REPUBLICAN REPORT ... STILL A JOKE

In my last post on the bi-partisan Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) I wrote about Republican commission members. They decided to issue their own report on the causes behind the 2008 market collapse, which the FCIC is supposed to do. I explained why I thought the Republican report - which they like to call a "primer" - was a joke.

In a few words I wrote that Republican commissioners wanting to remove words like "Wall Street" and "deregulation" from the commissions final report was like wanting to remove the words "welfare" and "fraud" from a report on welfare fraud.

I called the commission on December 20th and asked if someone would get back to me on this. The last time I checked, there were no messages on my office phone. But two days later a Republican operative - Peter J. Wallison - did come out with a general response to emerging questions and criticisms.

The Huffingtonpost's R.J. Eskow does an excellent job of taking apart Wallison's nonsense here. Suffice it to say, if you ever wanted to know what George Orwell's "doublespeak" means, or what "looking trough the looking glass" is all about, you want to read Wallison's post and Eskow's response.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to write a primer on what's been going on with Republican members on the FCIC ...

But I'm going to do it without using the terms  "Washington,"  "politics," "lobbyist," or "influence peddling" - because, you know, these terms are so imprecise.

- Mark