January 1, 2009
At year’s end, we see retrospectives of the most important events, numerous top ten lists and recognitions of achievement in one area or another. 2008 brought a record level of cynicism to the American people because of the economic catastrophe, the Bernie Madoff scandal and the cartoon-like escapades from the Presidential campaign. Accordingly, it seems only appropriate to pay homage to the biggest Jackass of the Year. Since I advertise this website as a “Blago-free zone”, the current Governor of Illinois is automatically disqualified from the competition. So, let’s take a look at some of the runners-up and finally, the winner of the Jackass of the Year Award.
Our first contestant is John Ensign. He is chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, representing the State of Nevada in the United States Senate. On November 2, 2008 he appeared on the CBS television program, Face The Nation with Bob Schieffer. Election day was two days away and Ensign found it necessary to blame the likely Republican losses on the economic downturn. He described the Republicans’ fate in these terms:
“And we were starting to do very, very well, but when the financial crisis hit, that financial crisis really is — has been a — almost a body blow to Republicans. And unfortunately, it was allowed to be portrayed that this was a result of deregulation, when in fact it was a result of overregulation.”
That’s right. Ensign Douchebag thought he could convince the public that the economic crisis was the result of over-regulation of the financial system, rather than the deregulation described by everyone else in the world. That noble statement certainly rates runner-up status for the Jackass of the Year Award.
Our next contestant is Reverend Jeremiah Wright, former pastor of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ and embarrassment to Barack Obama. Thank God Reverend Wright’s fifteen minutes of fame are finally over. Although his infamous sermon with the less-than-patriotic remarks about America was given in 2003, by April of 2008, Rev. Wright made a point of resurrecting the controversy concerning his disappointing association with Barack Obama. At that time Wright hit the road, appearing on Bill Moyers Journal, speaking before the NAACP and giving a grand performance before the National Press Club. He made a fool of himself all three times and (perhaps to his disappointment) his bad karma never rubbed off on Barack. The pastor has also been a disgrace to the name of the Right Reverend Carl Wright (comedic sidekick of Chicago blues maven, Pervis Spann). Although Jeremiah Wright rated recognition, the competition for the Jackass Award was tough this year.
We cannot overlook the valiant efforts of Joe “The Tool” Lieberman to win this honor. Although the people of Connecticut elected Joe to represent their state in the Senate, The Tool spent most of 2008 looking like a stray dog, following candidate John McCain around the campaign trial. You can find my prior rants about Senator Lieberman here, here, here and here.
We must also give consideration to Christopher Cox, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. John McCain was on to him. It just wasn’t fair that poor, old Senator McCain took so much heat for pointing out that Cox had to go. McCain made the mistake of stating that he, as President, would have authority to fire Cox. Although he was wrong about that, he was right about the notion that Cox had been a problem for the SEC. On December 16, Jessie Westerbrook of Bloomberg news reported that Cox was blaming his subordinates for the enforcement lapses that allowed the scam, perpetrated by Bernie Madoff, to continue for several years after the SEC should have stopped it. Cox apparently believes in the doctrine that “the buck stops” several levels below himself on the SEC food chain. The environment at the SEC, with Cox at the helm, was best summed up in a December 27 article from the Los Angeles Times by Amit Paley and David Hilzenrath. Here’s what they had to say about the tenure of Chairman Cox and his performance during the economic crisis:
Though Cox speaks of staying calm in the face of financial turmoil, lawmakers across the political spectrum counter that this is actually another way of saying that his agency remained passive during the worst global financial crisis in decades. And they claim that Cox’s stewardship before this year — focusing on deregulation as the agency’s staff shrank — laid the groundwork for the meltdown.
“The commission in recent years has handcuffed the inspection and enforcement division,” said Arthur Levitt, SEC chairman during the Clinton administration. “The environment was not conducive to proactive enforcement activity.”
* * *
But former officials said enforcement suffered during his tenure. A pilot program begun last year required enforcement staff to meet with the commissioners before beginning settlement talks in certain cases involving nonfinancial firms. Some former officials said the change was just one example of new bureaucratic impediments that slowed enforcement work. The commissioners also made clear that they thought staff members were being too aggressive in some cases, the officials said.
”I think there has been a sentiment communicated to rank-and-file staff, lawyers and accountants that you don’t go after the establishment,” said Ross Albert, a former special counsel in the enforcement division.
* * *
An analysis by law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius showed that the SEC’s actions against broker-dealers, who serve as intermediaries in financial trades, dropped about 33%, from about 89 cases in fiscal 2007 to 60 cases in fiscal 2008.
Heckuva’ job, Coxey! Nevertheless, you have been overshadowed in this year’s competition.
The winner of the 2008 Jackass of the Year Award is a professor from Russia, named Igor Panarin. He is a former member of the KGB, who is apparently so upset over the breakup of the Soviet Union, that for the past ten years, he has been predicting that the United States would also break up. On December 29, Andrew Osborn reported in The Wall Street Journal that Panarin has been doing two interviews per day, discussing how “an economic and moral collapse will trigger a civil war and the eventual breakup of the U.S.” The article explained:
Mr. Panarin posits, in brief, that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the U.S. will break into six pieces — with Alaska reverting to Russian control.
Worse yet, the other five parts of the country will supposedly become republics that will be part of or under the influence of Canada, the European Union, Mexico, China or Japan. Osborn’s article included a picture of Panarin’s map, showing how the various segments of the country would be apportioned. Panarin’s ideas have brought him quite a bit of publicity . . . and TheCenterLane.com’s Jackass of the Year Award for 2008! Congratulations, Jackass!
Tool-Trashing Time
I never liked Joe “The Tool” Lieberman. If you run that name (nickname included) on the search bar at the upper-right corner of this page, you will find a total of 13 previous entries wherein I discussed him in uncomplimentary terms. What bugs me most about Lieberman is that so many people consider him as the personification of centrism. I believe that Lieberman gives centrism a bad name because he is simply an opportunist. The guy doesn’t really appear to stand for anything in particular – he is simply a tool for whatever lobbyist or other interest group is willing to play his quid pro quo game. After Lieberman lost the Democratic Primary for his Senate seat in 2006, he chose to run as an Independent and in the process, he betrayed those individuals who contributed to his election campaign, believing that Lieberman would champion the causes he advanced before he had to sell his soul to Bush and Cheney in order to save his political hide. It was only because Ned Lamont (the man who defeated him in the Democratic Primary) came down with a bad case of The Smug – spending more time vacationing than campaigning for the November election – that Lieberman managed to win a fourth term as junior Senator from Connecticut.
Needless to say, Emily Bazelon’s recent article for Slate, “Good Riddance, Joe Lieberman – Why I loathe my Connecticut Senator” was a real treat. It was nice to see that a good number of people were as thrilled as I to hear that The Tool was calling it quits. While discussing the celebratory outpouring of enthusiasm by anti-Lieberman-ites Ms. Bazelon mentioned this:
As an aside, the first half of that passage was characterized as “the money quote” by the Red State blog and other far-right commentators, anxious to avenge Sarah Palin since her “crosshairs” SarahPac campaign ad was criticized after the attempted assassination of Representative Gabrielle Giffords. The magic word, “hate” gave the hard right the opportunity to argue that “liberals hate politicians, too”. Actually, the real “money quote” can be found by clicking on the highlighted language discussing the fight over the Financial Accounting Standards Board rules:
Does that rhetoric sound familiar?
After his 2006 victory, Lieberman continued to betray the people of Connecticut by abandoning his duties in the Senate to follow John McCain all along the 2008 campaign trail (including McCain’s trip to Afganistan) in the hope of securing a place for himself in the would-be McCain administration. The Tool knew he would never win a fifth term in the Senate. His only hope was to latch on to McCain’s pantsleg and hang on for dear life. In the wake of that fiasco, The Tool’s approval rating continued to slide and by October of 2010, it was down to 31 percent. A fifth term in the Senate was definitely out of the question. His campaign war chest could be put to better uses – such as buying “friendships” before beginning a new career as a lobbyist.
Despite Lieberman’s crucial effort in the repeal of the military’s “don’t ask – don’t tell” policy, it is interesting to observe how many gay people are willing to overlook that good deed while celebrating Lieberman’s retirement. A review of the comments at the joemygod blog exposes these reactions:
So much for that legacy thing . . .
Daniela Altimari of The Hartford Courant’s CapitolWatch blog, revealed a wide spectrum of reactions to Lieberman’s announcement. As one might expect, the remarks from politicians were painfully cordial, polite and not worth our time here. I’ll provide you with two of the more interesting quotes:
The Connecticut Mirror provided these reactions:
As we approach The Tool’s final days in the Senate, I will be looking forward to similar tributes.