Jack Ricker – 10/12/08

This page was last updated on October 12, 2008.

Plenty of blame to go around; Jack Ricker; Beaver County Times; October 12, 2008.

For most of my comments about the points mentioned in this letter, please refer to my critiques of “Democrats can’t do worse than GOP” and “Let’s have some of the $700 trillion [sic].”

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“I would like to address Thursday’s letter regarding G.W. Bush and his 17 pleas for regulations. (I’ll assume the mortgage industry).”

[RWC] Note Mr. Ricker isn’t even sure for what President Bush wanted more regulation. That didn’t stop him from writing this letter, however. The increased regulations President Bush and others wanted were for Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, two government-sponsored enterprises.

“The writer tried to blame Democrats for this mess, but she failed to realize that the GOP had control over the presidency, Senate and House for six of the last eight years. Knowing that, wouldn’t you agree that there’s more than enough blame to go around.”

[RWC] First, the President can’t make up his own regulations. He can recommend changes and request Congress to make them, but it’s Congress that has to pass new laws/regulations.

Second, the GOP didn’t have “control over the … Senate and House for six of the last eight years.” In addition to the last almost two years, Democrats held the majority in the Senate from May 2001 to January 2003. In any case, you need at least 60 votes you can depend on to “control” the Senate. Republicans didn’t have close to 60 seats, let alone 60 reliable votes.

“Bill O’Reilly mentioned the other day that both parties’ conventions were held a month or so ago and nobody even talked of a financial crisis. Many politicians now say they saw it coming and waved a red flag.”

[RWC] I don’t know if Mr. Ricker missed it, but the current mess was already underway before the conventions.

“But I say none of them did enough. If they saw this major financial collapse coming and didn’t shoot off flares, sound alarms and wave a huge red flag, then shame on them.”

[RWC] Here’s an analogy. An arsonist sets fire to a building and a witness shouts “fire” over and over but nobody pays attention. Using Mr. Ricker’s “logic,” the witness sounding the alarm is guilty to some degree for the building burning down.

That said, I suspect some Republicans were afraid to press the issue because Democrats in the Fannie/Freddie hearings showed they were going to play “the race card.” One Democrat (Lacy Clay – Missouri) referred to the hearings as the “political lynching of Franklin Raines [then-Fannie Mae CEO].” A black Democrat referring to the “lynching” of a black man was done specifically to send the message that supporters of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac reform would be branded as racists. Should the Republicans have forced the filibuster and endured the charges of racism? Absolutely.

“Finally, Americans need to educate themselves on the issues. Don’t use only one news source, Turn off Fox (yes, it leans right) and watch MSNBC (yes, it leans left) and vice versa. Read newspapers. Get both ends, not just right or left.”

[RWC] When Mr. Ricker wrote, “read newspapers,” he didn’t mention left- or right-leaning papers. Does this mean Mr. Ricker doesn’t believe the stories published in newspapers must first pass editorial muster? That is, “news” stories that don’t support a paper’s editorial policies won’t be published or will be published only with “appropriate” editing.

“Don’t vote for someone because a talking head said to. Educate yourself on the issues and vote accordingly. There are Democrats who are NRA-approved (Altmire) or pro-life (Casey). There are Republicans who support abortion rights (Ridge) and who have had union support (Specter).”

[RWC] “Educate yourself on the issues?” Based on the content of this letter, Mr. Ricker didn’t take his own advice. If you believe Democrats and Republicans are equally culpable in this mess, you didn’t “educate yourself on the issues.”

Regarding “union support” for Arlen Specter, Mr. Specter gets that support tends to come during the primaries when the Republican candidate has a good chance of winning the general election. In other words, while labor union management almost always sides with the Democrat (89.4% of union contributions went to Democrats in 2002.), during the primary labor union management will occasionally hedge their bets and contribute to the most left leaning of the Republican candidates.

“These are only examples; some are not running. This voting season, don’t go to the poles [sic] without knowing who, why and what you’re voting for.”