Today was the time that tried men’s souls in DC.
http://oversight.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4756&Itemid=2
Members of the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee Members knew full well since the Mass Brown Kennedy Senate Seat shot heard round the world, their electoral survival hinges on doing their job supervising the Fed and Treasury on behalf of the little people who pay taxes.
Thus the gloves came off to a point, namely four minutes.
By waffling for four minutes at a time with I don’t remember, I was not involved and let me enlighten you, Mr Geithner and Mr Paulson arrogantly and repeatedly ran out the clock, a more deadly defense than reciting the 5th Amendment.
Why did more of the Committee not hold them to simple Yes and No answers or take more time for truth-finding?
Within those four-minutes soliloquies, we had a few flashes of genuine government oversight, if not reform.
Mr Geithner repeatedly claimed he was totally responsible for transparency, yet not involved in giving Goldman Sachs billions of taxpayer dollars that became GS bonuses by passing them through AIG at par instead of the typical standard distress bailout haircut.
Mr Geithner claimed he recused himself once nominated for Treasury Secretary, although the AIG TARP 100% bailout pass-through happened before that. He did not clarify phone log evidence of hundreds of calls to Fed Chair Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Paulson, Goldman Sachs chair Lloyd Blankfein and US Rep Rahm Emmanuel, now Obama Chief of Staff.
Mr Geithner and Mr Paulson declared they had no authority to let bankruptcy laws close the failed London derivative subsidiary while saving the sound insurance subsidiaries.
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