"You've Lost That Loving Feeling"

Hank Paulson is desperate.  Since the Republicans in Congress have decided that it is better to do the right thing rather than anything, Hank Paulson was reportedly compelled to drop down to one knee before Nancy Pelosi to beg for her help in pushing the Bailout Bullshit through Congress.  Bill Medley must be shaking his head.

President Bush, whose domestic leadership approach has been fundamentally stupid, obviously learned nothing from his amnesty debacle.  John Boehner has obviously figured out how the minority can make life miserable for the majority.  And Hank Paulson -- who couldn't buy a clue with his $60 million he made at GoldmanSachs-- looks like the chump he is, trying to protect his millionaire pals who operated their investment banks like giant craps tables.

Hank Paulson should stop channeling TOP GUN and start realizing that no sane individual in this country -- and that includes a lot of Democrats, by the way -- think his little scheme to protect Wall Street will help Main Street.  Collectively, Americans are a lot smarter than the Washington Chattering Classes and the Wall Street Elite want to give them credit for.  In other words, they can spot bullshit when they see it.  And they see it in BIG BOLD LETTERS.

To resurrect an old term (thanks to Amity Schlaes), the "forgotten man" knows who caused this crisis.  The Forgotten Man knows that Barney Frank (D, MA) and Chris Dodd (D,CT) stonewalled any attempts to rein in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  He knows that Franklin Raines, Jim Johnson, and Jaime Gorelick -- Clintonistas all -- deliberately and with malice aforethought overstated the earnings at Fannie Mae in order to pay massive bonuses to Fannie Mae management.  And the Forgotten Man knows that while he was working hard and making sacrifices for his family -- renting when he had to, buying when he could, settling for that old TV, and buying used cars -- a lot of folks weren't.  And those folks didn't want to pay off their loans, they just wanted to keep rolling them over.

And the Forgotten Man is really pissed off.  REALLY PISSED OFF.

Maybe Hank Paulson should get down on his knee for the Forgotten Man.  Because we don't forget.