Dems Go For McCain's Jugular

[Waiting For Everyman]

Huffington Post
Sam Stein
September 16, 2008


Democrats, going after John McCain and the GOP jugular, are launching a coordinated attack over the economy, painting the current administration as the worst since Herbert Hoover and declaring that the Republican nominee represents a steady continuation of those failed policies.

The language is at times personal and cutting, with many of the party leaders echoing some of the same attacks that Barack Obama has levied this past week. It is a coordinated message that many activists and operatives have been pining for over the last several months.

"One Senator -- John McCain -- woke up yesterday morning, surveyed the state of the U.S. economy, summoned the ghost of his fellow Republican, Herbert Hoover, and declared, 'The fundamentals of our economy are strong,'" said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, before laying responsibility for the current woes in part on McCain's economic adviser Phil Gramm.

"I served with Phil Gramm here in the Senate," he said. "The same Phil Gramm who, as a Senator, was responsible for the deregulation of the financial services industry that paved the way for much of this crisis to occur. I like Phil Gramm, I don't like his economics. A respected economist at the University of Texas -- now that's where Phil Gramm taught, in Texas -- a respected economist at the University of Texas, James Galver said that Gramm was, and I quote, 'the most aggressive advocate of every predatory and rapacious element that the financial sector has,' and went on to say he is a 'sorcerer's apprentice of instability and disaster in the financial system.'"

(continued, including video of Reid saying this in the Senate)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnbENEJa1xM

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/16/reid-dems-go-for-mccains_n_126872.html

__________________________________________________________________

Good. They're on the right track. Taking names and kicking butt.

Btw, I found that quote Reid referenced too, last spring when I first started researching deeper into this foreclosure crisis for myself. Gramm's reputation is well-known in financial circles for what his policies actually are, so there's no ambiguity about that, and lots of Americans are very tuned-in to financial news all the time, every day, not just during elections... so there's no selling Gramm as pro-regulation! That's worse than lipstick on a pig. That's trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ass!

Has anyone else noticed that whenever these McC surrogates lie about his economic policies on tv, they stutter and blink like mad?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. Go for the Jugular??!!

Hell, gnaw their throat out and spit it in their amazed faces.

Black flag: No quarter, No prisoners, No surrender.

[grannylib]

2. I wish this would hit more M$M than HuffPo...the internet news savvy

know where to look to find this stuff. It's the people watching Fux and the broadcast networks and cable and maybe reading the papers...they're the ones who need to be reading this stuff.
I'll sure head right over to YouTube and do my bit to rate up the video!

[Myrina]

3. I don't understand why the Dems aren't yelling Gramm = Enron ??

THAT would resonate with millions of voters, and hanging the Enron-Corruption-Bush-Crony albatross around McCain's neck can only help reinforce that the GOP ain't the party to help the average guy...

[Waiting For Everyman]

4. I sooooooo agree with you, a million percent!!! He's a CRIMINAL.

Of global proportions. People I know who I told about Gramm's background in what has happened to THEM personally - want him PROSECUTED, bigtime. Like a guy who was forced into a short sale last year, and when he understood the Gramm info on it, he was ready to go postal!

I completely understand that, and want to see justice done too, after this election is won. If McC wins, he gets off scott free.

But all that's just to say YES! it definitely moves voters!

That's how strongly people react. And it isn't that complicated to get across, a lot of stories are out on it to use (Mother Jones, RealClear, and lots of places).

[Eric J in MN]

5. Harry Reid and Joe Biden voted against the Phil Gramm bank deregulation bill.

John McCain voted for the Phil Gramm bank deregulation bill, "The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act:"

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=s1999-105

[TheDoorbellRang]

7. Thanks for posting that. You made me do some research

that will come in handy, I think. I was reading another blog earlier, and a RWer sneeringly said that this act passed 90-8 in the senate, and that Biden voted for it and McCain did not vote. He then directed to this:

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=s1999-354

which seemed to confirm what he said. But then you posted this:

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=s1999-105

which shows the bill passing 54-44, with Biden voting against it and McCain voting for it. Both bills are labelled the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.

It wasn't until I clicked on primary source that I saw what was going on. Here are those two links:

May 1999: http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=106&session=1&vote=00105

Nov 1999: http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=106&session=1&vote=00354

The second vote involved a question on a conference report on the Act, not the Act itself.

Now I need to see if I can remember where I saw the RWer's post so I can go back and eddicate him. }(

[Orsino]

8. I was about to post that we Dems need to own our failures...

...but that vote is down party lines. The Republicans wanted it, and a Big Dawg veto would have stood.

The more I learn about Biden, the more I like him. He has let us down before, but this wasn't one of those times.

[paparush]

6. HELL YES! Gut and spit that lying SOB!