Bush Mouthpiece Admits: They’ve Been Sitting on this Plan

[Old and In the Way]

Bush Mouthpiece Admits: They’ve Been Sitting on this Plan
By: emptywheel Tuesday September 23, 2008 8:57 am
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Hidden in an article reporting that Cheney's going to go hunt up some support for the $700,000,000,000 bailout is this admission that the Bush Administration has been sitting on it for some time:

"Fratto insisted that the plan was not slapped together and had been drawn up as a contingency over previous months and weeks by administration officials. He acknowledged lawmakers were getting only days to peruse it, but he said this should be enough."

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/09/23/bush-mouthpiece-admits-theyve-been-sitting-on-this-plan/


Yeah, this is political theater at its finest. Remember the IWR vote? Had to do that just before the 2002 election. This has as much to do with trying to give ownership of the market failure to Democrats now, so McCain can run as the 'people's choice'.

[babylonsister]

1. OK. I'm now convinced the Dems need to kneel and wait for

the next game, after January 20th. So this wasn't just an all-of-sudden emergency but a fabricated plan meant to come out right before an election. They probably figured they'd get their way because no one would want to make waves. :grr:

[annabanana]

2. I copied the page from "Roll Call" and faxed it to

all the members of the Banking Committee with "THEY'RE GIVING US THE BUM'S RUSH!" written on it, with the Fratto quote circled...

[babylonsister]

6. Good for you, annabanana! They can't plead ignorance now.

:toast:

[Vinca]

3. The October surprise a little early. nt

[cottonseed]

4. Yes. They need to hold this off.

Win the election, have Obama replace Paulson and get a team that knows what their doing in place, assess the situation and fix the thing. Bush/Cheney and everything they've done has been a colosal f**k up and we're thinking about giving them a trillion dollars?

[Cha]

Obama sounded very roiling at the

presser today.

[babylonsister]

16. Compared to McBush (on now), he was positively Shakespearean! nt

[Cha]

18. Obama was so Presidential that I can only

imagine what little bush thought?:silly:

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. Force feeding congress.

They wanted to wait just long enough so they could say, this country is in great peril, you have to act now!

I think all those Management and Marketing classes taught at MBA schools should be banned.

[stevedeshazer]

7. There it is. Who didn't see that coming?

Weeks and months...for a three page plan.

[freestyle]

8. Kind of like the Patriot Act was just ready to go on 9/12

These bastards are always ready to increase their wealth and power and the people's expense.

[sentelle]

9. More Importantly

They let this happen.
They saw it happening, and did what they did during 9/11, use it to benefit them.

Its the 'everything is politics' mantra of Karl Rove, again and again... Which basically means 'screw the people, give ME what I want'.

[BrklynLiberal]

29. Just another LIHOP to add to the list for the Bushco impeachment

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

10. Just like the Patriot Act...

...already written and ready to go long before 9-11. Their criminality couldn't be any more transparent if they started holding up banks and liquor stores in broad daylight with no disguise.

I don't suppose there's anywhere near enough money in that to be worth their while though.

[avaistheone1]

11. I thought I heard Paulsen say today that he and Bernanke had been talking about this for a year!!

Thanks for bothering to clue congress and the taxpayers at the 11th hour.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

13. No good con artist ever tips the details of the sting...

...to the mark ahead of time -- not how the big con works.

[avaistheone1]

22. Well then these are showing themselves to be thieves and vipers.

[avaistheone1]

23. A lack of sound management and good judgement on the part of Wall Street doesn not create an

emergency on the our part.

[MarjorieG]

12. Open with 3 pgs of an unfair ask, then see what the Dems will offer.

Political gambit, just like IWR, when we asked for intervention with the serious mortgage crisis all along.

[Orsino]

26. Yeah. This was a gamble that panic would be much deeper...

...and that Congress might really be weak enough to hand over the keys to the Treasury. The purse strings and impeachment are the only powers retained by our elected representatives, and it's too late for the latter to be used.

[No Elephants]

14. The mortgage derivative paper hit Germany's fan a year ago. EVERYone should have known this was

coming here.

[BlueIdaho]

15. Plan? This is not a plan...

This sounds like something a twelve year old would come up with on Saturday afternoon trying to hoodwink his parents into giving him next weeks allowance early because he'd already spent this week's allowance on candy bars and dirty magazines. What kind of a fucking plan is - you give me 700 BILLION dollars and don't ask me what I'm gonna do with it - and you can't yell at me when you find out how I spent it.

This is not a fucking plan - THIS is Economic Shock and Awe - THIS is the Sock Doctrine turned against the citizens of our own country - THIS, ladies and gentlemen is treason.

[Orsino]

17. No. If the * Administration claims it was a contingency planned for months...

...you can bet they simply pulled it out of their asses last week.

[dansolo]

24. Either way, it looks really bad for them

Either they rushed this out, showing that they have absolutely no clue how to solve the problem, or they've had this for a long time, and let the situation unfold, doing nothing to stop it. Up to this point, they have always resorted to the "nobody could imagine <insert disaster here>" excuse.

[AzDar]

19. Just say NO!

For once, perhaps the Dems will be too smart to be stampeded into stupidity.
Maybe.

[BadgerKid]

20. The * admin. MUST OWN their consequences.

Dems shouldn't do ANYTHING until an Obama administration.

[mzmolly]

21. If it was not slapped together, why is it three pages long?

Why the rush for cash without oversight?

[Old and In the Way]

27. By design, I think.

I'm betting that they have a pretty good idea what they want to do with the money...just not interested in sharing that with us. I think the point was to go large and go fast. Probably hoped to get the Republican caucus on board, then do a full scale media blitz to get the Democrats to fold. But they didn't count on Republicans in Congress to bail so quickly. The longer this stinker is on the table without a totally collapse of the economy....more people are going to question the whole premise. This could really boomerang back on them if this morphs into an attempt to steal what they couldn't get legislatively (Social Security Trust Fund) and complete the bankruptcy this country on their way out the door.

[PATRICK]

25. A Plan for every disaster

and a plan never to prevent a single one except loss of power and money. Next stop: war and terrorism shocker.

[babylonsister]

28. a.m. kick. nt

[Marblehead]

30. wouldn't surprise me if

this has been planned years ago...

[ellacott]

31. This is what I wish would get more coverage

This is big news.