The market closed sharply down Monday following announcements this past weekend of drastic reshuffling by big finance. I tuned in to Hannity after the closing bell, noting he was agitated and upset that someone might politicize the market shake-up and fall-out.
Then he started to name Democrats in finance committees so detestable and "suspicious" because of recent events, that he felt hearings should be held - hearings! As in oversight, inquiry, interviews, investigation, maybe even charges filed! John McCain echoed this a day later, calling for a high-level commission to inspect the slate of major financial failures now crippling capital markets.
Hannity is of course ignoring the mountains of existing evidence overflowing for years around DC, prompting the U.S. Congress to file motions to impeach the President and Vice-President, led by Rep. Kucinich. These improprieties point keenly to Hannity's two standards of justice for Republicans and Democrats, though any hearings at all are overdue today, and would help root out the actual culprits in this latest money grab. . Hearings should also move quickly to seize hard drives, phone records and correspondence.
The "openly" partisan syndicated host (who has been given exclusive access to Gov. Palin this week) knows well that hearings are the ultimate in government regulation, oversight and accountability. Personally I'd suggest subpoenas for everybody in Washington who wears a tie. Progressives have been screaming from the rooftops for years that politicians from both sides of the aisle have been engaging in blatant swindling and cronyism, from "revolving doors" between lobbying firms, Congressional offices and executive suites to clear, direct track records of rewarding donors with sweetheart contracts and pork.
After the firing scandal chased Bush loyalist Alberto Gonzales from the Attorney General position, the DOJ has been so ineffective they haven't even convicted a Democratic rep found with cash hidden in his fridge.
The Congressional ethics committee is in cobwebs, ridiculed for their impotence during the Mark Foley scandal and paralyzed by fear of anybody, but particularly the Bush administration.
Why? Just some of the niceties the Bush administration is accused of but no one has been convicted for: ordering torture and rendition, violations of surveillance law, vote caging, destruction of official records, exposing a covert CIA agent, eavesdropping on protected UN diplomats, (feel free to join in anytime)....
As an offering of cooperation to Hannity, I'd be happy to inform him of the little-known activities of my Congressman, Eliot Engel, a ten-term Democrat who, among other questionable moves, dispatched an aide, to a banking conference to study sub-prime lending practices back in June of 2001. Rep. Engels' inaction or complicity would be of interest to the investigative panel, specifically what was learned by Engel and the aide, Peter Leon (who later became a lobbyist) on taxpayer time when sub-prime lenders were first embarking on their quest to defraud homeowners and investors.
Perhaps this could be a starting point in hearings, or perhaps we should go back to the recommendations of John McCain's senior economic advisor Phil Gramm who passed laws to roll back regulations requiring safer lending practices and was later rewarded by a plum position with the enormous foreign bank UBS who benefitted directly from the changes in the law. Adding insult, Gramm arrogantly called Americans concerned about domestic financial stability "whiners", unable to see the current meltdown coming.
In any case, it's a good day when an influential talk show personality such as Sean Hannity has taken up the cause that government corruption must be immediately investigated. I'm proud to see Hannity recognizing at last that the American people have a responsibility to guard against conflicts-of-interest and backdoor dealings because corporations, lobbyists and lawmakers have been incestuously colluding to legalize deceptive practices and fraudulent accounting from the beginning of the Bush/Cheney era.
I don't agree with Hannity often, but his outrage directed at crooked politicians is absolutely warranted. Unlike Hannity however, I believe the probes should look at both parties, without giving the corrupt Republicans a pass.
