[Infowarrior] - OpEd on Congressional Ignorance

[Richard Forno]

America's Financial Crisis: Who's Really Living In A Cave?
Richard Forno -- www.infowarrior.org
(c) 2008 Richard Forno. Permission Granted to reproduce freely in its  
entirety with credit given to author.

(2008-09-27) As America's financial markets churn and burn, and those  
around the world hang in the balance in the hopes that a Wall Street  
bailout will remedy this credit crisis, Congress is plugging away on a  
legislative solution in the manner that only they can do. Of course,  
like sausage, we really don't want to see how this deal is made -- we  
just hope it tastes good and that the cook didn't spit in our meal  
before serving it.  (Whether or not it solves the long-term problem of  
our being hungry is another matter -- if not, we can just make more.)

Until last Thursday afternoon, the Administration, House Democrats,  
Senate Republicans, and Senate Democrats reportedly were close to a  
mutually acceptable agreement on the Wall Street bailout package, and  
there were signs of true bipartisan progress at work and a 'done deal'  
was practically certain.  Both sides even said so!  Then, late  
Thursday afternoon, the deal was derailed when a group of House  
Republicans began proposing their own legislative remedy and refused  
to participate in the ongoing negotiations with the other four parties  
mentioned above. Back to square one, it seemed.

During an interview with Margaret Warner on Friday night's "NewsHour  
With Jim Lehrer", Republican Congressman Mike Pence was asked about  
the sudden and surprise actions taken by House Republicans in shutting  
down negotiations given how close the deal was to completion.  His  
response, quite simply, was amazing:

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http://infowarrior.org/articles/pence-woodshed.html


N.B.: An abridged version of this commentary will appear Monday at  
Counterpunch.Org.