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Now that Rick Wagoner has been fired at GM
Could someone mind explaining why Chris Dodd still has his job running the Senate Banking Commitee.
Wagoner's departure under durress proves one thing: Dodd had the chance to write a real auto recovery package before Christmas
And once again, he "pulled a Plaxico"
Reposted from 12/15/08.
I suggest nothing has changed except we've wasted 90 days and about $25 billion. Nice job, Chairman Dodd.
Talking Head Chris Dodd appeared on Face the Nation this morning. His statements will be remembered for their breathtaking chutzpah
A key senator says the nation's car companies should have to replace top executives in exchange for a long-term bailout package from Congress.
Sen. Chris Dodd heads the Senate Banking Committee. He says he is hopeful Congress will pass a short-term $15 billion aid package for the automakers in the next several days. But the Connecticut Democrat says the companies should have to restructure if they want a more significant bailout from Congress next year.
Dodd says the companies need quick cash to avoid collapse in the next several weeks. But over the long-term, Dodd says Chrysler probably ought to merge with another company and General Motors should be required to replace chief executive Rick Wagoner.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081207/congress_autos.html
Now, Chris, I'm with you on Wagoner walking the plank. After all, GM is hemorraging money and Wagoner failed to prevent this from happening.
But, shouldn't you be held to the same standard as Rick Wagoner?
You've admitted the Wall Street bailout that you principally drafted largely failed http://thenextright.com/ironman/chris-dodd-on-the-bank-bailout-yep-i-pulled-a-plaxico
You spent the critical month of August 2008 at your vacation home in Ireland instead of working to prevent the financial meltdown http://www.thenextright.com/ironman/oh-doddy-boy-the-banks-the-banks-are-failing
You were the number one recipient of campaign funds from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and your all time top contributor, Citigroup http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cycle=Career&cid=N00000581 just got an early $20 Billion Christmas present from the Treasury, just like all the other friends you have on Wall Street going hat in hand http://thenextright.com/ironman/the-best-senate-banking-chairman-money-can-buy (Funny, I don't recall the heads of Citigroup or Bank of America being asked to tender their resignation prior to getting taxpayer bailout money?)Then again, you've always been a "reliable friend' the banking industry http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/15/AR2007021501555.html
Your "reliable friends" at Countrywide Mortgage are being investigated by the G-Men http://deepbackground.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/10/30/1613877.aspx
You tried to enrich ACORN at the expense of the taxpayers when you drafted the Wall Street Bailout http://thenextright.com/ozarkguru/major-earmark-in-democrat-bailout-agreement
Now, I'm sure you are going to say that Rick Wagoner lacked vision since he failed to foresee the collapse of his industry. Well, how aren't you equally culpable?
You said your bill in July 2008 was the answer to the housing crisis http://blogs.courant.com/on_background/2008/07/housing-bill-finally-heads-to.html
This was after in March of 2007, you said legislation on foreclosures was unnecessary http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E01EEDE1530F930A15750C0A9619C8B63
And before the complete meltdown of the global financial system you said you did not expect "many more banks to fail" http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/dodd-does-not-expect-many-more-banks-to-fail-2008-07-14.html and told people not to "panic" http://www.usnews.com/usnews/politics/bulletin/bulletin_080715.htm
Rick Wagoner has gone through tens of billions of shareholder equity. What is the present estimate of the various financial bailouts out there? (I' ve seen $7 Trillion!) http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/26/news/economy/where_bailout_stands/index.htm?postversion=2008112615
Maybe had Dodd not lived in Iowa in 2007 this could have been avoided http://www.gwu.edu/~action/2008/ia08/doddiavisits07.html
On September 23 I called for Dodd to step down as Banking Committee Chairman
Does anyone think Chris Dodd's performance since September 23 as Banking Committtee Chairman has done anything worthy of his retention?
How has he proven to be any less incompetent than Rick Wagoner?
I await the Senator's response.
- Ironman's blog
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Comments
The fundimental problem of Democracy . . .
I think Churchill said, "Democracy isn't perfect, but it's the best system we have." One problem of democracy is lack of qaulifications to run a powerful institution. I have go through a zillion hoops to be your average code monkey. However, to be elected, you merely have to be half popular. Then you get the right to craft legislation that effect 300 million people and leverages billions of dollars. And you also get the perk of talking down to people who actually do things for a living. No one's going to miss Wagoner, but it had to be be a very tough position to be in.
Kinda fucked up.
--------------------------------------
But it does seem like Dodd may be heading for the chopping block. I wish something more than a change of admin came out of it though.
If Obama is going to demand competence
Dodd, Rangle, and Frank have to go. For starters. They need to be stripped of their committee assignments.
and replaced with who?
Outside of being good at campaigning, you'll find little actual competence in most of the congressmen (0f both parties).
If only sitting in a committee help you run things. . .
At very least
someone who hasn't been bought off by the companies they regulate.
Actually, Rangel should be thrown out of office totally.
they've got tons of money.
what's to stop them from buying off the next shmoo?
(http://www.wallstreetletter.com/ArticleLogin.aspx?ArticleID=1124444)
http://www.newser.com/story/38506/goldman-sachs-is-dcs-top-sugar-daddy.html
as usual, Ironman is utterly oblivious to anything, he is so absorbed in his dodd frenzy.
Goldmann puts money on the winning horse:
http://newsmine.org/content.php?ol=cabal-elite/w-administration/big-mone...
No frenzy, mon frere
I blog about Dodd for the following reasons
a) I live in CT
b) I practiced real estate and banking law for well over a decade; and have lots of colleagues in various banking/real estate fields whom I say in touch with.
c) My undergrad degree was in economics.
There's no point in me blathering on about topics I don't have expertise on. And frankly, there is waay more about Dodd that I could write about, but lack time and bandwidth to say it all.
I'll open this up to the other 49 states. Don't tell me that there aren't equally deserving corrupt Democrats in your nabes. A handful of GOP activists in CT fed the Dodd fire until it became self-sustaining from MSM attention; maybe the rest of the country might learn how it's done?????
As for the "they'll just buy the next guy", routine. so what. Cops know when they bust a bookie or a coke dealer someone else is going to pick up the business. The point is to get rid of the crooks you already know about, and hope for an evolution to less egregious behavior.
Just call me "Mitch McDeere" from The Firm
that would be : Ma soeur, actually ;-)
hate to be the grammar nazi, especially when I don't speak the language in question! ;-)
I think my point is that you're blaming Dodd for things that Dodd hasn't done -- like putting a hold on the Treasury positions -- it's something one or another of the Republicans has done (Paging Coburn).
When you start doing that, and not correcting yourself over multiple posts when I bring it up, well, I get a little annoyed.
I'll draw a little bit of a difference here -- I'd be rather annoyed if Spector or Casey was corrupt, as quite frankly PA nurses off of Philly's teat, and doesn't need to suck money out of other cities. However, I've got much less of a problem with a Murtha -- he's an honorable guy, and corrupt out the wazoo, and everyone who's ever voted for him knows it. He does good for his district, and his district is pure Appalachia -- it could use the money.
Maybe in an ideal world, everything would be distributed fairly, and we wouldn't need corrupt officials.
But I think that there's a much larger problem with blackmail than with campaign donations.
And did you catch what I posted on Goldmann Sachs?
If you can, can you pull a comparison between dodd's contributions from AIG, adn the last (republican) chairman's?
Sure, sure, Aig donated money -- and got bailed out. Can we say that Dodd acted improperly, or that bailing out AIG was the wrong thing to do? For the first bailout, no. For the second? that wasn't even bailing out AIG!
well, if there's a nomination hold
Dodd knows how to use a TV avail to bust someone's ass over it. Obviously, it isn't that big a deal, or maybe he's afraid the folks getting "held" do have embarassments that he'd "buy" as their champion . At this point forget vanity. Fill the positions.
He's the chairman. I expect him to act like one.
I also suspect if Coburn wasn't getting his balls busted so often he might bust fewer himself.
As for AIG, I suspect Joseph Cassano is going to be telling tales about lots of folks once he returns stateside. The only angle I've got figured out was using his subordinates as straw donors. But I think there's waaay more there. Brighter folks than me are trying to reverse engineer the Maytag machine running between the UST, AIG and GS.
think blackmail, as one angle.
Next, think naked bribery -- "If you give us this, we'll make you rich for life" Not to Congress -- to the Treasury Secretary himself, and his underlings.
Nobody in the Senate calls anyone out on holds ("gentlemen's agreement" and all that hogwash. I ain't saying it's right, just that's the culture). That's the President's job, if he's at all pissed.
I think Coburn's pretty honest, myself, and isn't a contrarian that does things to be a drama queen.
Basically, the deal is that the Feds decided to bail out Goldmann Sachs (and other AIG counterparties), so the second bailout to AIG was really funneling money into other people's pockets. It stinks to high heaven, and I'd love to get rid of the people who came up with such a dumb idea (Geithner's at the top of my list, atm).
dunno about the skullduggery,
but you're absolutely right about using AIG as a Maytag machine. Only question is whether folks at Treasury thought this was a good idea without being subsidized to think so
Complete meltdown of the finance system?
Derivatives collapsed when?
that's right -- you're wrong.
still sitting at Roubini's step 9.