The American Spectator

AmSpecBlog

Financial Incest

By Robert Stacy McCain on 11.25.08 @ 10:33AM

Just in case you thought Obama was going to rid Washington of insider cronyism:

Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr.; Citigroup board member Robert E. Rubin; and Timothy F. Geithner, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, have for years followed one another in and out of jobs in government and industry. Their close relationships helped pave the way for one of the largest and most dramatic government interventions to date in the financial crisis. . . . The bailout came only days after Paulson made comments that many in the financial markets took to mean that he would leave any future bailouts to the Obama administration. But once Citigroup's stock price plunged 60 percent last week, Rubin, an old colleague from Goldman Sachs, told Paulson in phone calls that the government had to act, according to industry sources familiar with their discussions. Geithner, too, shared a close relationship with the pair. He worked for Rubin at the Treasury Department in the 1990s and now is President-elect Barack Obama's nominee to follow Paulson as Treasury secretary. As Citigroup's lead regulator, Geithner was deeply involved in the rescue of the firm, participating in meetings and conference calls with Paulson through the weekend. He did, however, withdraw from direct interactions with Rubin and other Citigroup leaders in these negotiations after his name was leaked as Obama's nominee, according to people familiar with the discussions.

You voted for Hope. You got Goldman Sachs.

UPDATE: A friend writes:

It doesn't matter who you vote for. You always get Goldman Sachs. As someone famous is reputed to have said to Nelson Rockerfeller, "Why do want to run the country? You already own it."

Indeed, but you'd think that voters would eventually see through the liberal class-warfare charade. But if it weren't for gullible voters, where would the Democratic Party be?