As usual, a load of Republican crap:
Earlier this month, the Bush administration nominated Neil Barofsky, a federal prosecutor, to be the Treasury Department’s special inspector general on the bailout program. That’s a crucial post, given the astronomical sums at issue, the broad authority that Treasury has been given to distribute them, the concerns that have been raised about possible conflicts of interest, and the general urgency of our efforts to prevent an economic collapse.
So you’d think Congress would be doing everything it could to get Barofsky confirmed right away. You’d be wrong.
Last week, Sen. Chris Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat who chairs the banking committee, issued a little-noticed statement saying that although the nomination “was cleared by members of the Senate Banking Committee, the leadership of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and all Democratic Senators,” it was“blocked on the floor by at least one Republican member.” (itals ours.)
Senate rules allow any senator to anonymously block a vote on confirmation to any federal post, for any reason.
The rationale for the move remains unclear. But a Washington Post story from a few days before Dodd’s statement offers two suggestions. It notes that Barofsky supported Barack Obama, and describes an unresolved “battle between the Finance and Banking committees over which has jurisdiction over the confirmation process.”
It was never more than a dodge. It never is, with them. You can’t trust a damn word they say. I don’t know why I, a girl with a web site, can figure this out and the U.S. Senate leadership seems to have some kind of mental block (not to mention which, Chris, these are the people your pal Joe thought were great guys, so …) on realizing when they’re getting hosed.
This is why, whiletruth and reconciliation commissions are a nice idea, my personal desire is to see everyone who had anything to do with the Bush administration’s abuses, I mean down to the clerk who photocopied Douglas Feith’s memos, prosecuted and imprisoned. Because there’s absolutely zero call to trust that going forward, they won’t simply do the same damn thing all over again. While the 1970s Nostalgia Presidency was fun for a few defense contractors and the Bush family, not so much for the rest of the country, and I don’t think we can take another turn of this particular screw.
A.