An Unlikely ally in the 2009 Bailout War?

In politics, often times you find allies who you never thought you would have, but have decided necessity and temporary convenience make for a common cause.

Has Moveon.org jumped to our way of thinking on corporate bailouts? And if so, can we assemble a Right/Left coalition to fight the Great 2009 Bailout War?

Perhaps. Consider their recent mass e-mail

Dear MoveOn member,

Enough already!

We gave the banks $350 billion. It was supposed to get them lending again, to help companies and consumers get credit. But the credit markets are still frozen and the economy's getting worse. 

Now Treasury is asking Congress for the remaining $350 billion in bailout funds.1  No more oversight. No strings attached. Just $350 billion that could be spent on health care, or green jobs, or more teachers—going instead into the black hole that is our financial system.

We can't let that happen. Please sign our emergency petition:

"Not another dime for Wall Street until we understand where the previous bailout money went—and why the bailout didn't work as expected."

Clicking here will add your name:

http://pol.moveon.org/bailout3/o.pl?id=15290-9234983-PGJEvbx&t=4

What happened to our bailout money? The banks won't tell the media, or Congress, or the Government Accountability Office!2

But we do know a few things.

Banks appear to have used much of the money to buy other banks.3 As one analysis found, the bailout "touched off a banking-sector version of 'Let's Make a Deal,' in which the biggest U.S. banks are using government money to get even bigger."

Then there's good old-fashioned waste. Insurance giant AIG, for example, spent $442,000 on a lavish corporate spa retreat just days after receiving $85 billion of taxpayer money.4 How much got wasted? We don't know, since there's zero accountability or oversight.

What the banks don't seem to have done is lend the money out. The credit markets are still frozen.5 Companies that need loans can't get them. Consumers can't get credit to buy cars.

In other words: driven by greed, Wall Street brought our economy to its knees through bad lending and complex financial instruments based on little more than air. Then Wall Street got took our bailout money and seems to have spent it on everything BUT getting the economy moving.

And now they want $350 billion more.

No. Way. Not 'til we understand what happened, and know that the money will go to something that actually benefits our economy.

Please click here and sign our petition:

http://pol.moveon.org/bailout3/o.pl?id=15290-9234983-PGJEvbx&t=5

Let's not let this happen!

Thanks for all you do.

–Noah, Carrie, Patrick S., Joan and the rest of the team

Sources:

Now, I'd rather NOT use the extra $350 Billion to ramp up government social spending as far as the eye can see. But, if the Left decides it's tired of bailoutmania, this is going to place major pressure on Democrats in the House and Senate to recant their previous positions in favor of throwing money at failed business models.

I have not seen any recent polling on the Wall Street bailout , but I find it hard to believe they are held in higher esteem than the car companies , whose bailout is rather unpopular    One of the benefits of seeking common ground to liberals aghast at corporate welfare is obvious---it depoliticizes the opposition and makes opposition a matter of thoughful public policy, not reflexize partisan attitudes.  It creates a big tent for moderates and independents to see this is not just some hard-line conservative ideologues preaching Adam Smith who think it's time to make free enterprise be free of federal revenue.

There is also a predicament for Pelosi, Reid, Dodd and Frank. Since their party will be managing the bailout in a few weeks (and since the Democrats were too dense to replace their front men on this issue ) it's their problem now, and the people who allowed the problem to occur and wrote the remedy bill are now fully in charge.

Chris Dodd in particular is at risk. His recent CT poll numbers for re-election are upside down    and only large numbers of Democrats are keeping him near the waterline. (26% of Democrats are definitely for his re-election; only 5-6% of non-Democrats) But 8% of Democrats are definitely NOT voting for him. Can Chris Dodd survive losing support from his Left? It's not like CT Democrats haven;t turned before on a long time Senator whom they decided had  sold them out?    (one CT blogger has even suggested Rep. Chris Murphy might find Dodd weak enough to challenge in a Democratic primary )

Now this all may be self-serving drivel from Moveon. org the ostensible "grassroots" organization heavily bankrolled by some of the prime suspects in creating the mortgage meltdown, Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Sandler   And it's not like they haven't had an Orwellian conversion before about an anti-consumer, pro-Wall Street Democrat they once pilloried, and now champion . (Ironic that the press sees no irony in Obama appointed the "Senator from MBNA" as the "honcho' for the middle class ) . Like, "what the Auk?"

But we really ought to take this an run with this. Either we gain a powerful, albeit temporary ally in the latest battle for fiscal responsiblity...and that would be great..

or we expose Moveon.org as an unprincipled partisan fraud unwilling to challenge their own party. I can live with that, too.

Either way, we unite our present allies and divide our opponents. And all for a good cause, too.