening towards a political train wreck. That may sound hyperbolic to some, but it's the truth. It's difficult to overstate the extent to which what is accomplished in the next few months is going to set the stage for 2010 and beyond. If President Obama and Congressional Democrats can't show real progress on the major domestic issues that got them elected, the party is going to be in serious trouble.
The strategic incompetence we're seeing, even though it's clear that Democrats will either live up to their rhetoric about standing up for working Americans or lose in a big way, is stunning.
If you missed Dylan Ratigan's interview today with Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) -- well you missed a lot!
They spell out in stark relief the very REAL need for serious Wall Street Regulation -- NOW! (and still!)
Or we risk a repeat of the same Bubble-driven collapse of Trillion Dollar Derivative Bets, that occur in the dark, beyond the reach -- or even the Watch -- of any Govt Regulator, or even the Public scrutinity.
Nothing has changed, they can STILL Gamble Trillions in Derivatives, and let US the Taxpayers pick up the Tab, whenever their Bets GO Bad!
FRONTLINE INVESTIGATES THE ROOTS OF THE FINANCIAL CRISIS
FRONTLINE Presents
The Warning
Tuesday, October 20, 2009, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS
In the devastating aftermath of the economic meltdown, FRONTLINE sifts through the ashes for clues about why it happened and examines critical moments when it might have gone much differently.
In The Warning, airing Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2009, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS (check local listings), veteran FRONTLINE producer Michael Kirk (Inside the Meltdown, Breaking the Bank) unearths the hidden history of the nation's worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. At the center of it all he finds Brooksley Born, who speaks for the first time on television about her failed campaign to regulate the secretive, multi-trillion-dollar derivatives market whose crash helped trigger the financial collapse in the fall of 2008.
Robert Reich being interviewed by Australian Broadcasting Corporation, snuck in a pretty good one-liner, I thought might be worth sharing:
ROBERT REICH, PUBLIC POLICY, UNI, OF CALIFORNIA: I wish I could say, Ali, that there were a lot of lessons learned on Wall Street. There don't seem to be. [...]
And yet the public is now out almost $600 billion, having cushioned the blow of the last round of risky ventures that Wall Street entered into. So, I wish I could be more optimistic and upbeat about where Wall Street has come to, but I don't think they've learned a thing.
ALI MOORE: Why is it? Why haven't the lessons been learned? Why is it that nothing has changed?
ROBERT REICH: A word with five letters: it's greed.
[Here's the one-liner]
If you take the greed out of Wall Street, all you're really left with -- is Pavement!
