Stein's sensible comments on Spitzer

I don't find myself agreeing with very many conservatives most of the time, and I include Ben Stein among those I usually disagree with. His pro-life views, as well as his always vehement and often hilarious defense of President Nixon are not among his attributes, but he is brilliant, passionate, well-spoken and thought out, not to mention exceedingly bright.

His take on Eliot Spitzer's resignation during one of my favorite shows of the week, CBS' Sunday Morning, is probably the best, most reasonable pieces I've heard yet on Spitzer.

Even more importantly, Stein addresses the very troubling development of appointed officials overruling the will of the American people by outing and exposing elected officials, effectively driving them from office.

I blogged about this over the weekend, but the more I think about it, it's no stretch at all to think that this administration went after a former NY attorney general and now NY governor for exposing and calling out the mortgage industry for its shady business practices.

Besides the obvious, Spitzer's biggest mistake was underestimating his political opponents; in this case, the Bush Justice Department. And his arrogance and self righteousness weren't much of a help, either.

Upon further reflection, I'm wondering why Spitzer resigned - the threat of impeachment from the state's GOP leaders? Hmm - a Democrat being impeached for a sex scandal. I think I've heard that somewhere before.

As Stein (of all people - Stein!) points out, yes, prostitution is illegal, but c'mon - it's not THAT freaking illegal, and it certainly isn't an impeachable offense.

One can only guess at Spitzer's motives, but maybe he simply felt he couldn't effectively govern once the revelation that he used call girls. I'm sure that his decision also had to do with his family, too; after all, he hadn't spent too much time thinking of them when he was frequenting other women, for money.

Anyway, I'm curious to see if the story behind the Spitzer scandal gets much coverage in the media.

I'm not betting on it.

Bill-O on Bill-O: Olberman's break down

For once, when Bill O'Reilly will undoubtedly call a story about him a "hit job," I completely agree. And he deserves it.

You'd think that Bill O'Lielly would stay a million miles away from the Eliot Spitzer scandal, but of course he can't help himself. I guess BOR is drawn to a sex story like a moth to a campfire, but it's too bad guys like Keith Olbermann are around to make sure he gets burned.

Take a listen and laugh as Olbermann plays interpreter to BOR's analysis of Spitzer's fall - it really is a hoot. It seems that O'Reilly simply can't save himself from his own stupidity, and since that's so often the case, his loss is our gain.

I never thought I'd find myself writing this, but thank you, Billy! Thanks for providing all of your fodder for the nut job cannon. Keep up the good work, BOR.

(Keith's thanks goes without saying - he really is the Fox "News" Network's kryptonite)

h/t Crooks & Liars for the video

Spitzer & the mortgage crisis: linked?

I've got five bucks Euros (the bet should have value, at least) that this story gets virtually no play in the national, mainstream media.

Noted journalist & author Greg Palast has a take on deposed New York Governor Eliot Spitzer that's getting virtually no play at all; the short of it is that Spitzer's fall and the mortgage crisis are directly linked. (Two of Palast's books are well-known - Armed Madhouse: From Baghdad to New Orleans--Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales of a White House Gone Wild and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy; the former is sitting on one of my bookshelves, waiting for me to read it.)

His latest column, entitled Eliot's Mess: The $200 billion bail-out for predator banks and Spitzer charges are intimately linked is on his Website and appears in today's Baltimore Chronicle. Some excerpts (my comments follow):

While New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was paying an "escort" $4,300 in a hotel room in Washington, just down the road, George Bush's new Federal Reserve Board Chairman, Ben Bernanke, was secretly handing over $200 billion in a tryst with mortgage bank industry speculators.

Both acts were wanton, wicked and lewd. But there's a BIG difference. The governor was using his own checkbook. Bush's man Bernanke was using ours.

This week, Bernanke's Fed, for the first time in its history, loaned a selected coterie of banks one-fifth of a trillion dollars to guarantee these banks' mortgage-backed junk bonds. The deluge of public loot was an eye-popping windfall to the very banking predators who have brought two million families to the brink of foreclosure.

Up until Wednesday, there was one single, lonely politician who stood in the way of this creepy little assignation at the bankers' bordello: Eliot Spitzer.

Who are they kidding? Spitzer's lynching and the bankers' enriching are intimately tied.

How? Follow the money.

The press has swallowed Wall Street's line that millions of U.S. families are about to lose their homes because they bought homes they couldn't afford or took loans too big for their wallets. Ba-LON-ey. That's blaming the victim.

Here's what happened. Since the Bush regime came to power, a new species of loan became the norm, the "sub-prime" mortgage and it's variants including loans with teeny "introductory" interest rates. From out of nowhere, a company called Countrywide became America's top mortgage lender, accounting for one in five home loans, a large chunk of these "sub-prime."

Here's how it worked: The Grinning Family, with U.S. average household income, gets a $200,000 mortgage at 4% for two years. Their $955 a month payment is 25% of their income. No problem. Their banker promises them a new mortgage, again at the cheap rate, in two years. But in two years, the promise ain't worth a can of Spam and the Grinnings are told to scram - because their house is now worth less than the mortgage. Now, the mortgage hits 9% or $1,609 plus fees to recover the "discount" they had for two years. Suddenly, payments equal 42% to 50% of pre-tax income. Grinnings move into their Toyota.

Now, what kind of American is "sub-prime"? Guess. No peeking. Here's a hint: 73% of HIGH INCOME Black and Hispanic borrowers were given sub-prime loans, versus 17% of similar-income Whites. Dark-skinned borrowers aren't stupid – they had no choice. They were "steered," as it's called in the mortgage sharking business.

"Steering," sub-prime loans with usurious kickers, fake inducements to over-borrow, called "fraudulent conveyance" or "predatory lending" under U.S. law, were almost completely forbidden in the olden days (Clinton administration and earlier) by federal regulators and state laws as nothing more than fancy loan-sharking.

But when the Bush regime took over, Countrywide and its banking brethren were told to party hardy – it was OK now to steer'm, fake'm, charge'm and take'm.

But there was this annoying party-pooper. The Attorney General of New York, Eliot Spitzer, who sued these guys to a fare-thee-well. Or tried to.

[Snip]

It was the night of February 13 when Spitzer made the bone-headed choice to order take-out in his Washington hotel room. He had just finished signing these words for the Washington Post about predatory loans:

"Not only did the Bush administration do nothing to protect consumers, it embarked on an aggressive and unprecedented campaign to prevent states from protecting their residents from the very problems to which he federal government was turning a blind eye."

Bush, said Spitzer right in the headline, was the "Predator Lenders' Partner in Crime." The president, said Spitzer, was a fugitive from justice. And Spitzer was in Washington to launch a campaign to take on the Bush regime and the biggest financial powers on the planet.

Spitzer wrote, "When history tells the story of the sub-prime lending crisis and recounts its devastating effects on the lives of so many innocent homeowners the Bush administration will not be judged favorably."

I really wonder when the American people (or at least the moderates, who in recent history are largely determining the outcome of elections) will every truly "get it," and by that I mean that Republicans are so anti-government, it makes little sense to put them in charge of something they are determined to minimize and dismantle at every opportunity.

President Reagan, whose debilitating, deliberate oversimplification of our federal government, "Government is the problem," or the closely related and ever popular "The nine most terrifying words of the federal government are 'I'm from the government, and I'm here to help,'" have really come home to roost during Dubya's administration run amok.

In the last 25-30 years, just about every industry that has been deregulated has done two things: it has enriched the companies via Wall St. (and of course their government-sponsored backers), and it has screwed the consumer. A few examples:

1. The Airline Industry (Actually, President Carter deregulated them, I know, and that has proven disastrous on a number of fronts, so Repubes get a pass here. But, I don't mind bringing up in the spirit of partisanship that Reagan fired the air traffic controllers, and this idiotic and drastic decision's effects are still felt today. Am I the only one who finds it ironic that one of Washington, D.C.'s airports is named after him? But, I digress.)

2. Cable TV - Quickly now, this is not a trick question - has your cable bill gone down or up in the past 15 years? If you are one of the few who have realized a decrease for the same services, then run, don't walk, to your local gas station or convenience store and buy a lottery ticket.

3. The Power Industry - I've got one word - Enron. Anyone remember the faux California Energy Crisis? (I never tire of reminding people that Kenneth Lay's ties to Bush were indeed very close - he donated $500k to Bush's first coronation inaugural ball. As for Big Coal and Big Oil, forget it - their respective claws are dug so deep into our political system, and in these two cases, the Republican Party, the full extent may never be known.

4. The Telecommunications Industry - fewer and fewer telecomms now own more and more. I'm yet to read an adequate explanation as to why this is good for anyone, except for rich corporate investors. Hey, look at the bright side, though - pretty soon there will be one cell phone company left, and one cable news channel, Fox News.

I remember in years' past, when the government used to break up monopolies, while actually giving a damn about the American consumer (what a concept!). The break-up of the Bell System (finally took place under Reagan, but the initial lawsuits began in the 1970s) and the government's case vs. Microsoft for its monopolistic practices are the two most notorious examples of how these high-profile cases in the end benefited consumers.

And that brings us back to the mortgage industry. I wonder when this crisis finally hits bottom (which, evidence says, has not happened yet) if the true story will every come out. I firmly believe that predatory business practices and piss-poor government regulation are a pretty big part of the problem, exacerbated by the "hands off" approach by the Bush administration, as its wont to do in just about any federal regulatory situation, except when it can line the pockets of its donors.

Government regulation and intervention are both not always the best course of action, but they can often protect the consumer.

Last night's Weekend Update on SNL

I haven't consistently watched Saturday Night Live in a number of years, but typically during election years, I like to watch for the biting commentary and the impersonations.

Last night's Weekend Update was a very funny one. Of course, Eliot Spitzer was quality fodder for the cannon, and rightfully so.

However, my favorite part was SNL alumnus Tracy Morgan's commentary about Barack Obama - it was one of the funniest pieces I've heard on the show in quite some time.

On a more serious note, I haven't offered much comment on Geraldine Ferraro's idiotic comments last week about Barack Obama, probably because I was so disgusted by it. Her comment, "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position," and how fortunate and lucky he is (I'm paraphrasing that last part, but that is precisely what she meant) is beyond asinine. Since when has it ever been lucky for a man to be black in this country?

Anyway, Morgan's comments last night were funny, but they also had a political point, too, if you read between the lines.

I read somewhere today the criticism that Saturday Night Live, and specifically Lorne Michaels, are both "too liberal." Whatever. Actually, it's probably true. Quickly now - name me three funny conservatives.

...

Sorry, I don't have that much time to wait. If you really want to watch "funny," check out Dennis Miller's 55th show on TV. Wait, I forgot, he doesn't have a TV show. He was funny when he was a liberal, though.

You can also find Fox News' wildly successful show, The Half Hour News Hour on the Internet if you're so inclined, but you'd probably be the only one.

Holy Spitz - NY Gov to resign

...And he should.

Wow - another politician undone by a sex scandal. You'd think that would-be politicians, especially ones who have made their bones by putting criminals in jail (and thereby making enemies in the process), would know one of the cardinal rules in politics - never take the bait, because you are going to be hyper-scrutinized. I guess soon-to-be-former NY Governor Eliot Spitzer never got that memo, or that lesson.

Spitzer shocked New York citizens, as well as the political world around the country, by copping to the use of prostitutes on over half a dozen occasions. It's a press conference we've seen all too often in the last 15 years - a disgraced male politician, with his wife standing by his side, no doubt humiliated on the inside, but putting on a brave face for the cameras.

Spitzer's tale is an amazing one, and not in a good way. (You can always count on the NY tabloid dailies to supply amusing headlines, and since it's a Democrat, of course the Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post isn't going to miss an opportunity (left).

According to HuffPo, Spitzer will announce he will step down within the next day or so. Even if he doesn't want to, he probably doesn't have a choice - NY GOP legislators are threatening impeachment, a battle Spitzer would be sure to lose.

Two things bear watching from this scandal - 1. who will run for governor to replace Spitzer (my money is on America's Profiteer, Rudy 9iu1ian1), and 2. how New York and national Repubes will spin this about how Democrats are immoral and not with family values. Of course, going all the way back to the circus impeachment of President Clinton, Repubes don't even come close to representing the so-called "family values" they claim to uphold, but since most of the voting public has a memory span of about 15 minutes, it may not matter.

I don't believe this scandal with have much of an effect on the presidential election, though; New York is solid ground for the Democratic nominee, no matter if it's Hillary or Obama.

Anyway, it appears it's not the actual use of prostitutes that sparked the investigation of Spitzer, but how they were paid for. From The New York Times:

After a report that Gov. Eliot Spitzer had patronized a prostitution ring, officials in Albany greeted the news with shock, and some on Wall Street, a frequent target of his investigations as attorney general, were unsympathetic.

Mr. Spitzer received counsel from his advisers late Monday at his Fifth Avenue apartment, and had not emerged as of early Tuesday morning. A top administration official said Tuesday morning that no announcement had been scheduled. ...

Mr. Spitzer's family and his top assistants debated Monday morning at Mr. Spitzer's apartment about whether he should step down, a person who spoke to the governor said. Silda Wall Spitzer, who was among them, told her husband that he should not resign in haste; as did Lloyd Constantine, a senior adviser and a longtime friend of the governor. But most of his others saw no way for him to survive.

Seems pretty cut and dry - Spitzer is toast, and he deserves to be.

What's worse, the guy has three teenage daughters. I can't imagine the humiliation that they must be going through. Here is the text of his brief press conference yesterday:

Good afternoon.

For the past nine years, eight years as attorney general, and one as governor, I have tried to uphold a vision of progressive politics that would rebuild New York and create opportunity for all. We sought to bring real change to New York and that will continue.

Today I want to briefly address a private matter. I have acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family and violates my, or any, sense of right and wrong. I apologize first and most importantly to my family. I apologize to the public, whom I promised better.

I do not believe that politics in the long run is about individuals. It is about ideas, the public good, and doing what is best for the state of New York. But I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself. I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family.

I will not be taking questions. Thank you very much. I will report back to you in short order. Thank you very much.

I love how when politicians announce misdeeds, they never come out and say what they did. Probably because they don't want that footage replayed, over and over, on the likes of Fox News and CNN.

Maybe Spitzer and former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevy can start up their own company - Govs Aren't Us.

Sheesh - here's hoping that Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell hasn't had his hands where they shouldn't be, or we'll have a tri-state trifecta of gubernatorial idiocy.

More on Rendell later today...