Pelosi: Bush Admin Barred Officials From Briefing Congress On Impending Financial Crisis in Fall

[kpete]

Source: Talking Points Memo

Pelosi: Bush Admin Barred Officials From Briefing Congress On Impending Financial Crisis in Fall 2008
Brian Beutler | May 3, 2010, 2:39PM

Nearly two years after the Wall Street meltdown drove the U.S. economy to the brink of collapse, and forced the U.S. government to prop up major financial institutions with hundreds of billions of dollars, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi now claims that the Bush Administration prohibited its own top officials who were handling the emerging crisis from briefing Congress until a complete financial collapse was only hours away.

In little-noticed statements to reporters over the last few weeks, Pelosi has alleged that the Bush administration knew well in advance of its intervention that the financial crisis would hit, and that Congress would need to authorize a historic and unpopular bailout - but that top officials, including then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, told her that they had been barred from briefing Congress about true extent of the crisis.

If accurate, the allegation could constitute a major indictment of the Bush administration, which may have worsened the crisis and resulting economic fallout by delaying the call for congressional action. Pelosi says the admissions from Bush administration officials that they had kept Congress in the dark came in private conversations between her and those officials in person and by phone. None of the other parties to those conversations would comment for this story. Nor is it clear if the Administration's alleged decision not to brief Congress earlier was a calculated strategy to avoid spooking the already shaky financial markets thus hastening the crisis or, as Pelosi suggests, a political calculation in advance of the 2008 presidential elections, or a combination of the two.

During her weekly press conference on April 15, a reporter asked Pelosi a seemingly innocuous question about taxes. Pelosi prefaced her response with a fairly standard litany: explaining the dire state of the U.S. economy inherited by President Obama and setting the blame at the foot of the Bush administration. But she also added this: "When accepted the nomination in Colorado, the Administration had kept from the public the idea that, in a matter of weeks, the financial community would be in crisis, and we would need to pass the TARP legislation."

Read more: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/05/pelosi-bush-administration-barred-officials-from-asking-congress-for-financial-sector-bailouts.php?ref=fpa

[Zoeisright]

1. I'll never forget how Bush and Cheney got booed at the inauguration.

The feeble-minded talking heads were scolding the public for doing that, and they turned up the music so you couldn't hear the booing as clearly.

Turns out we should have done far more than boo at those SOBs. Jail is too good for them.

[Diane R]

3. Excellent comment. I also remember the city chanting at the departing helicopter& media silence.

[KansDem]

8. This one?

Bush booed

"Bad form?" So's fucking lying us into war, asshole!

Fuck the media whores!

Here's more...
Bush booed, 2

Also this one...
Kiss Bush Goodbye

[Jefferson23]

24. You're absolutely correct here, and when did we ever see an honest

attempt for justice? So we are being told bad form for the booing, pathetic.

Let us not forget this Iraqi journalist, talk about mission accomplished! He did more for my spirit
than any American journalist within the MSM the entire 8 years of Bush/Cheney.


Iraqi Throws Shoes at Bush

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6KvvgCtbOg

[EFerrari]

38. That was the most real part of the whole pageant.

Bad form? I thought it was great.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[PassingFair]

11. If this wasn't a democracy their heads would have been on pikes.

Liars. Cheaters. Thieves.

They got off easy.

[EFerrari]

25. If this was a democracy, they'd be in prison. n/t

[PassingFair]

30. I can't think of a time when an administration has jailed members of a previous one...

We threatened with Nixon.....

[EFerrari]

31. I think more than a hundred members of Raygun's admin

were indicted and many served time.

[PassingFair]

34. You're right...here's a handful of 'em:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/10/17/194133/16

[defendandprotect]

56. Quite a few members of Nixon's Watergate crew . . . NOT enough . . .

Nixon should have been in jail --

[me b zola]

51. +1000 n/t

[No Elephants]

67. Right between the eyes, EFerrari--metaphorically, of course. Thread winner.

[No Elephants]

66. +1

[Hissyspit]

16. I was in that crowd of people who were booing. Fuck the talking heads.

I'll boo war criminals any time I damn well want to.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

53. Me too !!! By the Washington Monument - but still there. It was instinctual.

EVERYONE there was booing. One of the sweetest memories of it all.

[AlbertCat]

46. Jail is too good for them.

And yet.... no one even goes there!

Let's pretend it was a hiccup caused by unknowable forces too complicated for mortals to comprehend, m'kay?

[mod mom]

70. I wouldn't of minded some cold dark cell in some remote part of the world-say Iraq, perhaps.

Too bad there is no justice.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

50. were you there? It was just a natural instinct. I couldn't have stopped

the boos coming out of my mouth if my life depended on it. Often wondered what the rest of the world thought when that happened.

[No Elephants]

65. I watched on TV. I heard the booing. I had less than no problem with it.

He ran America into a ditch--and that's without what he did to the U.S. military, innocent Iraqis, innocent Aghanis, the Constitution of the United States and international law and treaties.

Booed? Hell, he should have been frog marched from the WH to Air Force One and flown straight to the Hague.

Bush crime family.

[Name removed]

77. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[librechik]

2. wait, i thought this was all Obama's fault!

listening to lamestream media again...

[laughingliberal]

47. Fail. That said it would look better if the WH wasn't trying to kill the audit of the Fed

Some of us are tired of the secrecy both parties use to keep us in the dark about how the ruling class is screwing us.

[TheEuclideanOne]

4. A major indictment?? Holy Cow!

YES!!!! He is going down for sure now! :sarcasm:

[Grinchie]

12. You didn't get the Memo -- Impeachment is OFF THE TABLE!

Pelosi is such an idiot.

[TheEuclideanOne]

14. Shouldn't se also add a little sidenote that says

"and since I have taken impeachment off the table, I will refrain from frustrating the hell out of everybody by listing all of the crimes Bush committed that would cause any other president to be impeached."

At least it would be considerate of her.

[dotymed]

63. The only reason

is that both parties answer to the same corporate masters. The trial might have outed some of the "shadow government" that actually call the shots. It's not a conspiracy theory, it is the only reasonable explanation. Just like, "the public option is off the table", prior to that, it was the whole reason for the "fight." So, health care reform became insurance "reform" that guarantees them more profits at the expense of the impoverished, than they could have ever hoped for. America is only "the home of the free" for the wealthiest 10-20% of our country. The rest of us are slaves. All of the "guarantees" that gave us some protection and hope, delivered by FDR, were long ago repealed because they got in the way of the wealthy.
I cannot understand, with the facts easily available (for now), the large majority of Americans still refuse to demand freedom.
This latest deep water oil spill threatens our civilization. In other countries, not corporate owned America, safety for these drilling operations is closely legislated. If we had similar laws (like back-up fail safe systems) we wouldn't be destroying the world with our greed (at least not in this area).
Honestly, the rest of the world should be protecting themselves from America. We have become the biggest threat to the rest of the world. Of course, since we spend more on "defense" than the rest of the world Combined, it becomes a dangerous prospect.

[Grinchie]

68. Most Americans are Malnourished, Slightly Educated Robots

Most American's apparently are able to read, but are either too tired or lazy to do so. Many are still sleepwalking inside the American Dream, oblivious to the dangerous approach of environmental collapse, ever dwindling resources, and greedy Corporations that have the same protections as they do. They eat food that they "Assume" is food, but in reality, is nothing more than a good looking facsimile, grown on soil that has been depleted since the 1930's. Soil worked so hard that nothing but weeds would grow without tons of external inputs that force overproduction of low nutrition foodstuffs from GMO cereals and grains. Food that is so machined that it requires double the salt, triple the sugar, and an unhealthy dose of synthetic fat to make it go down easier. Food so alien that not even insects will touch it - Mold will usually take hold before.

Apart from being tired, malnourished and weak, most American's actually believe that by being a good little drone, they may someday be able to grab the carrot dangling in front of them. Unfortunately, by the time they do, any sense of ethics or morality has been killed but toeing the Corporate line and proving their fealty to the Corporation.

It's frustrating to see so many people that are asleep, and even though many boast that they have awoken and are pissed off about it, do nothing to better themselves, learn alternate ways of providing for their needs, and ultimately just revert to the same old rat race because it is convenient. They would have no clue what to do if the Electricity shut off, water stopped running, and the only thing left in the stores were cans of Red Bull

I highly recomend surfing through YouTube on the Exxon Valdez disaster. There (was) a cool video showing the CEO promising to "Make Alaskan's Whole" again. Then, 20 years later, after the fishing industry was devastated years after the spill, and countless people waited for compensation, the Supreme Court hamstringed the settlement by cutting it in half.

Just forget about the Gulf for a while and travel back to the Exxon Valdez disaster and view it subjectively. It will make your skin crawl to see how far down the tubes America has flushed itself.

The information on the Exxon Valdez is a good primer to the monumental disaster taking place in the Gulf right now.

[NewJeffCT]

23. I still don't understand

Why Democrats give up so much before even getting to the table? And, I don't mean just impeachment.

[h9socialist]

5. Well, this should cement Dubya's place in history!

[Enthusiast]

15. It should but it won't.

They will continue to deny the lies leading up to the Iraq War, they will continue to deny the incompetency leading up to the strike on 9/11 and they will continue to deny the AWOL during war time, among the many other acts of malfeasence. No justice in this nation, not for the wealthy and/or connected.

[ejbr]

6. Maybe you should impeach him...

oh wait...too late Nancy.

[earth mom]

7. Come fucking on! People here on DU saw the crash coming! Now Pelosi is saying that Congress

didn't see it coming? :wtf:


Give me a fucking break! :eyes:

[EFerrari]

26. Right! Nancy couldn't see what was obvious to the intertubes.

And people are recommending this. Amazing.

[pnwmom]

36. You can only say the sky is falling so many times before people stop listening.

At DU, someone's always certain the sky is falling.

[fascisthunter]

37. .

[newspeak]

72. yeah, we did know the crash was coming

all anyone had to do is look at the tax cuts to the top, while spending money on bogus wars to further enrich *-Cheney's greedy war profiteering buddies. Privatize the military, so more money could be funneled to corporations. How many billions are unaccounted for because of lying us into Iraq? Some of us knew it was bogus-lies-knew * wanted to attack Iraq and found 9/11 as a convenient excuse.

After the pharma rip off bill-remember when * began talking about privatizing social security? I thought then, he was attempting to pour money into wall street to prop it up. If some of us here are aware what's going on (mere plebes), tell me how Congress could be so blinded?

[BuelahWitch]

76. It's hard to hear an oncoming financial crash, dahling

When the clink of the champagne glasses and smart conversation at those smart set cocktail parties is so LOUD

[Blue Owl]

9. Must've been one of the Decider's many "Decision Points"

And we all know what a POS the Decider was.

[DemoTex]

13. It was all part of the NeoCon plan ..

All part of the master plan to make the US government small and WEAK enough to "drown in a bathtub," according to the Field Marshal of the Bu$h Plan, Grover Norquist.

[Hestia]

21. His name popped into my head too - this was no accident, this was entirely on purpose, daring the

Democrats to do one thing to stop it and Nancy fed into it, no impeachment on the table.

[newspeak]

73. and I've asked on DU before, do you think bringing us down was intentional?

Some answered that * was just too stupid. Yeah, stupid like a fox. Imagine taxpayers money to be used to finance all services from corporations. Where the bottom line becomes more important than people. Where there is no more representation. I'll take good working government services over sociopathic, greedy corporations any day. But, you have the teabaggers chanting "free market." There is no such thing as free markets today, especially with "too big to fail" corporations who are becoming even more powerful by gulping up more businesses.

I'd say the American people have been screwed, privatize and funnel the money until America is so damaged, that global corporate interests will be the only voice heard. It's the New World Order, baby.

[DemoTex]

78. I believe that it was intentional.

[The Stranger]

17. Guess the Pelosi Disaster should have impeached him then.

[sui generis]

18. I saw a "Miss me yet?" billboard on the way down to Austin

last week. Might as well have been an oil platform in gulf asking that question.

Petty spoiled shit brain damaged little tyrant, and he got to be president of the world and fuck things up royally just like every other miscreant from Texas who became president.

No, Georgie, we don't miss you AT ALL. In fact we're going to be cleaning up your shit for generations to come, kind of like that oil spill in the gulf.

[avaistheone1]

40. WTF?

We will never, ever miss Bush/Cheney. No duo has ever done so much to destroy this country.

We don't miss Bush/Cheney now and we won't miss them ever. :grr: :grr: :grr:

[cbdo2007]

19. I'm sure it's because of the election - their only strategy pretty much is fear and

I think they were hoping it would be Oct. 30 when the whole financial markets collapsed. If that had happened we may see McCain in there right now but thankfully, it collapsed in mid-September, McCain put his campaign on hold and everyone go to see that he really didn't know anything about anything and that he is more of an observer than a leader. Plan backfired but I'm sure it was the plan.

[defendandprotect]

20. ... because they cared so much about the country!! What vicious people!!

[onethatcares]

22. why didn't she open her piehole 2.4 years ago?

that's what I'm askin.

Everything our governments do anymore is done in secret, and revealed years later. Why is that?

[pundaint]

61. Because, she had no alternative program, her caucus had sold out to the same corporations.

It's still that way, and some of us will vote many of those complicit thieves back into office in November. We need a party that understands in the balance between the interests of the stakeholders in America (We the People), and those whose job is really to onlly to facilitate the distribution of the products of OUR labor, has gotten so far out of balance. We need a party that understands the restoring of America's focus entirely on the improvement of the welfare of American citizens until we, at least, bring ourselves up to the standards of general welfare enjoyed by citizens of other countries.

We must demand that the Democratic Party does it's job. We must demand that those who would represent us, represent US.

Times of Crisis are the only opportunities for Change, and our side, which should be leading the "Way Back to sanity" is only leading the "Once Again, but with us in charge this time around."

The Democratic Party needs to find its Soul. Then we have to move the managers to bureaucracies, and fill the elected positions with leaders who will stand up and demand what most of the People already know must be done.

That is why Single Payer Universal Healthcare is so important. There is an Obvious best option for the People and it is the only option not considered in the legislative process. Who is government working for?

[Grinchie]

69. Because they have to run everything by the "Corporation Counsel"

The lawyers have crawled so far up the politician's ass that everything is said, done or manipulated in the context of an adversarial legal system that is sold to the highest bidder.

She finally got a letter that say's it's OK to reveal this information now.

[Shining Jack]

27. Hey,Nancy...

What else that was off the table will explode in you face ? It won't be pretty.You coward !

[GreenTea]

29. Yes, indeed - Cheers to Nancy Pelosi!

Yeah, As always jump on the messenger....but the poor lying idiot Bush and the deregulating republican corporate assholes get no wrath from you...typical bullshit!!

[Shining Jack]

33. She did nothing about...

...the poor lying idiot Bush and the deregulating republican corporate assholes when she could have.But noo,it was more important to not make waves for the coming next President.I spit on her and the other spineless Dems.Like you said the criminals got away with it,thank you Nancy.I don't blame the criminals for getting away with it I blame the cop who didn't do shit about it.

[SomeGuyInEagan]

45. +1 ... Nancy (and others) were complicit and/or dumbfucks ...

... it is like listening to four-year-olds saying, "He wouldn't play nice!" Give me a break, YOUR JOB IS TO MAKE HIM PLAY ... not to say impeachment is off the table. Nancy is a tool. But she's not the only one.

[marshall]

44. Maybe she's starting to put her money where her mouth is!

Don't hold your breath, but watch and wait.

[GreenTea]

28. Slimy corporate republicans-Let the corporations steal & hide it....

from the people for as long as they could...Filthy greedy republicans!

[PinkFloyd]

32. Thanks for the news. Sadly, it's not surprising.

In the 2000's Republicans constantly made it so that big business could reap all the rewards of some of the stupidest, most risky and economical behavior, without any oversight or responsibility whatsoever. Yet with things like bankruptcy reform, they made sure the middle/working class was very responsible for any mess they make.

[Turbineguy]

35. They were probably hoping

it would not hit until the next administration.

It's hard to time these things.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

39. the GOP probably thought that they were going to win in 2008

and could carry on with their corruption

[Laura PourMeADrink]

52. I look at it differently. I think they took the 8 dim son years to sap every

cent with the express plan of letting the dems take over and hopefully get blamed or better yet - have no money to spend. Why else would they have "allowed" dipshit McCain get the nomination..they didn't care who it was -- they wanted the person to lose. IMHO

[Angry Dragon]

41. I was wondering

if she let this out now because Laura pissed on her in her book coming out??

edit to Laura instead

[Retrograde]

42. "Laura, Nancy's being mean to me again!" (n/t)

[butterfly77]

43. Kicked&Recommended!

[Laura PourMeADrink]

48. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. They were trying to keep the lid on

the disaster as long as they possibly could. Hell, even DimSon admitted that. He went to the Rep leadership and said do something and they didn't.

What a coup. Spend all the freakin money. Make you and all your friends rich. Let the "give money to the poor" dems in. It doesn't matter. We have already sapped every cent out. They will have nothing to spend.

[xxqqqzme]

49. I wouldn't believe paulson for a nano-second

They were on the way out the door and he obeys orders from the commander of thievery? How very traitorous of him! I think that oath is to preserve and protect the Constitution not dimson's & darth's asses.

[defendandprotect]

54. First . . . thank you, Speaker Pelosi--!! Second, why would Paulson think his allegiance

was to Bush and not to the country, to the people -- to Congress????

This is just more BS from the Bush regime and right wing to protect themselves

and confuse those who work for them -- though most of these people are a bit elderly

to be confused by crooks from the right wing????



but that top officials, including then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, told her that they had been barred from briefing Congress about true extent of the crisis.
]

:eyes:

[kestrel91316]

55. Monkeywrenching bordering on treason. I always maintained that the Bush

administration quite deliberately set things up so Obama would have as big a mess as possible to straighten out.

[Canuckistanian]

57. Add this to the pile

We don't need to wait for historians. We never did.

George W. Bush is the worst President of the United States.

And I would dare to say, even worse than Reagan (although just barely).

[Bonobo]

58. Question: Why did they accept a clearly unconstitutional order to suppress info from congress? nt

[SharksBreath]

59. If Pelosi would have done her job

which was to uphold the Constitution Nancy Pelosi would have been President.

Bush and Cheney were supposed to be indicted and impeach.

But someone took that off the table.

So Pelosi should really STFU since it was her decision not to prosecute the two bastards.

To me this just makes the dereliction of her duty even worse.

What other unlawful precedents did she allow to be forced upon her during her years in the house.

Way to stand up for your country Nancy.

[Dappleganger]

60. Bastards!

Is it too late to tar and feather them, then throw them into stocks in the public square??

[nicky187]

62. New strategy.

Instead of treating all this like "news" which is boring to most people we get VH-1 to cover this as a "reality show."

If we convince enough people that this is "entertainment" they'll start to take an interest. This could be "Tool Academy," "Celebrity Rehab," "Sober House," "Celebrity Apprentice," and "Rock of Love" all rolled into one.

Think we need new "corporate sponsors," or should we stick with the ones we have now?

[Christa]

64. To think Clinton was impeached for lying about a bj ... nt

[librechik]

71. Let me remind any doubters: Nancy has been RIGHT ON about all these "controversial accusations"

they have blown their gaskets over. I'm sure this one is correct as well.

[Uncle Joe]

74. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[unpossibles]

75. throwing shoes is too good for them

And of course, the right will still go on blaming the poor people who also got shafted.