Iowa, Steelers, Issa, and Wall Street

Look out while I pat myself on the back for picking Rick Santorum--a guy who humorist Andy Borowitz said, “still wears sweater vests”—emerging from Iowa as the newest GOP “flavor of the month” to badger Mitt Romney. I also predicted that one candidate, with a poor Iowa showing, would bag it—either Newt Gingrich or Michelle Bachmann-- and that's exactly what Mrs. Bachmann did the day after the vote.

Funny man Borowitz also had the best (made up) line—regarding Newt’s sensitivity and tenacity--in the Iowa aftermath.

Reporter: “Speaker Gingrich, given your very poor showing in the Iowa caucus votes, will you consider leaving the race?”

Newt: “Only if it has cancer!”

Last comment. Look out Rick Santorum; strap your helmet on tight. The media will be digging and your old GOP colleagues will be gunning for you.

Of course, they may not need to chop you down if you keep making thoughtless statements about minorities, as you did earlier this week.

Remember, as Urban League CEO Marc Morial reminded, you still are auditioning to represent the entire nation (not just the Evangelical right).

NFL Playoffs: God, Oscars, and Victories

Now, if the limping and injured Steelers just can get past the Denver Broncos this Sunday, I can relax on a cruise with my wife, until they likely play the Ravens in Baltimore the following week.

The road for the “just and virtuous” never is easy (he said sanctimoniously)!

Speaking of the Broncos-Steelers, I know Tim Tebow is a man of God, but half the Rooney family (Steeler owners) are priests and nuns, while “Rooney Mara,” female lead in the “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” is part of both the extended Rooney family and also the Mara family, which owns the New York Giants. For her “Tattoo” work, she has a strong shot at winning an Oscar.

The blood related clergy from Pittsburgh and the good vibes emanating from a family-member actress--in a first class movie—might prove to be a tough mix for Tebow and the Broncos to overcome. (I hope.)

“Issa He Really Going to Keep The Names Quiet?”

If you were Senate Democrat and got a home loan from Countrywide Mortgage--before it was sold to the Wells Fargo company--your name wound up in the newspaper. Chris Dodd, former senator from Connecticut, who did not seek re-election in 2010, and Kent Conrad (D-ND), who already announced he won't run in November, were skewered for dealing with a Countrywide, a business run by Angelo Mozilo, a one time mortgage industry hero whose company and Mozilo himself came on hard times in the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown, primarily for originating low quality subprime loans.

But, if you are a House Republican—other than poor Ed Royce (R-Cal), whose name came out over a year ago along with Dodd’s and Conrad’s—and your Countrywide financing was unearthed by Rep. Darrel Issa (R-Cal), Chairman of the House Government Operations Committee (labeled by some the JOB Committee or “Jihad on Obama”), your name stays secret and just gets sent for review/investigation to the House Ethics Committee, the do-noting protector of House perfidy.

Why has Issa, a self made millionaire, who seems to have plenty of past interactions with the law and the California police, chosen to apply kid gloves to the R's and not employ the same treatment in which their D Senate counterparts got busted and blasted?

Ask Chairman Issa or his staff, since they carefully have shielded IDs of the congressional Countrywide mortgagors in a “staff report” to Ethics, not a more traditional committee to committee report. I am sure that it has nothing to do with the myriad business and political GOP interests who seem to have a plethora of inroads to the Issa inner circle.

Reliable media sources say that three of the four named were GOP Members, who like their Senate counterparts, may not even have been aware that their loans came via a process which identified them as “Friends of Angelo (Mozilo),” Countrywide’s former business leader.

FOA’s were assured of a more rapid application process than others received, presumably others who were “not Friends of Angelo.”

I am sure, in the end, that Chairman Issa will insure that the Jih…oops, I mean justice will apply equally to Democrat and Republican alike!!


Mitt/Newt, “Wall Street? Huh, Where, What’s That?
Ferrera Says Bloomberg Hides Government Causes Of Financial Crisis.

“Peter Ferrera writes in a piece for the American Spectator (1/5) that the Bloomberg News in a December 21st article says that "Both former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney lay much of the blame on US government housing policies, saying they led to the real estate crash that almost brought down the banking system."

“Ferrera argues that it's not just Gingrich and Romney who think this, but virtually every Republican and conservative across America recognizes what is by now well established in the literature -- the government caused the financial crisis."

How can any serious GOP observer, let alone presidential candidate, ignore the catalytic Wall Street role in the nation’s financial meltdown, which delivered a body blow to the entire world economy? What is “well established in the literature,” is that Wall Street took advantage of a lax Bush Administration financial regulatory regime, demanded and welcomed by so many Republicans and pro-business types.

Wall Street created their own private label subprime mortgage securities—which detoured around the more restrictive Fannie/Freddie underwriting systems—and employed thousands of poorly trained, paid-by-the-application mortgage brokers--to provide flawed loans for their securities, which the same Street firms guaranteed, using high ratings extorted from very willing Wall Street rating agencies.

The same Wall Street investment banks fashioned the “credit default swap” securities that baffled federal regulators, but which institutional investors devoured as hedges against the very subprime securities Wall Street sold them.

Yes ample and cheap Fed money, as well as a souring economy, could have created national and international financial/economic problems. But, it never would have been as devastating and corrosive if Wall Street hadn’t created and flogged hundred of billions of dollars in worthless subprime mortgage backed securities to every major financial institution in the world.

Many national economies—including our own—still are bleeding because of the Wall Street actions.

So, Mitt, Newt and other GOP thinkers believe that all of this chaos, rife with Wall Street DNA, was exclusively the federal government’s fault?

They couldn’t be running for office and pandering for financial service company support could they?

Maloni, 1-6-2012