Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) yesterday said that the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Harvey Pitts, should be replaced because of his "cozy" relationship with business. On CBS' Face The Nation, Daschle said,
"We've even seen that [too permissive attitude] in relationships that some of the members of the administration have had with their own corporate roles, and the responsibilities they had in the corporate sector."
If Daschle's logic is correct, let's follow it through to the next logical step. The Senator from New Jersey, Jon Corzine was the co-chairman of Goldman Sachs. Where was he over the past 18 months? Why wasn't HE warning us about the ills which were about to befall the American investor? Maybe he still has a "cozy relationship" with his old business pals.
How about the former Treasury Secretary under Bill Clinton, Robert Rubin who is now a Director of Citigroup? Why didn't Rubin ever pick up a phone and call Joe Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Government Affairs Committee, and say, "Hey, Joe? We're seeing some really squirrelly things here in our Loans-To-Businesses-About-To-Go-Bankrupt-Department."
Oh! And what about Maria Cantwell Democrat from Washington State? She made a kagillion dollars in the dot-com boom. Has her phone been disconnected for the past 18 months? Or did she maintain a "too permissive" attitude in favor of her former business associates?
And, finally, what about Tom Daschle's and Jeff Bingaman's (D-NM) wives? They are two of the most highly paid lobbyists in Washington. There's nothing wrong with that on its face, but Anne Bingaman was the head lawyer in the anti-trust division of the Clinton Justice Department before becoming Global Crossing's go-to gal in Washington.
Memo to Anne Bingaman: Since you obviously must have misplaced it while you were watching all the goings-on in the telecoms sector, here is the Attorney General's phone number: 202-353-1555.
As none of those big-time Democrats seemed to have cared about this over the past 18 months, it's just a tad disingenuous for them to be crying crocodile tears now.
Crikey.
While Tom Daschle is on his mission to try get SOMETHING to stick to President Bush, we are seeing the clear signs of the National Democrats returning to their roots - anti-business, class warfare.
On Fox News this weekend, I noted that if the Democrats had run the NBA when Michael Jordan was in his prime, rather than trying to improve everyone else's level of play, they would have demanded Jordan wear ankle weights.
Rather than trying to "bring George W. Bush down" the National Democrats should be trying to find someone - ANYone - on their side of the aisle who can perform at his level.
That horrible shooting in LA last week got me thinking about a change in the immigration rules. Hadayet, it seems, came to the US on a tourist visa in 1992 which expired in January of 1993. He didn't go home. He stayed. Illegally.
He applied for permanent status but was turned down. In 1997, he was STILL here. Luckily for him his wife WON a Green Card in a visa "diversity lottery," so he got to stay here.
What happens is, a guy comes here, stays past his visa allowance, then gets a lawyer to argue before a judge that he is, after all, here already, and being a contributor to his community, and is married and has children so why not just let him stay.
Here's the new rule: If you are an immigrant to the US and you want to stay here, the SECOND you become illegal you have to go home and start the process from scratch. Do some good for your own community while you learn to operate within the rules.
I searched the web for "immigration lawyers" and found, among the listings, this: American Immigration Lawyers Association - Canadian Chapter.
Crikey.
On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: A definition of "disingenuous," a link to the article about Daschle, and a list of the countries eligible for the "diversity lottery." You will be surprised!
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