Is Ben Stein coming around? Stunning column

[spooky3]

Viewing him as your basic Republican apologist, I was very surprised to read this--not because it is so radically left but just because it is so different from what I've heard from him before. Maybe he's a Lou Dobbs-like conservative who's upset with * because he's not conservative enough?

http://finance.yahoo.com/columnist/article/yourlife/4780

snip

"What I kept thinking was, "Mr. Lay and Mr. Skilling, the people you were looting were men and women at your company who had their life savings in Enron stock. They were men and women who you passed by in the hall every day. They were the people who made your coffee and brought you your mail and parked your car. They were people who were proud to work at Enron and thought they were at a heads-up deal. They trusted you with -- quite literally -- their lives. They never did a bad thing to you, and yet you ruined their lives and their hopes. You sold Enron stock while telling them to buy it. You knew the company was a shell game, and yet you urged totally innocent people to buy still more of it for their retirement accounts. How could you look yourself in the mirror every morning?"

Now, it would be nice if the Lay and Skilling convictions marked the end of this kind of fraud. The terrible part is that it's still going on in a huge way. Lately, investigative reporters at "The Wall Street Journal," aided by university professors, are discovering that top executives at some of the biggest companies in the nation are looting their companies in an almost unbelievably brazen way.

snip

Just by the law of large numbers, some of the people who were being ripped off in these cases and at Enron were soldiers now fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan, firemen risking their lives to save children in burning houses, teachers struggling to teach children without fathers. How could these executives steal from such people?

snip

This is a national disgrace. We absolutely have to make an example of these corporate wrongdoers and the boards of directors that let it happen. And the example I gave about phony stock-option prices is only one of many. The whole executive-compensation culture has become insane, with corporate executives draining the lifeblood of the nation while worker salaries stagnate, and employees lose their jobs and their pensions (just talk to the people at United Airlines or Delphi).

snip

[LiberalPartisan]

1. Stein's column is not 'radically left'

Right and wrong don't have political labels. Stein calls it correctly on this but I doubt he's changing his spots.

[Joe Chi Minh]

16. It sounds like a heck of a good start.

Still, as some of you point out, "One swallow doesn't make a summer." It's not encouraging to read that he was an ardent Reaganite.

[Cha]

22. Right! I saw nowhere that

he called bush a "national disgrace".

Everytime his ugly mug comes on that commercial I switch channels muy pronto!

[Totally Committed]

2. My guess? -- I know it's cynical, but here's what I think --

Ben Stein took a bath in the market because of of Enron. He owned stock, and lots of it, and lost a lot of money. He wouldn't give a rat's ass otherwise. I'm conviced of it.

TC

[depakid]

5. That's my take, too

I've NEVER seen Ben Stein give a shit about anyone except Ben Stein.

[ComerPerro]

12. No kidding. He must have lost money. Otherwise, he would be writing

about how Lay is just a conservative hero, a champion of the free market, and anyone who lost money due to his fraud has only themselves to blame.

[regnaD kciN]

19. Maybe this could be a new game show...

...Steal Ben Stein's Money. :evilgrin:

[Arugula Latte]

24. I like it!

:thumbsup;

[Deja Q]

3. Well, this now means he'll be put into a prison camp with the rest of us.

Making money legitimately is one thing; doing what Lay and his ilk did is totally reprehensible.

[Warpy]

4. Ben must've lost a bundle

Yes, I know, I'm deeply cynical. The past 26 years have made me so.

All of these right wing mouthpieces have moments of lucidity, then the call from the White House comes in and they're reminded of their indiscretions with Guckert or some unnamed hooker supplied by Abrahmson or one of his many co partiers, or they're reminded about some calls the NSA trapped, or something. Or maybe it's a call from the corporate head office about rocking the gravy boat. Whatever it is, the lucidity disappears the next day.

Sad, isn't it?

[TallahasseeGrannie]

6. I think Ben Stein

is a conservative in the old mold.

[Ilsa]

7. He's right: it is a national disgrace that we allow the ceos to get

away with looting companies while the wrokers go home broke every day and their retirement stock dwindles in value or gets its dividend cut.

[Ilsa]

8. sorry for the dupe. thunderstorms in the area are affecting data here. nt

[Selatius]

9. Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling make very poor Corporatists

Want to know why? Because the best corporatists don't need to break the law to get what they want, and if they want something that is illegal, then they actually have the patience and self-control to take the time to make it "legal" through their servants in Congress as opposed to giving into impulsive greed.

Lay and Skilling are small fries. It's the ones you don't see or hear about who are worse.

[Joe Chi Minh]

17. What a penetrating insight, though small fry may be overstating it

a little at least from our perspective.

Was it Woodrow Wilson who spoke of the real power brokers, shadowy figures whom they, the politicians, scarcely dared allude to, even in whispers?

Thatcher was a pawn of such people, but she did have the savvy to know that the "law was there for them to change at their whim".

[ComerPerro]

10. He's still a Republican shill. He is trying to make this apolitical

when Republicans are at fault, "heroes" like Lou Dobbs and Ben Stein get applauded here because they complain about the bad things that are happening.

But, what so many fail to miss is that these pathetic party sycophants never really point the finger at their own party. They try to make it apolitical, they try to blame all politicians in general (Dems and Republicans), or, if they are really bold, they blame Democrats (like Dobbs did recently for immigration).

[TheCowsCameHome]

11. Stein took a bath, and that's all he's angry about.

He couldn't care less about anyone but himself.

Screw him.

[janx]

13. Finger in the wind...

The same goes for most media.

[eauclaireliberal]

14. Winning Ben Stein's Money should be pretty easy then!

What is this POS saying? That he is "shocked?"

This asshat is a devout Reaganite. If he truly believes that continuing support for the neocon mafia would make things "honest" then he is a 100% grade-A idiot. Seeing as to how I'm having trouble getting my next mortagage payment together, I should get a spot on his gameshow (if it is still running). I will triumph and manage to keep a roof over my head.

[Vincardog]

15. It is clear that he is pissed because they ripped off the INVESTOR CLA$$

no where does he moan about the poor rate payers that were the victims of the fraud in the first place.

[TheFarseer]

18. It seems like I saw another column of his

where he was bashing tax cuts for the rich while we are facing budget deficits. Did anyone else see that?

[sk8tenn]

20. It seems like I saw another column of his

Ben Stein worked for Nixon, who used wage and price controls to combat inflation and who tried to get national health insurance. This is the old type of Republican who, while not always liking it, would even occasionally go Keynesian in approach occasionally if it was proven that there was no practical alternative.

[newyawker99]

25. Hi sk8tenn!!

Welcome to DU!! toast:

[Loge23]

21. "Mr. Bulllllshittt, Mr. Bulllllllshitttttttt"

Stein is exactly the type of individual who's self-serving, neo-Laffer, business-is-our-god, bullshit caused this debacle at Enron.
Ben Stein, drop dead.

[Greybnk48]

23. Amen Loge23 n/t

[Hippo_Tron]

26. Beuller? Beuller?

[Warren DeMontague]

27. Ben Stein can KISS MY ASS

Hmmm, I seem to remember him standing up there on stage cheerleading for these theocratic, corporo-fascist assholes, like when they convocated the 2000 GOP convention to "Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ"

Fuck him.

[Fire Walk With Me]

28. Does he know that Enron were big Bush campaign investors?

Least that's what I've heard. Friends and such, so it might make sense to see if Bush has applied any Enron tactics against the Treasury and the public.

[rhombus]

29. Stein told Kudlow that W ought to raise taxes to foot the Iraq bill

Kudlow's(MSNBC) head almost fell off. I had to do a double take myself. Stein wasn't happy with the fiscal mess W has put us in.