Posted on 06/09/2011 1:04:35 PM PDT by Brookhaven
Democrats, watch out.
The Republican Party and especially its Tea Party wing have just acquired a new weapon of mass destruction — and it has nothing to do with any of Congressman Wiener’s rogue body parts. If they deploy this weapon effectively in the next election cycle — a big if — then they have the biggest opportunity to move the country rightward since Ronald Reagan took the oath of office back in 1981.
The Tea Party WMD stockpile is currently stored in book form: Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon. By Gretchen Morgenson, one of America’s best business journalists who is currently at The New York Times, and noted financial analyst Joshua Rosner, Reckless Endangerment gives the best available account of how the growing chaos in the mortgage and personal finance markets and the rampant bundling of dubious loans into exotically toxic securities plunged the world, and millions of American families, into the gravest financial crisis since World War Two. It is gripping reading as well, and its explanations are clear enough that readers without any background in finance will have no trouble following the plot. The villains? An unholy alliance between Wall Street, the Democratic establishment, community organizing groups like ACORN and La Raza, and politicians like Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi and Henry Cisneros. (Frank got a cushy job for a lover, Pelosi got a job and layoff protection for a son, Cisneros apparently got a license to mint money bilking Mexican-Americans of their life savings in cheesy housing developments.)
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
It's popular culture that will turn the tide.
The GOP could scream about this till doomsday and all that would happen is the MSM/Dem axis would scream back. Just look at posts on this board that are blaming the GOP for the meltdown even though that's now what the article is about.
It's books like this...if written simply and understandably enough...that make a difference.
No story on Democrat corruption will gain traction without media coverage, no matter how many campaign ads are built around it.
But the Republicans do have a weapon - they control the House, and the House can investigate, and can investigate using subpeona power. The House should initiate an investigation of shenanigans at Fannie and Freddie, and should call Johnson (to find out how he earned his tens of millions), Barney Frank (on how his butt-buddy got his job), Pelosi (on how her son got his), Rahm (on how somebody with no training in finance got a leadership position - with a multi-million dollar salary - there), etc.
And on what many seem to think is an unrelated note, I’ve observed that many of the folks who frequent FR are actually capable of following several stories at once. Making sure a dillrod like Anthony Weiner has his ass handed to him prevents him from jumping on the corruption gravy train outlined above, helps damage the democrat brand in a separate venue, and keeps pressure on both Weiner and his party, leading to continued tension and division among the donkeys.
These people are corrupt to the hilt, and corrupt in almost every dimension, and they need to be hammered at every opportunity. It just happens that right now Weiner is an opportunity.
I just wish they would prove me wrong, just this once...
There aren't many good guys in either party here.
Yes. Too many conservatives are still expecting the GOP to do it all. Well, that's still looking for Gov't to solve all problems.
You're right. It is the grassroots which will make the difference. And books like this help the effort.
The Subprime Mortgage Market Collapse: A Primer on the Causes and Possible SolutionsPublished on April 22, 2008 by Ronald Utt, Ph.D.
In 2009, The Nation called her "The Most Important Financial Journalist of Her Generation". She has appeared on Bill Moyers Journal, and Charlie Rose.
Awards:
2009 Gerald Loeb Award
2003 Matrix Awards Hall of Fame Newspapers
2002 Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting "for her trenchant and incisive Wall Street coverage."
1998 Gerald Loeb Award for New York Times writings on the financial crisis at Long Term Capital Management.
This book should be different in that she had all the endorsements form the left.
"The Most Important Financial Journalist of Her Generation" - from The Nation?? Are you kidding me? That's gold Jerry, Gold!
Thanks for the ping. I hope the GOP will use this, but I doubt it.
This means nothing.
The dems are elected (or reelected) to loot and pillage the treasury ‘for the common good’ of course.
Did you hear any reaction from the ‘progressives’ when obama personnaly approved the $34m bonuses for Fannie/Freddie executives?
http://sweetness-light.com/archive/obama-gives-fannie-freddie-execs-millions
ps he did the same thing in feb ‘09
When the history of the credit bubble comes to be written, the list of guilty actors will be lengthy indeed: irresponsible banks, greedy borrowers, foolish speculators, incompetent regulators, the central bankers who kept rates too low for too long. Yet one group of players has been especially culpable in creating the current mess.
The credit rating agencies have played a pivotal role in the global debt markets for over thirty years, with the stamp of approval from Moody’s, Standard and Poor’s or Fitch a prerequisite for the sale of a bond. The agencies’ scale of ratings – from AAA for an issuer of unimpeachable creditworthiness, to the Cs and Ds for issuers of highly speculative or defaulted securities (often called “junk”) – form the basis of the capital markets.
2/2008
http://www.moneyweek.com/investments/stock-markets/the-great-credit-rating-scandal
Most progressives I saw weren’t blaming Fannie and Freddie, just “Wall Street”, and “greed”, and Bush.
Thanks for the reply and link!
Waited for McCain to unleash this information in 2008. Not holding my breath now.
Nice article. I would hope a simple message regarding this could be hammered into the heads of the electorate. I seriously doubt it. I think it is too complex for the average voter to want to put in the time and effort to know. All they hear is short brief sound bites.
Weiner showed his weiner. That sinks in fast. They get it. The Clinton’s Whitewater investments completely baffled them. I don’t think this story is any less complicated than Whitewater.
The article says “The Morgenson/Rosner story is a simple and easily grasped one. It is made for campaign ads.”
Oh really? Then the article says, “The housing bubble and the financial market meltdown were very complex phenomena, many cooks were required to spoil this broth and the arguments over what caused the crash may never end.”
And THAT my friend is the indisputable fact. Show a few adds about James Johnson and Fannie, and the MSM/DNC/SEIU machines come back with quotes from Bush saying we need more housing for the poor. Just show the faces of Republicans Phil Gramm and Jim Leach with the caption “Repealled the SAFEGUARDS of the Glass-Steagal Act.”
That is it. Bubba’s eyes glaze over and Sissy wants to go for a yogurt. Game over.
Even if the foundation is simple, the details of this story are extremely complex, and the MSM/DNC/SEIU machine will obscure the simple moral in the complex details. Game over. Pushing this to Joe Sixpack and Suzi Soccermom would take the communication skills of Reagan on steroids.
IMHO, this story will never be more than preaching to the choir. True conservatives will know where the bulk of the blame lies, and we would enjoy reading the book and learning new details about the truth, but there is no way Joe 6 and Suzi SM takes the time necessary to dig beyond the MSM/DNC/SEIU smokescreen that would play 24/7 to obscure the truth. No way.
Much better to just keep with “It’s the economy stupid”.
Much better to highlight the unemployment numbers and food and gas prices. Joe 6 and Suzi SM already know those are true. That is where the Donkeys and the radical Socialist Muslim in chief are vulnerable.
Why does this thread only have 36 posts. Hello!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.