Bamboozled Wall St. Bailout

GW Bush figured if he changed the Wall Street Bailout to Wall Street Rescue, it would make the medicine go down easier. It did not. The voters on both sides are still enraged over charity for the rich. Since last week, a cortiere of House Republicans formed to block passage. These free enterprise, small government champions did not want to become part of the big government Socialist Democratic Vanguard in America. Three quarters of the Republicans and 40% of the Democrats voted against the bill. At last, VOX POPULI.

Anyone at this stage who believes anything GW Bush says, whether good news or bad news, simply is confessing that he is part of the 30% in America that put his mind in Jehovah's field of dreams; that person is not concerned with reality. After embarrassingly over-the-top Bush cheer leading for the bill and the rejection of his grim prophesies, his cogency is gone, gone... Bush's latest miscalculation just adds to his presidential record of abject failure. You have to wonder why Bush's religious right base would support saving money lenders, especially after Jesus Christ's problem with them at the temple as described in the New Testament.

Bells should have sounded early when it became apparent that Democrats Chris Dodd and the lisping congressman Barney Frank, overnight, became the main force in Bush's bailout scheme; over the years these two senior Democratic legislators have raked in close to 16 million in contrbutions from special interests, mainly banking and real estate interests.

US Treasury Secretary Republican Henry Paulson was an eagle scout who worked his way to CEO of Goldman Sachs. On retirement in 2005 he received a 37 million dollar compensation and, an additional payment of 16.4 million in 2006. After his recent exploits in the Wall Street Bailout, he may want to rewrite the first line of the Boy Scouts of America oath to read: ON MY HONOR I WILL DO MY BEST TO HELP MYSELF AND CHEAT THE REST.

Doctor Ben Shalom Bernake is a scholar; he has Havard, MIT and Princeton on his resume but, he has never met a payroll. As best that it can be determined, his economic philosophy depends on the government printing more money to solve problems. My own bias is that never permit a professor to have policy formulation – they just try to prove their theories and screw reality in the process. We still suffer from the excesses of Professor Doctor Kissinger.

Bernake is a devout Jew. There was a clamor to rush the bailout negotiations, because of the iminence of the high Jewish holidays. GOP Whip Blunt even noted this pressure after the bill's defeat. Key bailout players are also Frank, Emanuel and Eric Cantor who also attend services on Saturdays. The bailout is on hold until Thursday when these people are expected to return – three days after the bill's defeat. So where is the urgency? Religion or country first?

You got to wonder why the haste. There was no cogent reason to rush a bill of this import without public hearings and very careful considerations. It is typical of a Bush Bums Rush – it worked for the invasion of Iraq; why not try again. Stock market fell over 770 points on the news of failed bailout; the following day the market regained 480 points. You think the bailout might have been used to prop up an over-valued stock market? It is getting sicker by the moment. Bush apparently needs a Saveus Patraeus illusionist for his economic war front. It ain't eagle scout Paulson for sure.

No one can argue against the fact that in the federal intervention of a $700 billion bailout, the foxes were assigned to guard the henhouse. This bailout, as the stimulus package and the surge in Iraq, was designed to prevent massive collapses during GWBush's term. This was an expensive pallative action that was not a solution, but a delay of deeper crises. Most economists readily admitted this and in the end this spelled doom for this bailout. Moreover, many of these experts believed the bailout would make the situation even worse. Many Republicans still contend they had a better plan than presented by the defeated bill. There will be a Bailout Bill. The question is who among those who had their fingers in the till will be rewarded.

General Saveus Petraeus, to cover his ass, told journalists on Iraq as he departed for his new command, TELL ME HOW THIS IS GOING TO END. Henry Paulson may want to repeat this statement as he failed to implement his flawed bailout package. Both the general and the treasurer were just kicking the can down the street hoping in some way to convince the American people to salvage GW Bush's disastrously inept presidency while he is still in office. Colonel Robert E Bartos USA Ret.