about Jim Scott

As the Goldman Sachs drama unwinds it brings to mind another famous Senate hearing, the Army-McCarthy hearings that were held in 1954. In a single moment,  Senator McCarthy was destroyed politically along with his political movement. For those not familar with the Senator from Wisconsin, he was the political leader in the fight to root out domestic communists and their sympathizers.  In taking on the Army and its chief counsel, Joseph Welch,  he unwittingly set the table for his own demise. (You can view this electric exchange on this link: YouTube)

I think the Goldman Sachs hearings, while lacking the one dramatic exchange, will have the same political impact. I believe these executives perfectly laid the ground work for a meaningful financial reform bill. I thought after the bruising health care debate there would be little stomach on the Hill for the President’s proposals. But the Goldman boys tilted the playing field.  You can see this as the GOP is in full retreat on this issue.  I am sure the calls and emails to their offices have been clear and concise.  The public relations ineptness of this group of highly-paid executives is astounding.  They provided a plethora of juicy sound bites that I am sure we will see in a few political ads this fall.

American history provides a mother lode of dramas such as is now occurring on the Hill.  For those not following the news too closely, Congress has hauled in several miscreants from Goldman Sachs for a serious finger-wagging session. When it was all over, Goldman’s heavies left town, no less richer but with the knowledge that the game was going to change, slightly. Senators made sure they got a good tongue-lashing.

There was excellent theatre with Senators dishing up huge amounts of umbrage and outrage for the Goldman lackeys to swallow.  But something was accomplished.  The rock-heads in the GOP finally realized they were on the wrong side of the financial reform discussion.  By allowing debate on the President’s  financial reform bill in the Senate,  Republicans were in full retreat, probably prodded on by the cavalier attitudes exhibited by the Goldman Boys.  They were a PR disaster for the cause of less regulation.  The GOP flip-flop was not motivated by moral outrage but by hard politics. November is looming and the GOP has been a bit feisty, feeling the tailwinds of public support.  After the show on the Hill,  they were determined not to give the Dems a golden opportunity to resurrect the ghost of Father Coughlin.