Where's Eliot Spitzer Now That We Need Him? Spitzer should replace SEC chief Mary Schapiro

[Better Believe It]

March 30, 2009

Wanted: Bulldog
Where's Eliot Spitzer Now That We Need Him?
By MIKE WHITNEY

The former governor of New York might have some rocky moments in his confirmation hearings, but if Obama really wanted to police Wall St – which of course he doesn’t - he’d replace current SEC chief Mary Schapiro with Eliot Spitzer. Schapiro is another Wall Street toady who believes that the markets can regulate themselves. As the head of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or Finra, she stood by while the financial giants increased their leverage to unsustainable levels and spread their derivatives-contagion to every part of the system.

Schapiro also missed the Madoff scandal, the auction-rate bond fraud, the blow up at Lehman Brothers, and the mortgage meltdown. She was blindsided at every turn. Her dismal performance as a private-sector regulator proves that she's the wrong person for the job. Even the far-right Wall Street Journal has lambasted Schapiro. In an article titled "Obama's pick to head SEC has record of being a Regulator with a Light Touch" ....

If Spitzer was running the SEC, the Pinkertons would be swarming the investments houses right now, thumbing through the off-balance sheet paperwork, overturning filing cabinets and tasering bloated banksters as they scuttle away clutching their briefcases stuffed with taxpayer loot.

What people want is to see a cop on every corner of lower Manhattan. They want regulators snooping through e mails and digging through trash cans to uncover any scrap of evidence that will build a case for investor fraud or criminal malfeasance. They want bloodhoundsposted in every boardroom, in every penthouse, on every private jet; breathing down the necks of every CEO, every CFO, and every dodgy, derivatives-peddling scam-artist.

This is not the time for namby-pamby, weak-kneed Schapiro. Spitzer's tough tactics made him big business's most hated man. In fact, in January 2005, the president of the US Chamber of Commerce described Spitzer's approach as "the most egregious and unacceptable form of intimidation we've seen in this country in modern times."

If that isn't a ringing endorsement for SEC chief, than what is?

Please read the complete article at:

http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney03302009.html

[alcibiades_mystery]

1. Rule #1 of being a social reformer

You better be squeaky goddamn clean.

Banging hookers in hotel rooms doesn't count. It's sad, for sure, since Spitzer's one of the best minds in the country on this issue. But that's how it goes. He should have kept his dick to himself.

Oh Parnell, how could ya? Too ra loo ra...

[HowHasItComeToThis]

2. SPITZER WAS TAKEN OUT BEFORE THIS MANUFACTURED CRASH

BET YOU BOTTOM DOLLAR

[SemiCharmedQuark]

4. He made it really easy for himself to be taken out.

I don't care what he does, but the fact is this is the U.S.A where we have puritanical views on sex. Every politician knows this. So how he could have been stupid enough to think he wouldn't get caught is beyond me.

[Better Believe It]

5. I think you have it exactly right.

But the Wall Street crooks and their political whores have lots of skeletons in their closets but they won't be exposed.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

8. You can't blame Spitzer ruining his own career on someone else.

I'm sure his enemies gleefully spread the word around and tsk tsk-ed, but the Spitzer gave them an opening.

[onenote]

6. so do you think he wasn't really seeing that hooker?

Then why did he resign? Why did he publicly make reference to his "private failings" (which in this instance happened to involve breaking public laws?)

[Better Believe It]

9. I think Wall Street entermanures with help from Dubya looked for skeletons in his closet.

They wanted to get him.

They were successful.

Others who have hidden skeletons but support Wall Street and operate as their political whores will not be bothered.

[camera obscura]

13. Of course he was, but you think there aren't scads of other politicos doing naughty things?

Remember the Duke Cunningham case. Prostitutes are used by lobbyists to wheedle and entertain congressman as much as fancy "fact finding missions" and generous donations.

In political terms, they may as well have nailed him for jaywalking.

[alcibiades_mystery]

12. He took his dick out of his pants on his own, I think

[Kalyke]

3. He should be going through a divorce...

But at least he's no longer spending taxpayer money to hurt his wife deeply and tremendously.

[BeyondGeography]

7. Too bad Spitzer can't be fully useful to Obama

Because he can't.

[Thrill]

11. Another Populist article. That fails to mention you have to be confirmed to be SEC chief

Which ain't gonna happen for Spitzer

[Thrill]

10. That Madoff bs has already been debunked at the Mary Schapiro confirmation hearing

Finra doesn't regulate the sector Madoff was operating in

[camera obscura]

14. Spitzer would have been perfect for AG, SEC, anything. But he screwed up.

Having said up the thread that the majority of our elected officials often dabble in their own vices... it is INCREDIBLY dumb to screw around with hookers while you know that there are powerful people in the state government and Wall Street dying to take you down.

He needs to rehabilitate his image first. It doesn't help that a lot of people had never heard of him until the prostitution scandal. Right now the best thing is for him to appear on talk shows and lay out the facts.

[Kdillard]

15. Yep just what we need a man who made more enemies than

friends while accomplishing little. To top it off while he was being a holier than thou jerk he tore down his own career by publicly humiliating himself and his wife. He needs to sit down, shut up and be thnakful he didn't go to jail and his wife didn't get a divorce attorney.

[Danger Mouse]

16. Where's Spitzer now that we need him?

Probably looking for another hooker to bang.