A 19 year old story in the making: McCain, Gramm, Paulson... oh my!

What a day!
The U.S. economy in the pooper, a shady federal bailout proposal for Wall St. fat cats, the media is not allowed to ask Palin any questions, and McCain doesn't want to debate even though last week he said that the economy was still fundamentally sound... oh my! Where do we even start?

Let's start with 1989, the year the Keating Five and the Savings & Loans Scandal, which led to a $160.1 billion federal bailout of a bunch of failed banks with over $120 million paid for by tax payers. The bank failures came resulted from Reagan led deregulations of the banking industry and the housing boom of the 80's which led to highly risky moves by several banks. Sound familiar?

Long story short, Keating made some seriously shady moves which eventually landed him in jail for 5 years. Some of the shadiness included this dealings with 5 Senators including John McCain. Although the Senate investigation only gave McCain a slap on the wrist, it's amazing to see that the Keating 5/Savings and Loan scandal hasn't been brought up more in the political discourse today.

Only a decade after the Keating Five, the Republicans passed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which led to more deregulation of the banking industry. If you remember in 1999 we were going through the tech boom with tons of start-ups and another housing boom with a ton of more shady loan practices... and here we are today with the economy tanking.

Oh yes, "Gramm" in Gramm-Leach-Bliley? That is Phil Gramm, co-chair of the McCain campaign.

And now, McCain has announced he's suspending his campaign so he can swoop into DC to broker the bailout, and skip out on the first debate? So what's all the panic all of a sudden when just 9 days ago McCain said that the economy was still "fundamentally sound"?

Forgive me if I don't feel entirely confident in John "Keating 5" McCain's knowledge, skills and frankly the people whom he trusts in matters of the economy. In a primary season debate, McCain listed his "circle" of folks like Phil Gramm as his people he relies on for direction in the economy.

A "circle" of advisors made of friends and supporters? What about public oversight? Perhaps McCain would agree with Secretary Paulson in making sure that all operations in the bailout are kept behind closed doors. The proposal (full text) for the bail out makes no mention of a process for public accountability. In fact, check this out:

Sec. 8. Review.

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

Ummm, so basically the Treasury becomes untouchable? Pardon me, but if we are going to give $700 billion to bail out irresponsible corporate managers, shouldn't we have the right to know how our money is being spent?

And now McCain doesn't want to debate on Friday, and the McCain campaign has said that they want to postpone the VP debate. Yes, all of our leaders should be working on a fair plan to ensure that the economy doesn't entirely tank. However, in times of crisis, I prefer to also hear from my leaders. They've decided to also ban reporters and the media from asking Sarah Palin any questions. Why and what are they hiding?

By the way, as a former college administrator I would be po'd at McCain-Palin for cutting out on the debates so last minute. What are the consequences for Ole Miss if the debate doesn't happen this Friday? The PUBLIC university will lose out on millions of dollars. With the budget crises being experienced at most public universities, the frivolous waste of money on a canceled debate should anger anyone. I'm sure McCain would say that the loss of money for the public university would just be the Ole Miss community putting "country first." For me, supporting public education IS putting the "country first."

Does being a "maverick" mean that the man and his staff do not think of consequences for anyone? The fact that McCain has a legit shot at being president and his VP choice is not allowed to speak with the media makes me shudder.