Shrill But True

Krugman:

... the failure to get a deal reflects the betrayals of the Bush years. Democrats weren’t going to trust Henry Paulson, because behind him they see the ghost of Colin Powell (and Paulson’s “all your bailout are belong to me” proposal, aside from being bad economics, showed an incredible tone-deafness.)

And after the way the Bushies and their allies double-crossed the Democrats again and again in the aftermath of 9/11 — demand national unity, then accuse you of being soft on terrorists anyway — there’s no way Pelosi and Reed will do the responsible but unpopular thing unless the Republicans agree to share ownership.

So what we now have is non-functional government in the face of a major crisis, because Congress includes a quorum of crazies and nobody trusts the White House an inch.


I don't actually know that the responsible thing is the unpopular thing, but if it is, John Mccain and the Republican Party need to be super-glued to the Democratic majority as they all go sailing over the cliff together. No way, no how, no punk'd. How many times are they supposed to put their heads in the lion's mouth?

For another view, here's Thomas Frank in the WSJ, suggesting that if McCain want's to understand 'what went wrong" all he has to do is call upon the people staffing the Straighttalk Express: they were among those responsible, including the candidate himself

Here's just one example:

Mr. McCain could call Kevin Hassett, one of his senior economic advisers, who declared back in March in the Bangkok Post that the blame for the current crisis could be laid at the feet of "out-of-control government regulation," mainly in the form of municipal smart-growth initiatives. (That's right: The man whispering in the candidate's ear seemed to once believe that not-in-my-backyard suburbanites caused the worst financial collapse since 1929.)


Hey, that's nothing to what most right wingers are saying these days: it's all about the black and the Mexicans. I wrote about that earlier, Glennzilla finds even more evidence:

National Review's Mark Krikorian notes that (1) Washington Mutual became the largest bank to fail in American history yesterday and (2) its last press release touted the fact that it was named one of America's most diverse employers, having been "honored specifically for its efforts to recruit Hispanic employees, reach out to Hispanic consumers and support Hispanic communities and organizations"; for being "named [one of] the top 60 companies for Hispanics"; for "attaining equal rights for GLBT employees and consumers"; for having "earned points for competitive diversity policies and programs, including the recently established Latino, African American and GLBT employee network groups"; and for being "named one of 25 Noteworthy Companies by Diversity Inc magazine and one of the Top 50 Corporations for Supplier Diversity by Hispanic Enterprise magazine."

While juxtaposing these two facts -- (1) WaMu has a racially and ethnically diverse workforce and (2) WaMu collapsed yesterday -- the National Review writer headlined his post: "Cause and Effect?" He apparently believes that the reason Washington Mutual failed may be because it employed and was too accommodating to large numbers of Hispanics, African-Americans and gays.


When you're on the ropes, blame the blacks, browns and homos. What else have they got?


Meanwhile, a few Democratic senators have put forth a new plan that sounds at least a little bit more responsible. This item sounds like common sense to me:

Second, the funds requested by the Treasury Department should be released in installments. A 'tranched' approach would permit the Congress to properly fulfill its oversight role and to monitor the implementation of a new regulatory structure.


Now, that may not accomplish what Paulson and Bernanke think that the big whopping 700 billion dollar confetti drop on Wall Street will accomplish, namely a "slap in the face" but that may actually be a good thing. The markets may be hysterical but they aren't likely to be calmed down by the Treasury Secretary throwing around piles of money for sheer effect.


Update: Someone should send this to Sarah Palin so she can put it on her crib sheet.


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