Posted on 09/19/2008 11:40:48 AM PDT by Mr. Brightside
George Will lashes out against big government, McCain's claims
by Chris Knape | The Grand Rapids Press
Thursday September 18, 2008, 10:58 PM
GRAND RAPIDS -- Conservative columnist George Will practically boiled out of his trademark bow tie Thursday night, lashing out at Republican presidential nominee John McCain's call for Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox's resignation.
Will's keynote appearance at the downtown JW Marriott capped the first day of a West Michigan Regional Policy Conference, which organizers said was trying to avoid being "West Michigan polite."
Will took a call from Cox shortly before taking the stage Thursday and was visibly perturbed when he hung up his phone.
"This is why some thoughtful conservatives have grave doubts about his ability to be president," Will said.
During a speech in Iowa Thursday, McCain said Cox, a close friend of Will's, "has betrayed the public trust" by allowing the nation's financial markets to deteriorate.
In his speech, Will said McCain worries conservatives because he is someone who "can so polarize every argument into a kind of moral melodrama. You can't have honest difference of opinion with John McCain. This is very difficult because to disagree with he who is honor personified is inherently dishonorable."
Will also took shots at the Bush administration and its willingness to intervene to prevent the failure of mismanaged companies.
"Where is the Bennigan's bailout?" he asked the crowd of more than 500.
He used the bankruptcy of the Bennigan's restaurant chain to note the "moral hazard" created by recent government bailouts of insurance giant AIG, mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and investment bank Bear Stearns.
He went on to blast proposed government bailouts of money-bleeding Detroit automakers as "lemon socialism" that subsidizes "those who fail the market test."
"You can make a case that AIG held paper, and we didn't know where it was, and Bear Stearns had debts and didn't know where this was and, therefore, they could have posed a systemic risk to the American economy if they had been allowed to go under," Will said. "I don't happen to believe that, but you could make the argument.
"No one can make the argument that were, say, Ford Motor Co. to file for bankruptcy that it would pose a systemic risk for our economy."
Will is right about McCain, but W would never help Wall Street willingly.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I agree. Where are we going to get a good Monte Cristo now? /s
Thanks for hanging tough, GOP.
I’m not going to say that I know the inner workings of the financial mess we find ourselves in. But sometimes people at the top must take the fall for a mismanaged event. Why is is preposterous to say that the leaders of Fannie and Freddie and Lehmann and Merill should be ousted, but not the leader of the organization installed to oversee them. Can someone explain this. It seems the very least we should do. Am I supposed to care that much about this one man? Now, if there’s something we don’t konw about...maybe he tried to do something but was shot down..then I’ll take another look. But as of now, I don’t understand.
I’m not going to say that I know the inner workings of the financial mess we find ourselves in. But sometimes people at the top must take the fall for a mismanaged event. Why is is preposterous to say that the leaders of Fannie and Freddie and Lehmann and Merill should be ousted, but not the leader of the organization installed to oversee them. Can someone explain this. It seems the very least we should do. Am I supposed to care that much about this one man? Now, if there’s something we don’t konw about...maybe he tried to do something but was shot down..then I’ll take another look. But as of now, I don’t understand.
Kramer: “ I’ll tell you who is an attractive man; George Will.”
Jerry: “Really!”
Kramer: “Yeah! He has clean looks, scrubbed and shampooed and....”
Elaine: “He’s smart....”
Kramer: “No, no I don’t find him all that bright.”
Will is correct on the Chris Cox issue. When there is so much ammunition out there against the democrats, why throw someone (who has no oversight) from your own party under the bus? It boggles the mind.
The answer is simple. Not all institutions are created equal. We can let Bennigan’s fail without any serious systemic harm. If we let the financial system just crash instead of organizing a graceful failure, the same people would be complaining about the resultant depression. Sometimes I wonder if our economy has simply gotten too complex for the average person to really understand and we’re left with nothing but rampant emotionalism.
There’s a very simple explanation of why Bennigan’s doesn’t get a bailout - not enough politicians own millions of dollars of stock in THAT company.
The firms were mainly victims of securities billed as 'investment grade' by government backed entities, as well as government regulations that pushed private banks to make bad loans (CRA).
The primary 'fat cats' I see here were Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelick and the politicians.
careful. someone will compare you to pat buchanan pretty soon.
Gubermint typically encourages the moral hazard and then bails people out to encourage more.
Then every 4 years someone comes along to claim they will stop it when all they really mean to do is slow it down a little.
I can’t wait to be ‘too big to fail’ some day and I think this cure is worse than the disease.
“I’m not going to say that I know the inner workings of the financial mess we find ourselves in. But sometimes people at the top must take the fall for a mismanaged event. Why is is preposterous to say that the leaders of Fannie and Freddie and Lehmann and Merill should be ousted, but not the leader of the organization installed to oversee them. Can someone explain this. It seems the very least we should do. Am I supposed to care that much about this one man? Now, if there’s something we don’t konw about...maybe he tried to do something but was shot down..then I’ll take another look. But as of now, I don’t understand.”
Consider that when Enron failed, there was widespread outcry and criminal charges. That failure affected thousands.
The failure of FM & FM, as well as the bailouts taking place for the select few, place a financial burden on everyone in the country. It will affect hundreds of millions of people. $1 trillion of debt instantly saddles every citizen of this country with over $3,000 in debt.
We need to see a real, tough response to whatever shenanigans led to this mess. Not golden parachutes handed to ex-executives of failed enterprises.
BTW, Bush did try to do something about this years back, but Congress didn’t let it happen.
He should slam Bush, Cox and the regulators who today gave Franklin Raines a slap on thw wrist. It will remind people of Teddy Roosevelt, the true "original marverick", and will help his cause.
You too? That’s why I came to the thread - Bennigan’s Monte Cristo. A batter-fried sandwich. Awesome. Quietly popular among heart surgeons.
I looked at your profile and saw a sea of anti-McCain propoganda. For a second I thought I had been transported to Delta Uniform. I’m not wild about everything McCain does, but he is a far better choice than the alternative. I’m more interested in winning the war than dinging one of the two legitimate candidates in this election who is far more conservative than the other. And that’s what Georgie Will is doing, of course when you run with his crowd it’s not surprising. This should be pretty clear to everyone, save for the raving PaulBots who are off their Haldol.
I’m wondering if fiscal conservatism can ever recover from the blow this socialist bailout has dealt.
Similar situation with others that the Wall Street trading Jihadis were going after.
If McCain can live up to what he has promised (tax cuts and reduction of pork barrel) a turnaround should happen soon which will help to pay off these new debts fairly soon.
I for one and tired of George Will’s whining.
I’m with you- there’s much about this I don’t understand and I agree there are people who are going to have to be held accountable. I don’t know enough to know whether Cox has been responsible or irresponsible- yet I cringed when McCain called for him to be fired- publicly- in THE MIDDLE OF THE CRISIS.
Why did he say that? Does he have sound reasoning behind the statement? Particular things Cox did or didn’t do that helped caused this? It seemed like an off-the-cuff reactionary thing to say.
So you are a PaulBot?
Will is Cox’s friend, and was speaking as such. The SEC turned a blind eye to the rampant practice of naked short-selling until this week, and that practice helped to bring down both Bear and Lehman.
Someone should pay. Unfortunately it appears to be that that someone is us.
Hmmmm... the old saying comes to mind
...you owe the bank $50,000.00 the band owns/controls you...you owe the bank $500,000.000.00 and you own/control the bank.
It a difficult situation wherein many corporations surely want to be assisted/spoon-fed out of their greed. But the example of Bennigan is somewhat narrowed to a few locations (though important to those that lost employment)...now AIG is international in scope and a world market/stability may have been at risk.
Still my understanding that AIG is a 'controlled bankruptcy'...that the Government now controls 79.5% of AIG, sizeable AIG assets are to be liquidated (to repay the loan) and the $85 BILL loan is set forth at 11.5% (a steep rate).
Yes.
Between the only two legitimate candidates in the upcoming election, McCain has a far more conservative record than Obama. Therefore he gets my support.
Of course I could go off and whine if my favorite candidate didn’t win in the primaries, and stomp around and fret and fume and threaten to spoil an election because I didn’t get my way, but that wouldn’t be very productive.
So. Are you a Ron Paul supporter?
At least he’s not pedantic.
I am just tired of girlyman and elitist snob... will.
LLS
Cox is responsible for seeing that these kinds of meltdowns do not occur. Even if Cox is not responsible for this mess, he needs to be replaced immediately to show the next SEC chairman that he will be held accountable should something like this occur on his watch.
Not firing Cox is simply allowing the buck to be passed. The fact of the matter is that Cox should have tendered his resignation already. Then the ball would be in Bush's court as to whether or not he would accept it and why.
The buck has to stop somewhere.
I’m sorry, but NO WAY did all this mess SUDDENLY HAPPEN.
Either, SOMEBODY saw it coming and said or did NOTHING.
Or SOMEBODY SHOULD HAVE SEEN it coming and said or did NOTHING.
Come on, who has the bully pulpit here? I expect not a wit of honesty out of the Dems, but Bush’s administration should have been more vigilant and if he could not get cooperation from Congress, he should have BROUGHT IT TO THE PEOPLE.
Instead, those is Washington just keep playing their little game with each other and TO HELL WITH US!!!!!!
I’m sick of it.
And they wonder why donations have dropped significantly since 2005. It's because the people see the GOP as the socialists that they are - no different in beliefs from the left, and spineless.
This country's finished.
LOL. Infantile and immature? There there * pats SoConPubie on the head *
Nobody is shutting down discussion. Intelligent people know when their candidate has lost, and are *mature* enough to see the bigger picture, pick the best of the remaining alternatives and go back to debating after the election.
If you want to trash McCain, by all means go right ahead. But that puts you squarely in the Obama camp, whether by conscious choice or bullheaded shortsightedness, my pseudo-conservative friend.
So Conservative principles are advanced by undermining the more conservative of the two legitimate candidates?
You logic is flawless. ROFL.
Cox may be well meaning, but he is swimming with the smartest and highest paid sharks in the world. We just got fleeced while the system is hemmoraging money into private hands.
P.S. and George Will cannot have it both ways.
“This country’s finished.”
I see you have a “Go, Sarah, Go” in your tag line. We only have a few years left of McCain, but Palin will be the gift that keeps on giving for decades.
Now is not the time to slink away in defeat. Now is the time to persevere and achieve victory!
McCain/Palin ‘08!
It was obvious to some from the start: See: The Trillion-Dollar Bank Shakedown That Bodes Ill for Cities by Howard Husock, www.city-journal.org back in 2000.
POST OF THE DAY!!! Tax reform? BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Here's what's coming down the pike, sports fans. State revenue departments will be working overtime to make up for the lost revenue from lower property appraisals. Expect more audits, "user fees", "special assessments", etc. I've been working in corporate tax departments for the past few years, and audit activity is increasing significantly.
“So Conservative principles are advanced by undermining the more conservative of the two legitimate candidates?”
Actually they are. “More conservative of the two” doesn’t mean what you apparently think it does. A Jimmy Carter can lead to a Ronald Reagan. If things must get darker to wake people up then NOTHING will stop things from “getting darker” Not Obama not McCain not anyone who isn’t Conservative. If things don’t get darker then Conservativisim is not needed. If it IS useful or needed and we vote for McCains, then McCains are what we will get.
For my part I don’t think McCain is conservative enough to save this country from the coming crash. And I doubt he or anyone else is enough of a Leader to lead us to where we must go. Ah, but now I get into Culture....
No one really understands it in any detail. They might understand the details of a single segment, and they might think they understand the overall system. But they don't. No one does. But what I do know is that in the past, every time government tries to "soften the blow" or create a "soft landing", the ultimate result down the road is worse. In fact that's sort of where we are now, in the "worse". If we "cushion this blow", but not allowing the consequences of the actions of these companies and agencies to play themselves out, the ultimate fall is going to be a whole lot worse. Since we aren't, it will be.
The problem is that no one wants the big crash to happen on their watch. There is no amount of spinning that's going to get people to accept that the big crash is necessary to sort out things. People want to believe in the myth of eternal and unending prosperity and so public officials accommodate that belief. At this point, the actions of the Treasury and Fed are probably the best that can be expected. When the crash comes, it will be beyond the help of any public body.
If Obama and McCain were really smart they'd throw the election to Bob Barr and let him get the blame for the coming economic s-storm.
And a Barack Obama can lead to SCOTUS appointments which may irrevocably tip the balance. Heller was only 5-4. Stabbing McCain in the back because you think we will only get four years of the Obamanation is a blisteringly myopic plan.
Believing McCain is some kind of SC saviour is one hell of a leap of faith. (Believing it all boils down to JUST the future supreme court appointments is simplistic.) Believing that Americans, in the face of the kind of liberal psychotic decisions that you rightly fear coming from a more liberal bench, would stand for them and suffer as the powerless, is delusional.
I can see voting McCain in the hope that it is the start of something good with respect to Palin. But I just don't have the faith in McCain that you seem to. What seem like simple math to you doesn't make any sense to me. Getting a slightly less inadequate sum doesn't amount to progress. It doesn't even qualify as treading water.
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