Dems set sights on McCain insider Phil Gramm

[Dover]

Dems set sights on McCain insider Gramm
They are poised to pounce on the former senator's economic record

By BENNETT ROTH and RICHARD S. DUNHAM
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — When U.S. Sen. John McCain needed to shore up support from skeptical economic conservatives during the presidential primaries, he turned to former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm.

Gramm, now an investment banker with UBS, has vigorously stumped for Sen. McCain, R-Ariz., and serves as an unpaid general co-chairman of McCain's campaign, generating speculation that the former Texas A&M economics professor might become Treasury secretary in a McCain White House.

McCain told the Houston Chronicle this year that Gramm is the smartest economist and political strategist he knows. But heading into the general election season, Democrats are trying their best to make sure that Gramm's help comes at a high political price...cont'd

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/5850226.html

[speedoo]

1. Gramm could turn out to be a disaster for McCain.

{snip)

Energy deregulation

Gramm used his prominent position in the Senate to promote less federal oversight of the energy industry. Democrats single out a provision pushed by Gramm in 2000 that exempted energy trading on electronic platforms from federal regulation.

The provision was dubbed "the Enron loophole" because it was backed by the Houston-based energy trader Enron, on whose board Gramm's wife Wendy sat at the time. Democrats give Gramm full credit for the proposal; Gramm says that he used language that was "essentially the same" as a provision approved months earlier by the House.

California officials blamed the provision for precipitating the electricity crisis in California in late 2000 and 2001. More recently, Democrats say that energy traders have used it to drive up energy prices. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., likens the action to taking "the cop off the beat."

(snip)

If the Dems do this right, a lot of our current economic misery can be laid at the feet of Gramm, Bush and McCain.

[Skidmore]

2. Shows how much judgment McCain lacks...

Gramm is not an economist, just a run of the mill confidence man with a fancy title. McCain is so devoid of the ability to recognize criminal activity in plain sight. Remember the Keating Five.

[Terry_M]

3. And Gramm is the person that deregulated

energy futures trading?

[fudge stripe cookays]

4. I hate that fucker.

His defection from D to R is part of the reason that Texas turned red. Many politicians followed that move to the other side of the aisle, and we've been feeling the aftereffects ever since.

[speedoo]

5. Wendy Gramm is probably even dirtier than her husband.

For example, she was on the Board of Enron:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://www.apfn.org/enron/gramm.htm&h=310&w=179&sz=10&hl=en&start=4&tbnid=DlZC89iBllYDcM:&tbnh=117&tbnw=68&prev=/images%3Fq%3DWendy%2BLee%2BGramm%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4ADBR_enUS227US227

Another example: Reagan said she was his "favorite economist".

[blondeatlast]

11. Now, now, we ahouldn't go after the wives, speedoo...

:sarcasm: of course.

She's descpicable and figures solidly in "Enron: The Smartest Guys In the Room" IIRC.

[MagickMuffin]

6. Check out his complete voting record @ link

Be sure to check out ALL his votes, by clicking older votes bottom left hand side. Also notice the WcCain bills and how good ol' Phil voted on those bills.


http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/G000365/votes/


The only person I've seen talking about this on the news is Olbermann. No one else in the media seems to notice. Big Surprise.....NOT!

[blogslut]

7. Here's a 2002 Molly Ivins Article

About old Phil and Richard (Dick!) Armey, entitled The Masters of Mean. A small snippet:

Hail and farewell to two of the meanest guys ever to serve in the U.S. Congress -- Senator Phil Gramm and House Majority Leader Dick Armey, both from Texas. What a barrel of knee-slapping fun they have been. As each winds up his final year in office, we could have a fine time recalling their Meanest Moments: The side-splitting occasion when Armey referred to Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts as "Barney Fag." The rib-tickling time Gramm wanted to deny food stamps to elderly legal immigrants on the splendid grounds that extending aid would only foster dependency, thereby incicting "a new personal tragedy on the most vulnerable among us."

Armey and Gramm represent the last of a certain style of antigovernment politician. Their favorite joke is that the 10 most-dreaded words in the English language are "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you." They built their political careers by opposing everything the government does to help people, constantly disparaging and attacking the institutional form of the people's power. Corporate welfare is fine with Gramm, just not anything to help people; Armey, the true-believer ideologue, was at least more consistent, rejecting almost all forms of government spending.

Armey and Gramm's joint retirement, along with that of Jesse Helms, marks the end of a particularly nasty kind of politics. Even Republicans now prefer a softer edge, a warmer and fuzzier approach. The result is the same, but "compassionate conservatism" goes down a lot smoother...

link: http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/power_plays/2002/03/mean.html

[autorank]

8. Graham more than an albatross. He's the end for McCain. k*r

He created the conditions that allowed rampant speculation, not just in housing but across the board.

"THE INCREASE IN DEMAND FROM INDEX SPECULATORS IS ALMOST EQUAL TO THE INCREASE IN
DEMAND FROM CHINA.

Index Speculators have now stockpiled, via the futures market, the equivalent of 1.1 billion barrels
of petroleum, effectively adding eight times as much oil to their own stockpile as the United States
has added to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve over the last five years."
http://electionfraudnews.com/MoneyParty/MikeWhitney.htm

In other words ... he's the reason we're paying through the nose for gas.

How about that, McCain's main man.

[Gabi Hayes]

deserves a thread of its own....and, as somebody here mentioned,

why not FORCE the speculators to take physical possession of the oil they "own," as in establish their own sites to keep their billion plus barrels of oil?

[autorank]

14. What a great idea.

Just deliver it to their doorsteps.

"Dude, got oil? Well no you do?"

As they like to say, there has to be a "consequence" for bad behavior.

Well, swallow that oil already;)

:hi:

[Kdillard]

9. Dems

So when are they going to get more mainstream media to use this against McCain. This really should be in the front of all the major newspapers and on places like CNN, etc. There are so many things to hammer McCain on but he seems to be getting a free ride in the press and by the DNC.

[FrenchieCat]

10. Who is they? It is supposed to be you.

Have you written any letters to major Newspaper or even to your own local paper.

This campaign is made up of million of voices.
But if you don't speak up, that is one less.

I am doing what I can, as I send 8 letters per day, period. And that is on the low end.

[Kdillard]

12. Well

I will certainly get the message out but I was concerned by the lack of hammering the Obama campaign and surrogates have done to showcase McCain's flil flopping and deceitful nature while my local newspapers were full of Barack being a flip flopper and breaking his promise on the campaign finance issue.

[TeamJordan23]

13. But will the MSM give him a pass like they seem to do with other problematic McCain people. nm

[hokies4ever]

15. Nobody makes the case against Gramm than Olbermann does

It's only a matter of time before McCain is forced to seriously consider dropping Gramm from his campaign.