McCain Stumbles Through Another Day, Says He'd Fire Chris Cox... But None of His Economic Advisors Have Called Him Senator Hoover Yet

The last I remember hearing about right-wing financial ideologue Chris Cox, an icon if the Greed and Selfishness wing of the Republican Party, is that he was a contender as a running mate for John McCain. The thinking was that since McCain's skin crawls when he's in the same room with so-called economics whiz Mitt Romney and since even McCain admits he's completely clueless about-- and uninterested in-- economic matters, they would find him a knowledgeable and respected right-wing economics expert. Cox had been a rubber stamp southern California congressman from 1989 til August of 2005 when he resigned to become Bush's SEC chair.

Looking to duck decades of responsibility, McCain has been running around like a chicken without a head looking for someone to blame for the Wall Street debacle. His latest victim is Chris Cox, who he knows wouldn't dare punch back.

ABC News' David Wright reports: At a joint rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa Thursday, Republican John McCain McCain slammed the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) for being "asleep at the switch" saying that if he were president, he would fire Chris Cox, the chairman of the SEC since 2005 and a former Republican congressman.

McCain said the SEC has allowed trading practices such as short selling to stay in place that turned the "markets into a casino."

"The regulators were asleep, my friends," McCain said. "The chairman of the SEC serves at the appointment of the president. And in my view has betrayed the public trust. If I were president today, I would fire him."

But while the president appoints and the Senate confirms the SEC chair, a commissioner of an independent regulatory commissions cannot be removed by the president.

Cox is far more liked, admired and respected by serious conservatives than is McCain so it should be interesting to see if they start squawking much. He did get some response from senators who know McCain well. “This is typical McCain-style politics,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. “Go after the first person you can to divert attention from your failures.” Chuck Schumer was even harsher: "Instead of firing Cox, McCain should explain how his policies differ from President Bush on this issue. And if not, maybe he should ask that Bush be fired, instead of Cox.” Or maybe Bush and McCain should have a debate to see which one is more similar to Herbert Hoover.

McCain has wobbled through the last few days of economic crisis. On Monday – with the markets reeling from news that Lehman Brothers had fallen into bankruptcy the GOP presidential candidate said "the fundamentals of our economy are strong.”

In an appearance on the Today Show Tuesday, he said: “We cannot have the taxpayers bail out AIG or anybody else."

But on Wednesday, he appeared on Good Morning America and said that the government had no choice but to bail out the troubled insurance company.

"On the bailout itself, I didn't want to do that," he said. "But there were literally millions of people whose retirement, whose investments, whose insurance were at risk here, and they were going to have their lives destroyed because of the greed and excess and corruption."

In today’s Gallup Tracking Poll, McCain trails Barack Obama by four points-- a nine-point swing from the peak of his bounce after the Republican National Convention.

McCain is coming across as confused and desperate. And he's starting to turn into a national joke. "Sen. McCain bragged about how as chairman of the Commerce Committee in the Senate, he had oversight of every part of the economy. Well, all I can say to Sen. McCain is, 'Nice job. Nice job,'" Obama said at a rally at a baseball stadium in Las Vegas. "Where is he getting these lines? The lobbyists running his campaign?... I'm not making this up, you can't make this up. It's like a Saturday Night Live routine."

And speaking of Republican goofballs who McCain thought weren't as qualified as Sarah Palin to be (vice) president, take a look at Chris Matthews excoriating far right extremist Eric Cantor (R-VA) and the GOP disinformation machine:



UPDATE: OBAMA ON McCAIN'S EMPTY BLUSTERING ABOUT FIRING CHRIS COX

Obama's response was pitch-perfect:

"I think that's all fine and good but here's what I think," Obama said. "In the next 47 days you can fire the whole trickle-down, on-your-own, look-the-other way crowd in Washington who has led us down this disastrous path. Don't just get rid of one guy. Get rid of this administration. Get rid of this philosophy. Get rid of the do-nothing approach to our economic problem and put somebody in there who's going to fight for you."