Accountability: Rush Limbaugh agrees with Eliot Spitzer
Years late and billions of dollars short: Limbaugh calls for accountability
Disgraced talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, on his highly popular national talk radio program on Sept. 15, agreed with disgraced former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer in Limbaugh’s fervent call for accountability in the economic crisis impacting the nation. Setting aside both of these men’s personal problems that have caused many to cast aspersions upon both (Limbaugh’s prescription drug addiction and Spitzer’s addiction to sexual fantasy with prostitutes), they each have commented on the financial crisis facing the nation and — much to everyone’s surprise — they both concluded that lack of accountability is the key to the problems that threaten to drag down the entire economic system of the United States.
Here’s a portion of Rush Limbaugh’s rant that is in stark contrast to John McCain’s recent call for tighter controls and regulation (over an economy in crisis that McCain claimed was “fundamentally strong”):
“Senator McCain again, with all due respect, accountability is what’s needed here, accountability by those in the government who are largely responsible for the policies and the corruption that did this. It breaks my heart. Folks, it breaks my heart to see capitalism get the blame here even by people on our side running around talking about ‘We need more regulation.’ That’s code language for the free market can’t handle itself. Accountability and regulations are not the same thing. People want accountability. I don’t think they care much about all these regulations.
“This stuff is serious. Where is the special prosecutor? Where’s Eliot Ness when you need him? This is a monumental failure of government and government regulation and Congress, and they are passing this off as a monumental failure of the private sector. To say that we need more government, more regulations, is to say nothing at all useful. What we need is accountability.”
It’s interesting that Rush Limbaugh is now calling for accountability and a special prosecutor. Where was Rush Limbaugh five years ago, in 2003, when then-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer (the banking industry’s Eliot Ness) was rounding up all of the Attorneys General in all 50 states to wage war against both the Bush Administration and the Federal Reserve, which is a Congress-created independent organization acting as the nation’s bank responsible for the oversight and accountability called for by Limbaugh. Spitzer commented on the pending crisis in his Feb. 14, 2008 commentary in The Washington Post:
“Even though predatory lending was becoming a national problem, the Bush administration looked the other way and did nothing to protect American homeowners. In fact, the government chose instead to align itself with the banks that were victimizing consumers.
“Predatory lending was widely understood to present a looming national crisis. This threat was so clear that as New York attorney general, I joined with colleagues in the other 49 states in attempting to fill the void left by the federal government. Individually, and together, state attorneys general of both parties brought litigation or entered into settlements with many subprime lenders that were engaged in predatory lending practices. Several state legislatures, including New York’s, enacted laws aimed at curbing such practices.
“What did the Bush administration do in response? Did it reverse course and decide to take action to halt this burgeoning scourge? As Americans are now painfully aware, with hundreds of thousands of homeowners facing foreclosure and our markets reeling, the answer is a resounding no.
“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 the federal government was turning a blind eye.”
Spitzer went on to explain how the Bush Administration used the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to invoke a clause in the 1863 Bank Act in order to undermine the efforts of all state Attorneys General and protect the banks from the crackdown on illicit practices.
Federal reserve: Responsible and accountable to Congress
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve, often mistakenly perceived as the government itself (Department of Treasury under the authority of the executive branch), stood by and did nothing. In fact, if the Federal Reserve had joined the efforts made by the states, the banks involved in predatory lending practices would have had to cease and desist immediately. The Federal Reserve is, of course, accountable to Congress, which ALSO stood by and watched, while failing to stop the practices that all 50 states Attorneys General were attempting to curtail.
McCain, in his eagerness to walk in lockstep with the Limbaugh dictate to lop off a head, called for the firing of SEC leader, Chris Dodd, just three days after Limbaugh called for Dodd to be the fall guy. Limbaugh said on Sept. 15:
“Nobody is going to jail here, and I’ll tell you why, ’cause they’re all liberal Democrats, they’re all appointed by liberal Democrats. Chris Dodd, why is his name not mentioned? He was very much involved in the Countrywide mortgage business, sweetheart loans and interest rates, we can’t have that, we can’t have Chris Dodd’s name mentioned, no, no, no. But we can tar Ken Lay [ENRON] all we want and Bernie Ebbers [WorldCom]. Not that they shouldn’t have been, but what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.”
SEC: Irresponsible patsy?
Chris Dodd is the Securities and Exchange Chairman and a former Republican Congressman. Dodd even spent a decade at the top of the GOP leadership. But why should Ronald Reagan’s philosophy of Republicans never strangling other Republicans be taken into account now when someone needs to blamed for this financial mess so the American people can go back to gawking at Sarah Palin?
McCain responded to Limbaugh’s mandate on Sept. 18:
“[Chris Dodd] serves at the appointment of the president and has betrayed the public’s trust. If I were president today, I would fire him.”
In an election year, this close to the polling date, McCain’s declaration that he would fire the SEC chair is mere pandering. Where was McCain when the WAR was going on? Where was McCain when the states Attorneys General were battling the same White House that now has numerous advisers attached to McCain’s campaign? McCain has more than two decades in the Senate. And on his watch, while he was on duty, the sabotage of America’s economic system was occurring. Did he sound the alarm?
Someone needs to be fired. How about John McCain?
That’s funny, even as the crisis was unfolding McCain was STILL muttering how fundamentally sound America’s economy really is.
Well, John McCain, your buddy Rush Limbaugh called for accountability for this mess. He called for someone’s head to be lopped right off. Given that you spent a quarter-century in Congress and rub elbows with many of the top executives of the organizations in question (Fed, Fannie, Freddie) and held oversight of the fed as one of only 100 Americans in such an elite position — and given your desire to now ask for a promotion to president even as you cannot properly assess the day-to-day financial meltdown that you failed to prevent, it is incumbent upon the American people to deny your request for a promotion.
In answer to Limbaugh’s call for accountability, we hold you partially accountable, Mr. McCain. You failed as a senator. There is no reason to now expect that you could possibly succeed as a president. You are dismissed.
Posted on September 22nd, 2008 by MikeGreen
Filed under: Election 2008
[...] will hold the president and the Fed chairman responsible and accountable for its war waged against all 50 states in order to push through predatory lending practices that are at the core of [...]