Talkingpointsmemo's Josh Marshall: Bigger Than the Both of Us

[flpoljunkie]

I do share his concerns.

Bigger Than the Both of Us

03.19.09 -- 2:30PM By Josh Marshall

There's no end of puffed up outrage and opportunistic posturing over the on-going revelation of the AIG bonus scandal. But some line has been crossed. And it's worth thinking really clearly about just what that line is.

What is so damaging about this isn't the money -- which is almost trivially small compared to the many hundreds of billions we've already committed. The problem is what appears to be the president's mortifying impotence in the face of bankers and financiers who created the problem. The president speaks and acts for the federal government, which is to say, the American people, who have mobilized more than a trillion dollars and all powers of the state to repair the damage emerging out of the financial sector. And with all that, he's jacked up on a employment agreement between a company the government now owns and derivatives traders who sank the world economy and may quite likely be looking at criminal charges for their activities in the not too distant future?

Anyone can look at that and see that the equation of power and accountability is all screwed up.

I think the American people have demonstrated over the last six months that they're willing to expand vast sums of money and endure great economic hardship without holding the damage against their political leaders. Effectiveness, in the sense of how long it takes to turn the economy around, is something they seem willing to be flexible on. But not on who's in charge. And that's what's at stake here. As a matter of transparency and truth-telling, what Geithner knew about the bonuses may be significant. But it's really all fine print that is largely beside the point. From Geithner and Summers, and indirectly from Obama, we keeping hearing financial-legal versions of 'It's bigger than the both of us'. Like we're along for the ride, still taking dictates from the people who got us into the mess we're in.

In this sense, this isn't a distraction. Yes, the dollar amounts are small. And pols across the spectrum are demagoguing the thing for all its worth. But the real issue of who's in control, and whose interests are being served, cuts through every dollar we've dedicated to this project. And when you look closely at the much bigger AIG counter-party issue, the same disconnect is there every bit as much as it is with the bonuses.

Whether Geithner and Summers are too close to the people on Wall Street, either through interest or affinity, is an interesting and possibly important question. But fundamentally Obama needs to start showing that he's in charge, that he's operating as the American people's advocate and that he has the power to do it -- which these stories of getting jacked up by some Gordon Gecko wannabes in London just terribly undermines. But to do that, to show that, it has to be true. And that might require some real changes in policy and possibly in personnel too.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/03/bigger_than_the_both_of_us.php

[belpejic]

1. Nation of laws

Um, we operate in a nation of laws. But the laws, at least theoretically, aren't determined by the parties they govern. They're supposed to be determined by you and me, and conveyed through our gov't reps. Clearly that's not happening, and this situation is absolutely absurd. Geithner shouldn't be asked for his resignation; he should be fired. And Obama had better get a grip on it--I totally give him the benefit of the doubt, but this is the big fire burning right now.