Posts Tagged ‘Daily Kos’

Compassionate conservatism? An open letter to Newt Gingrich from the child of a janitor

Dec 29th, 11 / 0 Comments

Evans Community of Caring
December 30, 2011

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Compassionate conservatism? An open letter
to Newt Gingrich from the child of a janitor

Compassionate conservatism? An open letter to Newt Gingrich from the child of a janitor, Daily Kos, December 29, 2011, by Chaunceydevega, excerpts quoted verbatim:

Newt Gingrich has repeatedly shown that he is an existentially ugly person. Therefore, his repeated comments about the black poor, and “inner city” communities, where people “don’t have a work ethic” are not at all a surprise. Time has demonstrated that “compassionate conservatism,” an oxymoron if there ever was one, is not particularly kind, just, or humane.

Paul Krugman: Income Inequality
and the Middle Class

As demonstrated by his Wednesday editorial on the website Human Events, Newt Gingrich is apparently wedded to the idea that young black and brown kids should have the “privilege” of becoming janitors in their schools in order to learn about the value of “hard work.”

There are any number of problems with this argument. Primarily, Gingrich is recycling the ugly and deeply racist belief that black people are inherently lazy: poor children who don’t see people around them working apparently grow up to be lazy adults, who are on welfare, dependent on the state, and have no understanding of how to put in an honest day’s work. He gives no consideration to the stigma that child janitors would experience, and the taunting and bullying that would inevitably result from being one of the students who carries a pail, mop, or broom around their school.

Newt Gingrich is also blindly ignorant of the issues surrounding structural unemployment in poor inner city communities, and where it is not a deficit of work ethic or drive, but a lack of desperately wanted job opportunities—especially for young people—that drives urban poverty. Given the Right-wing’s assault on unions, and the social safety net, more broadly, Gingrich’s smearing of school janitors as an enriched and craven class of greedy public employees is just more red meat for an agenda that wants to destroy the American middle and working classes.

In all, Newt Gingrich is offering up a Dickensonian fantasy of workhouses in which African American wastrels and street urchins learn the value of hard work from benevolent white folks like him.

Of course, Newt Gingrich’s children, and those of the moneyed classes who he represents, would never be asked to pick up a mop and broom at their schools—as their kids’ responsibility is first and foremost to prepare and study for college, and the bright future which awaits them.

And I must wonder, what lessons have the children of the financier class, the trust fund baby and inherited money types who brought about the Great Recession, been taught about the value of hard work from observing the destructive behavior of their parents during this time of economic calamity?

Over the years, I have developed a pretty thick skin regarding these matters. However, there is something particular offensive about Newt Gingrich’s repeated insistence that poor black kids become janitors in order to learn about the merits of “hard work” that demands engagement. It would seem to his eyes that janitors are disposable people with easy jobs. Moreover, to him, a janitor’s job is so simple that anyone, even an elementary or middle school student, could do it well.

As the refrain goes, the personal is political. I am the son of a janitor. I try not to break kayfabe, or to drop the mask too often. Nevertheless, sometimes it is necessary to speak up for yourself, as well as for the many other people who may not have either the privilege, or opportunity, to speak truth to power.

In that spirit, please take this as an open letter of sorts to Newt Gingrich (and the particular brand of compassionate conservatism which he represents). …

…These are not details designed to elicit a tear; they are details of a full life, the human experience that stands behind words such as “janitor,” “teacher,” “unions,” and “working class.” These are perennially good titles, now transformed into slurs, by people like Newt Gingrich and his conservative brethren.

Read the full article, here.

Comment by Paul Evans: I strongly feel that the whole so-called recovery was deliberately engineered and orchestrated so that only the rich, the investment banks, and the big corporations would benefit. One interesting note about this is that as of February of 2011, the unemployment rate for those making $100,000 a year or more was 3.2 percent, whereas the unemployment rate for those making $20,000 a year or less was 31 percent. Such an income inequality and basic unfairness in my opinion is anti-American, and indecent.

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The Big Promises and Bigger Lies of Mitt Romney

Dec 27th, 11 / 0 Comments

Evans Community of Caring
December 27, 2011

 

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The Big Promises and Bigger
Lies of Mitt Romney

Welcome to Evans Community of Caring

Welcome to the new Evans Community of Caring! With a three year run as Evans Liberal Politics and Evans Liberal Christian Politics, having a content centering around building a caring society, with news and political articles hoping to point in that direction, we thought it was time to shake things up a little. In our new incarnation, we are hoping to bring more articles dealing with a focus on caring, building a caring society, inspirational articles, and economic and social justice. If that means we often continue bring you political articles, this is only because of the great extent to which politics has a bearing on what kind of a society we build and strengthen.

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The Big Promises and Bigger Lies of Mitt Romney, Daily Kos, December 27, 2011, by Avenging Angel, excerpt quoted verbatim:

In the election of 1928, the Republican Party of Herbert Hoover promised voters “a chicken in every pot and a car in every backyard.” (We all know how that turned out.) Now, Mitt Romney is pledging that “If I’m President” every college graduate will be guaranteed a job, Iran will have no nuclear weapons and the United States will dominate the 21st century. And when Romney isn’t making fantastic promises about what he’ll do when he gets to the White House, he’s slandering the current occupant, Barack Obama. ….

Read the full article, here.

Comment by Paul Evans: Lately I have been fairly surprised at what I am learning about Mitt Romney. I had thought that perhaps (at least in terms of a Republican), Romney might not be all that bad. What I am seeing is a man filled with such an ambition to be President that he basically doesn’t care what he has to do to get there. I also see a man who seems to want to go to war with Iran. His lies are obvious lies, and he makes ridiculous statements, in particular about Barack Obama. The amazing thing is that so far he has fully gotten away with it. I guess maybe the Republican base is so used to the venom and lies that people like Rush Limbaugh (or even Newt Gingrich, for that matter) tell matter of factly, that they are no longer able to discern a bald faced lie when they hear one. I can only hope and pray that when the Republicans finally do pick one of these jokers, that America will not have blinders on, and will stand up for what is right and true.

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Oboy! Another way to deal with joblessness: Debtors’ prisons

Dec 14th, 11 / 4 Comments

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Oboy! Another way to deal
with joblessness: Debtors’ prisons

Evans Community of Caring, December 14, 2011, by Meteor Blades (pen name for Timothy Lange, a featured writer on Daily Kos):

Introduction by Paul Evans: as I look around the internet for content for our readers which deals with building a caring community and nation, and about social justice and economic justice, sometimes an article stands out to the extent that I am willing to quote large portions of it, even at the risk of a certain degree of plagiarism. In this case, Meteor Blades has given me permission to publish articles in the past and we have exchanged a few emails a year or so ago, so I don’t feel too awfully bad. In fact, had I written this article, I would have wished that it was spread around the web as much as possible.

Just think of it! The Republicans have won and we are back to the age of the robber barons! Income inequality has now reached the level that it was back in the nineteen twenties. And the richest 400 men in America now own more than half of the nation’s wealth. (I wonder exactly how much more they expect that the wealthy in America can reasonably take from the poor? I mean, there isn’t much left, right? Oh, nevermind, sorry, I said reasonably didn’t I. It stopped being reasonable a number of years ago…)

If this article doesn’t make you mad, either you are very conservative, or rich (which usually amounts to the same thing….)

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Meteor Blades: What with the recent call for ending child-labor laws, the relentless assault on unions and Gilded Age levels of inequality in wealth and income, you might get the sense we’re reliving the 19th century. Stir into that toxic mix debtors’ prisons and it’s clear we’ll not soon be seeing an end of efforts on the part of the powers-that-be to return us to the good ol’ days in which we can all be Little Dorrit (PE — Think Charles Dickens), but with Facebook accounts.

A year ago the American Civil Liberties Union concluded in its year-long investigation, In For a Penny: The Rise of America’s New Debtors’ Prisons, that thousands of individuals with unpaid legal financial obligations were being jailed. This was done, in many instances, in direct contradiction of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Bearden v. Georgia nearly three decades ago.

NPR reported earlier this week that collection agencies are using tougher measures to force people pay their debt. These include filing lawsuits. When that is done, a notice to appear in court is supposed to be sent to the debtor. But the notices seem to go missing quite often. So people wind up being arrested on failure-to-appear warrants and they can subsequently wind up in jail for long periods.

Read the full article, here

See Also: Census shows 1 in 2 people are poor or low-income

Still More Fun (in a masochistic sort of manner…): The Iowa caucuses are only three weeks away, with good old Newt Gingrich settling into a decent lead over general front runner Mitt Romney. So let’s take a look at 10 of The Craziest Things Newt Gingrich Has Ever Said

Note by Paul Evans: I looked up a good article on one of the main assaults on the poor by Tea Party types. These people are actually advocating essentially doing away with voter’s rights and requiring the ownership of property in order to have the right to vote. This goes right along with their efforts to make it harder to vote early or for poor people to vote at all, and their attacks on organizations such as Acorn. I have heard several Tea Party sorts of Congressmen speak in favor of rolling back the Voting Rights Act of 1964 and going back to the good old days of the 19th century, when the rich guys controlled everything. Well, heck, we’re most of the way there now, right?

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Abbreviated Pundit Round-up for July 7, 2011

Jul 7th, 11 / 2 Comments

Evans Liberal Politics
July 7, 2011

 

Abbreviated Pundit Round-up for July 7, 2011

Abbreviated Pundit Round-up, Daily Kos, July 7, 2011, by DemFromCT, used with permission, quoted verbatim:

NY Times:

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Mr. Obama, who is to meet at the White House with the bipartisan leadership of Congress in an effort to work out an agreement to raise the federal debt limit, wants to move well beyond the $2 trillion in savings sought in earlier negotiations and seek perhaps twice as much over the next decade, Democratic officials briefed on the negotiations said Wednesday.The president’s renewed efforts follow what knowledgeable officials said was an overture from Mr. Boehner, who met secretly with Mr. Obama last weekend, to consider as much as $1 trillion in unspecified new revenues as part of an overhaul of tax laws in exchange for an agreement that made substantial spending cuts, including in such social programs as Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security — programs that had been off the table.

EJ Dionne:

Here’s why getting to a deal on the debt ceiling is so complicated.President Obama’s main goal is to get through this fight with the government still running and his support from the political center intact, even if this means substantial concessions to Republicans.

House Republican leaders want to get by without inciting a revolt among right-wing Tea Partyers, which means they’re having trouble accepting Obama’s concessions.

And the Senate — well, the Senate resembles the Balkans without a peacekeeping force.

WaPo:

To their credit, Romney’s senior aides were up-front about his fundraising for the quarter — they said he would come in between $15 and $20 million — but still struggled beneath the heightened fundraising expectations for the nominal frontrunner in the race.“I think they learned an organizational lesson here,” said one senior Republican strategist. “Pledges are meaningless, and they need to pick up the collection efforts…

“I think it is relative,” said Mike Murphy, a Republican media consultant who has worked for Romney in the past but is not affiliated with him this time around. “It’s less than 2008, but the competition he faces is the crowd he has now, not then.”

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Mitt Romney fundraising sparks Republican fears

Ah, cutting to the chase.

The Hill:

Former Bush political guru Karl Rove said Wednesday that he thinks Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) will run for president.Rove, who enjoys longstanding and deep ties to Texas Republican politics, said he expects Perry to jump into the race for the GOP nomination — and raise big bucks if he does so.

“I think you’re right that he’s going to run,” Rove said on Fox Business Network.

Politico:

Former President Bill Clinton Wednesday compared GOP efforts to limit same-day voter registration and block some convicted felons from voting to Jim Crow laws and poll taxes.In a speech to liberal youth activists Wednesday, the former president called out proposals in battleground states like Florida and Ohio that could limit the voter rolls.

Now, that’ll make for some competition for both Romney and Bachmann, even if he doesn’t win. Also-rans Pawlenty and Huntsman will be starved for media oxygen and we might actually see more stories written that their campaigns don’t measure up and they won’t be winning.

This was from Matt Bai last month:

Republicans talk about something called “Bush fatigue.” It almost always comes up in relation to Jeb Bush, the brainy and politically talented brother of George W. Bush, who was himself the popular governor of a pretty sizable state. It’s a common theory in conservative circles that while Jeb (everyone calls him Jeb) might be the most formidable candidate out there to challenge President Obama, he is nonetheless cursed by his last name.That’s because a lot of Americans, and no small number of Republican primary voters, reminisce about the last Bush presidency the way they might about, say, once having contracted shingles. The sullied family brand is thought to be a deal breaker, at least for the moment.

When I interviewed Jeb Bush last year, he told me that he didn’t worry about the brand and wouldn’t hesitate to run for president if he really felt like it. And I’ve never been entirely sold on the Bush fatigue theory, either. Jeb Bush bears little resemblance to his older brother physically or temperamentally, and you can imagine him dominating Republican debates in a way that would quickly differentiate him.

In Mr. Perry’s case, however, the biographical and visceral similarities to Mr. Bush might actually prove harder to ignore.

So what’s changed? Nothing. A combo of blind ambition and wariness of Romney will likely prove those predicting a Perry run to be correct. And that Perry might run is more evidence of Romney’s weakness than his fund raising.

NY Times on Rupert Murdoch’s problems in the UK:

Line-skirting has always been part of doing business for Rupert Murdoch, but a voice-mail hacking scandal poses a new type of threat to News Corporation’s image.

Not all the news is bad.

Connecticut has become the first state to require companies to provide employees with paid sick leave with legislation signed into law by Gov. Dan Malloy (D), who announced his action Tuesday.The measure requires businesses in the service industry with 50 or more employees to allow workers to accrue one hour of sick time for every 40 hours worked. Backers estimate that between 200,000 and 300,000 workers will benefit. Opponents said the law will make Connecticut less competitive.

The Onion:

Final Minutes Of Last Harry Potter Movie To Be Split Into Seven Separate Films – Warner Bros. will recut the last four minutes of “The Deathly Hollows: Part 2″ and stretch it into seven films so fans can enjoy the Harry Potter franchise for another decade.

Rumor has it Harry, Ron and Hermione have already destroyed the first three, but the last four will be harder to find.

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DemFromCT is a longtime member of the Daily Kos community with interests ranging from polling to Iraq to bird flu, and has graciously agreed to allow us here at Evans Liberal Politics to publish his articles on an ongoing basis. He is a founding editor of Flu Wiki (www.fluwikie.com) and its sister site, the Flu Wiki Forum (www.newfluwiki2.com). Since its inception in June 2005, Flu Wiki has grown into an international clearinghouse of pandemic influenza information and links.

You can view his diaries at Daily Kos, here. DemFromCT is a featured writer at Daily Kos, and you can read more about him here. You are invited to email DemFromCT.

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Walker Bulldozes Through Implementation of Anti-Labor Law Despite Court Order to Stop

Mar 30th, 11 / 0 Comments

Evans Liberal Politics
March 30, 2011

 

Walker Bulldozes Through Implementation of Anti-Labor Law
Despite Court Order to Stop

Evans Liberal Politics, March 30, 2011: This is an amalgam of two or so (four total) articles detailing Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s blatant disregard of the law, a la George Wallace’s infamous efforts to block racial integration in 1963, which was ultimately overcome with the use of federal National Guard troops after a call to President Kennedy:

Scott Walker Pulls a George Wallace

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Scott Walker Pulls a George Wallace, Daily Kos, March 29, 2011, by JackinStL:

…   The picture above is that of Governor Wallace’s infamous Stand in the Schoolhouse Door, an incident in June 1963 in which Wallace physically blocked the entrance to the University of Alabama to prevent two black students with flawless records to enter, despite being ordered by a federal judge to let them in.

The other man in the photo (arms crossed) is Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach. Though Wallace cut off Katzenbach and used the opportunity to spout platitudes about states’ rights that were eagerly lapped up by his disgruntled supporters around the country, Katzenbach came back (after a call to President Kennedy) with the federalized Alabama National Guard. Wallace was ultimately forced aside, and the rule of law won the day.

So how does Scott Walker relate to all this? Though there are certainly some differences–Walker, to say the least, is not a fanatical racist.–the two cases are remarkably similar.

Wallace, though prior a racial moderate who had been endorsed by the NAACP in past elections, later pledged he would never be “outniggered” again in an election. He came into office in 1962 pledging to defend “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever!” and to that end, he and his like-minded government fought tooth and nail against the results of Brown v. Board of Education. Using state detectives, they dug up dirt on hundreds of black applicants to state universities, using any excuse they could muster to deny them admission. When three black students of unimpeachable intelligence and character–Vivian Jones, Dave McGlathery, and James Hood–applied, and refused to yield to threats of violence, their admission was ordered by a federal judge in early June.

Though he received nationwide coverage and thousands of telegrams of admiration, the country as a whole and the federal government would not stand by while African-Americans were given second-class citizen status throughout Alabama–no matter how much Southern legislators swore it was for the best of both races! We as Americans recognized that equal protection was codified into the Supreme Law of the Land, and we forced Wallace to yield.

Walker finds himself in a similar place. With his cabal of compliant legislators, he violated the law to disempower a much-maligned minority–public workers’ unions. They mobilized state law enforcement to ferret out civilly disobedient Democratic lawmakers. Their extremist actions were applauded by a minority, but nonetheless have been bolstered millions of Americans nationwide. Ultimately, they seem to have violated the law of Wisconsin, and a judge–a circuit judge, but appointed a protector of the law nonetheless–issued a restraining order to prevent it from going into effect.

Walker is bulldozing ahead nonetheless. Though this is a state law and has a quite a ways to progress judicially, Walker and his Department of Justice have clearly placed themselves into the regressive camp. Is he making his Stand in the Union House Door?

If so, I hope he’s ready to find out what it’s like to be on the wrong side of history.

Wisconsin Judge Halts Further
Implementation Of Union Law

(Earlier): Wisconsin Judge Halts Further Implementation Of Union LawThe Huffington Post, March 29, 2011, by HuffPo:

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MADISON, Wis. — The showdown over Wisconsin’s explosive union bargaining law shifted from the Statehouse back to the courthouse on Tuesday, but it remained unclear when or even whether the measure would take effect.

Republican lawmakers pushed through passage of the law earlier this month despite massive protests that drew up to 85,000 people to the state Capitol and a boycott by Democratic state senators. Opponents immediately filed a series of lawsuits that resulted in further chaos that might not end until the state Supreme Court weighs in.

That appeared even more likely after a hearing on Tuesday, when a Dane County judge again ordered the state to put the law on hold while she considers a broader challenge to its legality. She chastised state officials for ignoring her earlier order to halt the law’s publication.

“Apparently that language was either misunderstood or ignored, but what I said was the further implementation of (the law) was enjoined,” Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi said during a hearing. “That is what I now want to make crystal clear.”

Sumi is set to hear additional arguments Friday on the larger question of whether GOP legislative leaders violated the state’s open meetings law during debate on the measure. She also is considering Republican claims that the law technically took effect last weekend after a state agency unexpectedly published it online.

Whether she decides it did or didn’t become law on Saturday, the measure’s legitimacy will likely be decided by the state Supreme Court, which is already considering whether to take up an appeals court’s request to hear the case.

See Also: Judge Blocks Wisconsin Anti-Union Law (Again), Talking Points Memo, March 29, 2011, by Eric Kleefeld:

Dane County Judge Maryann Sumi has just blocked — again — Gov. Scott Walker’s (R-WI) new law curtailing public employee unions, after the state Republican leadership moved last Friday to circumvent her previous order that blocked the law on procedural grounds. But that’s not the end of the discussion, as it appears the state will continue to defy the order.

See Also: Wisconsin Union Law Battle Has Republicans Facing New Hurdle, The Huffington Post, March 30, 2011, by Todd Richmond:

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and his fellow Republicans face a new hurdle in their campaign to curb public sector unions’ power.

So far Republicans have managed win after win – overcoming massive protests and outmaneuvering Democrats to push their plan through the Legislature, then finding a way to at least temporarily get around a court order that would have kept the explosive union bargaining law from taking effect.

Now they face another court order blocking the law, which would strip most public employees of nearly all their collective bargaining rights. And this time the judge has said there will be consequences for violators.

Still, the matter is far from settled. Republicans haven’t said what their next move will be, but it’s likely the law’s legitimacy will be decided by the state Supreme Court.

Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi chastised state officials Tuesday for ignoring her earlier order to halt the law’s publication.

“Apparently that language was either misunderstood or ignored, but what I said was the further implementation of (the law) was enjoined,” Sumi said during a hearing. “That is what I now want to make crystal clear.”

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Fed: Household wealth plummets 23% in two years

Mar 28th, 11 / 0 Comments

Evans Liberal Politics
March 28, 2011

 

Fed: Household wealth plummets 23% in two years

Fed: Household wealth plummets 23% in two years, Daily Kos, March 26, 2011, by Joan McCarter, used with permission of Joan McCarter and quoted verbatim: Thank You!

This is one of the more alarming reports of the week.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The average American family’s household net worth declined 23% between 2007 and 2009, the Federal Reserve said Thursday.

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A rare survey of U.S. households, first performed in 2007 but repeated in 2009 in order to gauge the effects of the recession, reveals the median net worth of households fell from $125,000 in 2007 to $96,000 in 2009….

Federal Reserve officials said Thursday the new report offers a look at exactly how hard the recession hit families, and how they reacted.

The numbers paint a stark picture.

Families that owned stock saw their portfolios drop by more than a third to $12,000 from $18,500, on average. The value of primary real estate holdings decreased by an average of $18,700.

And families took on more debt, pushing median total debt levels to $75,600 from $70,300. They also made less money. Media household income dropped to $49,800 from $50,100.

High unemployment, rising food and medical costs, tanking stock portfolios and complete loss of equity make for a world of hurt for American families. Which makes the single-minded focus in DC on the deficit and austerity all the more inexplicable. And frightening for our future. Krugman:

[J]obs now, deficits later was and is the right strategy. Unfortunately, it’s a strategy that has been abandoned in the face of phantom risks and delusional hopes. On one side, we’re constantly told that if we don’t slash spending immediately we’ll end up just like Greece, unable to borrow except at exorbitant interest rates. On the other, we’re told not to worry about the impact of spending cuts on jobs because fiscal austerity will actually create jobs by raising confidence.

How’s that story working out so far?

Not so great, if the Fed and its report is to be believed. Yes, the report’s data is a year old, but while stock prices have rebounded, unemployment is still unsustainable, housing prices continue to fall, and food and medical costs continue to rise.

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So-called deficit hawks rule out returning to Clinton-era tax rates

Mar 22nd, 11 / 1 Comment

Evans Liberal Politics
March 22, 2011

 

So-called deficit hawks rule out
returning to Clinton-era tax rates

So-called deficit hawks rule out returning to Clinton-era tax rates, Daily Kos, March 22, 2011, by Jed Lewison, used with kind permission of Jed Lewison, quoted verbatim:

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The Hill:

Republican leaders in the Senate and House will not agree to tax increases in the guise of reform measures, according to a prominent conservative advocate for lower taxes.

Conservatives have grown increasingly worried that Republicans in Congress may accept a tax hike as part of a broader deal to reduce discretionary and entitlement spending.

But Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) have pledged to Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist they will not support any deficit reduction package that increases taxes.

I know it’s fashionable to say that spending is the reason our deficits have exploded, but the truth is that the Bush tax cuts are biggest reason deficits have increased—and it’s not even close. Other than TARP and the slowdown in GDP growth in the last year of the Bush presidency, the Bush tax cuts account for virtually all of the debt accumulated during his presidency. And if you aren’t willing to talk about getting rid of all of the Bush tax cuts and returning to Clinton-era tax rates, you aren’t serious about deficit reduction.

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Johnson, Krugman, Nocera: Elizabeth Warren Is Getting Thrown Under The Bus

Mar 21st, 11 / 0 Comments

Evans Liberal Politics
March 21, 2011

 

Johnson, Krugman, Nocera: Elizabeth Warren
Is Getting Thrown Under The Bus

Johnson, Krugman, Nocera: Elizabeth Warren Is Getting Thrown Under The Bus, Daily Kos, March 20, 2011, by Bob Swern, used with permission, quoted verbatim:

MIT Professor, author and former International Monetary Fund (IMF) Chief Economist Simon Johnson noted, on Thursday, (See: “Who’s Afraid of Elizabeth Warren?“) that it’s certainly beginning to appear that–at least as far as the ongoing, Wall Street mortgage fraud settlement negotiations with our states’ 50 attorneys general are concerned–Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s quite perturbed with presidential advisor Elizabeth Warren and her Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for taking the lead in advocating Main Street’s position on the matter.

nice photograph of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau advocate Elizabeth Warren

But, over the weekend, in “Heroes As Villains: The Case of Elizabeth Warren,” and “An Advocate Who Scares Republicans,” even Paul Krugman and the NYT’s Joe Nocera, respectively, note that when political push comes to shove, Democrats from the administration on down, are more than ready to justify their inaction and tacitly feed Ms. Warren to the GOP wolves, as strong headwinds from the Wall Street go all out to vilify Warren.

As Johnson stated it–which should come as no surprise to anyone who’s been following Mr. Geithner’s ongoing, two-plus-year reign over all things financial in this country–after pointing out multiple comments which underscored general GOP disdain for Warren on Capitol Hill, many of Ms. Warren’s and Main Street’s economic hurdles lie on the other side of the aisle: “…Mr. Geithner at this stage is more pro-banking lobby than even Mr. Bachus.” Johnson was referring to House Financial Services Committee Chair Spencer Bachus (R-AL).

As a Democrat–even as a pragmatic Democrat–please take a few seconds to think about that.

Coming from the author of “13 Bankers,” “The Quiet Coup” and “The Two-Track Economy,” that’s really quite a statement.

To jog our memories, Johnson reminds us that Bachus is the person who recently said…

“In Washington, the view is that the banks are to be regulated, and my view is that Washington and the regulators are there to serve the banks.”

Johnson’s Geithner reference was with regard to a piece that appeared in the New York Post, around eight days ago, prior to Warren’s appearance before the House Financial Services Committee, earlier this past week. In that article, we learn that Secretary Geithner “isn’t happy” with Warren’s CFPB taking the lead advocacy position in the ongoing mortgage/foreclosure fraud settlement talks.

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Warren ripped again
By MARK DeCAMBRE
New York Post
Last Updated: 4:57 AM, March 11, 2011 …Geithner has privately told others that he isn’t happy with Warren’s involvement in the talks either, according to sources familiar with the matter…
…

…To be sure, one CFPB insider insisted that the agency only got involved in the mortgage negotiations after being “sought out as advisers” by state attorneys general.
“Politicizing the funding of bank supervision would be a dangerous precedent, and it would deprive the CFPB of the predictable funding it will need to examine large and powerful banks consistently and to provide a level playing field with their non-bank competitors,” Warren said in a recent speech.

To say that Geithner’s been “annoyed” by Warren, despite spin and related public statements to the contrary, from virtually the very first day he was in office, is to put the matter quite kindly. The facts are that she’s been a thorn in his side since day one, IMHO.

As I noted above, we’ve reached a point where even folks like Krugman and Nocera are making significant note of how our party’s leaders are conspicuously silent at this critical juncture:

Krugman, in his blog, yesterday (see link, above)…

…Warren has clearly faced a lot of hostility from within the administration, too. And as I see it, this also comes precisely because she was right: that gives her the kind of credibility that, in turn, makes her something of an independent force — which some people don’t like at all.Of course, that very credibility could make her an important asset to the Obama administration, for whom she could serve both as an able administrator and as a symbol of commitment to reform. But so far, the administration seems eager to avoid drawing any contrasts with the GOP, even when it has both justice and public opinion on its side.

Nocera, in Saturday’s NYT (see link, above)….

…It’s not just the House Republicans either. Already the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has reverted to form, becoming once again a captive of the banks it is supposed to regulate. (It has strenuously opposed the efforts of the A.G.’s to penalize the banks and reform the mortgage modification process, for instance.) The banks themselves act as if they have a God-given right to the profit they made precrisis, and owe the country nothing for the trouble they’ve put us all through. The Justice Department has essentially given up trying to make anyone accountable for the crisis.Thank goodness, then, for the attorneys general — and for Ms. Warren. On Main Street, where the attorneys general operate, it is pretty obvious that problems persist…
…

…Let’s face it: there isn’t anybody in Washington more fearless about standing up to the big banks. No wonder they don’t like her…
…
…Senate Republicans have vowed to block her appointment if President Obama nominates her. Yet even if her nomination goes down in flames, Senate confirmation hearings would be clarifying. Americans would get to hear Ms. Warren explain why the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has the potential to help Americans. And they would get to hear Republicans explain why the status quo — including the everyday horror of the foreclosure mess — is just fine.

It has been much noted in recent months that President Obama seems unwilling to start a fight with Republicans. Maybe that’s why he has shied away from nominating Ms. Warren to a job for which she is so clearly suited. But if protecting financial consumers — and helping the millions of Americans struggling to hold onto their homes — isn’t worth fighting for, then what is?

As some reading this might note, and as I’ve pointed it out in numerous posts — and as recently as in a diary in the past 24 hours — I think that even this woefully inadequate demand for $20 or $30 billion in mortgage modifications that the President and advisor Warren are now trying to squeeze out of Wall Street is quite pathetic, and really not much more than a charade once one realizes that the Treasury Department already has access to at least this amount in unspent, preapproved funds to accomplish this task.

It’s been widely reported, and as I’ve noted it in my own diaries of late via a recent ProPublica investigation, the government’s efforts to keep people in their homes via the HAMP program has been nothing short of a dismal failure.

From a practical standpoint, it’s now being projected by many of our country’s leading experts on residential real estate valuations, that as many as half of our nation’s mortgageholders will be underwater (owing more on their homes than they’re worth) by year’s end. Then again, much to the chagrin of those promoting our corporatocratic recovery (while Main Street languishes in pain), this situation was projected to come to fruition two years ago by experts at Barclays and Deutschebank. So, it’s not exactly new information.

The truth is that very little’s been accomplished to ameliorate Main Street homeowner suffering over the past couple of years.

As Johnson notes…

…[Geithner's] team agreed to Basel III, which requires banks to have less equity funding than Lehman had the day before it failed. There is no sign that systemically important financial institutions will be required to have a significant extra capital buffer – although this is supposedly not yet decided. And despite the undecided capital standards and large evident problems still facing banks (the foreclosure fiasco, commercial real estate woes, continuing high unemployment), the Financial Stability Oversight Council – which Mr. Geithner chairs – is about to sign off on letting banks increase their dividends.This makes no sense at all in terms of economic policy, but this is exactly what Mr. Geithner is presiding over. (If anyone you know at Treasury thinks this assessment is unfair, send them to Anat Admati’s webpage at Stanford.)

And having Elizabeth Warren on the scene – providing an alternative pro-consumer perspective – is apparently increasingly inconvenient to Mr. Geithner. For example, he has expressed displeasure at her engagement in the mortgage settlement process.

President Obama missed his best opportunity to reform the financial system when advisers – including Mr. Geithner – recommended that he defer to the top 13 bankers in March 2009. His team further punted when they failed to push for real change in spring and summer 2010, when the financial legislation was before the Senate. Mr. Geithner and his people were instrumental in defeating the Brown-Kaufman Amendment, which would have limited the size and the leverage (debt relative to equity) of the largest banks in the United States.

Will Mr. Geithner go for the trifecta? He was instrumental in bailing out the big banks without any strings. He held back serious attempts at legislative reform. Will he now prevent Elizabeth Warren, our potentially most effective modern regulator, from even coming up for a vote in the Senate?

When Geithner leaves the Treasury Department, he will return to the vampire squid’s lair from whence he came, upgrading his former, $500,000+ per-year gig as President of the NY Federal Reserve for a $10- or $20-million-a-year chairmanship with one of the too-big-to-fail firms that he’s done more to enrich over the past few years than any other U.S. citizen, save for–perhaps–Ben Bernanke. But, that’s certainly an arguable point, if ever there was one.

What’s inarguable here, however–White House apologists aside–is that, once again, when it comes down to a critical choice between Wall Street and Main Street, we’re dealing with a political party — OUR party — whose leadership is almost as much in thrall to Wall Street as the G.O.P.

Perhaps nowhere is that more self-evident than with regard to what’s happened to Elizabeth Warren over the past few days.

This country’s leading advocate for Main Street is being fed to the wolves, as our party’s leaders standby and, at the very least, witness this mugging in broad daylight.

IMHO, it’s the political version of the Kitty Genovese story, writ large.

In the words of Joe Nocera this weekend: “…if protecting financial consumers — and helping the millions of Americans struggling to hold onto their homes — isn’t worth fighting for, then what is?”

IMHO, Elizabeth Warren is being thrown under the bus…by both parties…and, it is unacceptable.

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