Friday, October 10, 2008

It’s Getting Ugly…For Them

WE'VE MOVED! Democratic Convention Watch is now at http://www.DemocraticConventionWatch.com

The lead article on Politico this morning is about the panic of the Republican base. If you’ve seen the news, you’ve seen the racism, anger, and ugliness of the crowds attracted to the McCain/Palin rallies. You have heard the shouts and threats.

I am having trouble articulating my thoughts and feelings about this. While I understand the fear of conservatives in losing the White House AND the Senate AND the House, and having to deal with the anger of the overall populace at the GOP for the complete abdication of economic oversight, I believe in the system, and therefore, am appalled at their actions. And the McCain/Palin complicity.

The deal is, the Republicans are panicking, and for good reason. To wit:

The Senate: CQ Politics has moved Virginia, Georgia, Kentucky and Minnesota one step left. Now, for Virginia, this means they are NOW saying that the state IS going to go Democratic. Therefore, they are a little behind the curve. Chris Cillizza (The Fix at WaPo) is on board for a shot at 60.
Read more...

Do you agree?



McCain and Ethics Charges, Redux: You think I’m going to cite something new about Keating. But no. Yesterday, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint.
CREW wants that committee to investigate whether Senator McCain violated federal law and Senate rules by failing to disclose gambling winnings on his Senate financial disclosure reports. In contrast to House rules, Senate rules allow outsiders to file ethics complaints. Senate rules also require the Ethics Committee to conduct a preliminary inquiry of the complaint. A copy of our complaint can be found here.
McCain and other potential violations of Federal Law: Remember McShame’s plan to buy up mortgages? Well, you might not have known all the details. What he wanted to do was buy up the mortgages at face value, instead of current value.
Example: Borrower A buys a house for $250,000, having put no money down and getting an interest only mortgage. The house is now assessed at $200,000 and Borrower A paid nothing so far in principal. The mortgage face value is $250,000, the current value is $200.000.
The question is: who eats the $50,000 loss? McCain says it should be the government taxpayers.

From Mark Ambinder:
Folks who are much more savvy on the specifics of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) wonder whether the government's $700 billion bailout/rescue program expressly prohibits what John McCain now says he wants to do -- and that is to have the government buy distressed mortgages at face value from banks and renegotiate their terms with homeowners.

They point me to Section 101e of the law, which requires the Secretary of the Treasury to "take such steps as may be necessary to prevent unjust enrichment of financial institutions participating in a program established under this section"

Here's the key part...

... "including by preventing the sale of a troubled asset to the Secretary at a higher price than what the seller paid to purchase the asset." Any loan that is not held by the originator, and the vast majority loans are not, would fall under this provision."
And remember, Branchflower will come out with the Troopergate report in a few hours.

Basically, if I were a Republican, I’d be frantic and panicked now, too.