The Bush Administration has made Wall Street an offer they can’t refuse.  Suck the life out of the company, siphoning money from the investing middle class, then we will tax the middle class to bail you out.

The movies have had great material with organized crime.  The rage began with The Godfather, continued with Goodfellas, and soared with eagles in The Sopranos.  Each of these venues showed organized crime taking over a business, draining the resources, then allowing the business to default into bankruptcy.

Here is how organized crime works.  A business gets into some financial trouble, the mafioso offer to help for a percentage of the profit – not an uncommon business practice.  Financiers often take risks with faltering businesses.  The difference with organized crime is they have no intention of running a reputable business.  They look for any means possible to use the business as a front to collect merchandise and money.  When the business falters organized crime walks away with their plunder.  Sophisticated modern Pirates.

How is the organized crime scenario different than what we are witnessing today with corporate America.  The top executives run the business into the ground and walk away with tens of millions of dollars in plunder.  How are these folks different than Tony Soprano?

Wall Street was supposed to be different.  Wall Street had specific regulations to prevent mismanagement.  These regulations were government mandated to prevent another catastrophe such as the 1929 meltdown that produced the Great Depression.  John McCain served as the Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee – the oversight committee on these regulations.

Te Republican mantra has been one of ‘protecting business from government oversight.’  John McCain and Sarah Palin continue to champion this idea in daily stump speeches.  When the bomb blows up in the kitchen of the crime infested restaurant, the paid-off policemen are quoted in the News headlines as advocating more resources to fight crime.

John McCain is shouting to the rooftops for more regulations to protect the hard working middle class.  Does anyone really believe him?

Whose hand is he kissing?