February 8, 2010
Back in June of 2008, when it became obvious that Hillary Clinton would not win the nomination as the Democratic Party’s Presidential candidate, Clinton’s despondent female supporters lamented that they would never see a woman elected President within their own lifetimes. At that point, I wrote a piece entitled, “Women To Watch”, reminding readers that “there are a number of women presently in the Senate, who got there without having been married to a former President (whose surname could be relied upon for recognition purposes).” One of those women, whom I discussed in that essay, was Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington. Since that time, Senator Cantwell has proven herself as a defender of her constituents and an opponent of Wall Street. Her bold criticism of the Obama administration’s handling of the economic crisis as well as her vocal opposition to the influence of lobbyists, motivated me to write a second piece about Senator Cantwell in November of 2009. More recently, she voted against the confirmation of Ben Bernanke’s nomination to a second term as Federal Reserve chair and on February 2, Reuters reported that she was taking a stand against loopholes in proposed financial reform legislation.
On February 7, Les Blumenthal of the McLatchy Newspapers saw fit to highlight Senator Cantwell’s efforts at backing-up with real action, her tough stand against Wall Street:
To hear Sen. Maria Cantwell talk, another economic bubble is building as Wall Street banks — backed by taxpayer bailouts — continue to play the high-risk derivatives markets rather than extend credit to struggling businesses on Main Street.
Cantwell says that Congress and the Obama administration are just watching it happen.
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“We are trying to keep the focus on what needs to be done to get credit flowing and avoid another bubble,” Cantwell said in an interview. “Do I wish the White House team was more attuned to these issues? Yes.”
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White House officials have, at least twice, backed off commitments they made to her that they’d push for tougher regulations, Cantwell said.
“Their economic team is not living up to what they said they would,” Cantwell said.
Her criticism of the financial regulatory reform bill passed by the House — as being “riddled with loopholes” — was reminiscent of the widespread reaction to the disappointing failure of the Democrats to pass any significant healthcare reform legislation:
If the bills emerging from committees aren’t tough enough, Cantwell vowed a floor fight. She said she had support from half a dozen senators, including Democrats Dianne Feinstein of California, Tom Harkin of Iowa, and Carl Levin of Michigan.
“People are going to have to ask themselves what’s better — a weak bill or no bill?” she said.
At a time when her peers are busy selling out to lobbyists, Senator Cantwell is continuing to reinforce her image as a reformer. Her February 4 exchange with “Turbo” Tim Geithner, during his appearance before the Senate Finance Committee, was an example of the type of challenge that other Democrats are afraid to publicly vocalize when addressing members of the administration. Cantwell emphasized that the President has the authority to act on his own (by issuing an Executive Order) to make $30 billion available to community banks, rather than waiting for Congress to pass legislation for such a rescue. Her home state’s Lake Stevens Journal discussed that moment:
“If we don’t implement change right now, we are going to lose more jobs,” Cantwell told Geithner. “Do not wait for legislation. Come to terms with the community banks on reasonable terms that they can agree to — and I think that that we will be well on our way to getting Americans back to work.”
Maria Cantwell continues to exhibit a (sadly) unique toughness in standing up to those forces bent on preserving the destructive status quo. As disgruntled supporters of Hillary Clinton wonder whether her intention to step down as Secretary of State in 2012 could signal another opportunity to elect America’s first female President — they would be well-advised to consider Senator Cantwell as their best hope for reaching that historic milestone.
Banking Lobby Tools In Senate Subvert Reform
May 20. 2010
The financial pseudo-reform bill is being exposed as a farce. Thanks to its tools in the Senate, the banking lobby is on the way toward defeating any significant financial reform. Although Democrats in the Senate (and the President himself) have been posing as reformers who stand up to those “fat cat bankers”, their actions are speaking much louder than their words. What follows is a list of the Senate Democrats who voted against both the Kaufman – Brown amendment (to prevent financial institutions from being “too big to fail”) as well as the amendment calling for more Federal Reserve transparency (sponsored by Republican David Vitter to comport with Congressman Ron Paul’s original “Audit the Fed” proposal – H.R. 1207 – which was replaced by the watered-down S. 3217 ):
Akaka (D-HI), Baucus (D-MT), Bayh (D-IN), Bennet (D-CO), Carper (D-DE), Conrad (D-ND), Dodd (D-CT), Feinstein (D-CA), Gillibrand (D-NY), Hagan (D-NC), Inouye (D-HI), Johnson (D-SD), Kerry (D-MA), Klobuchar (D-MN), Kohl (D-WI), Landrieu (D-LA), Lautenberg (D-NJ), Lieberman (ID-CT), McCaskill (D-MO), Menendez (D-NJ), Nelson (D-FL), Nelson (D-NE), Reed (D-RI), Schumer (D-NY), Shaheen (D-NH), Tester (D-MT), Udall (D-CO) and Mark Warner (D-VA).
I wasn’t surprised to see Senator Chuck Schumer on this list because, after all, Wall Street is located in his state. But how about Senator Claire McCaskill? Remember her performance at the April 27 hearing before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations? She really went after those banksters – didn’t she? Why would she suddenly turn around and support the banks in opposing those two amendments? I suppose the securities and investment industry is entitled to a little payback, after having given her campaign committee $265,750.
I was quite disappointed to see Senator Amy Klobuchar on that list. Back on June 19, 2008, I included her in a piece entitled “Women to Watch”. Now, almost exactly two years later, we are watching her serve as a tool for the securities and investment industry, which has given her campaign committee $224,325. On the other hand, another female Senator whom I discussed in that same piece, Maria Cantwell of Washington, has been standing firm in opposing attempts to leave some giant loopholes in Senator Blanche Lincoln’s amendment concerning derivatives trading reform. The Huffington Post described how Harry Reid attempted to use cloture to push the financial reform bill to a vote before any further amendments could have been added to strengthen the bill. Notice how “the usual suspects” – Reid, Chuck Schumer and “Countrywide Chris” Dodd tried to close in on Cantwell and force her capitulation to the will of the kleptocracy:
Russ Feingold’s criticisms of the bill were consistent with those voiced by economist Nouriel Roubini (often referred to as “Doctor Doom” because he was one of the few economists to anticipate the scale of the financial crisis). Barbara Stcherbatcheff of CNBC began her report on Dr. Roubini’s May 18 speech with this statement:
The current mid-term primary battles have fueled a never-ending stream of commentary following the same narrative: The wrath of the anti-incumbency movement shall be felt in Washington. Nevertheless, Dylan Ratigan seems to be the only television commentator willing to include “opposition to financial reform” as a political liability for Congressional incumbents. Yves Smith raised the issue on her Naked Capitalism website with an interesting essay focused on this theme:
Her must-read analysis of the “head fakes” going on within the financial reform wrangling concludes with this thought:
As always, it’s up to the voting public with the short memory to unseat those tools of the banking lobby. Our only alternative is to prepare for the next financial crisis.