Rove Smear Machine/GOP Obstructionism-- Working Hard For Wall Street

Rove's super-PAC took a few minutes-- and a few million dollars-- out from their relentless attacks on Mitt Romney's GOP rivals to put together the most dishonest and perverse ad of the year (so far), their second attack in the Elizabeth Warren smear campaign (above). Ironic that it was the same day Senate Republicans voted to filibuster the Rich Cordray nomination as head of the Elizabeth Warren-created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Actually it was far more ironic that the last time Rove tried smearing Warren (which has driven her poll numbers up against Rove's and Wall Street's candidate) he attacked her as a socialist and a patsy for OccupyWallStreet. This time he's making the absurd claim that she's a patsy for the Wall Street banksters she's spent her entire career fighting (and who are financing both Rove's operation and the career of Warren's opponent, Scott Brown).

As part of that strategy of confusion, Brown was the only Republican senator to vote to break the Republican filibuster against Cordray. Maine congenital coward Olympia Snowe voted "present.") 60 votes were needed to end the filibuster and Reid got 53, with 45 die-hard obstructionists voting NO. Immediately after the vote, diaper-clad Louisiana pervert and twitter fiend, shameless David Vitter, ran to claim some credit:


Vitter smells funny and even semi-respectable K Street lobbyists don't like being seen in public with him too much. That doesn't stop the Wall Street banksters from paying him off to toe their line. The finance sector has given Vitter $2,889,554 in legalistic bribes since he was first elected to Congress. And he always toes their line against ordinary Louisiana families and independent small businesses. No difference between the two parties? Even Mary Landrieu-- the other Wall Street suckup from Louisiana and conservative Democrats Ben Nelson and Joe Manchin-- voted to end the filibuster. So did Lieberman.

Nonpartisan watchdog group, Public Campaign, was prepared with some of the numbers behind the story.

Wall Street and its deep pockets fought the creation of the bureau, and its lobbyists have continued the industry’s efforts to undermine it... Key Facts:

• Through the first three quarters of 2011, the finance, insurance, and real estate (FIRE) sector has given $17.7 million to members of the U.S. Senate. Financial interests make up the top giving sector to federal candidates so far this cycle, according to Public Campaign Action Fund analysis of data from the Center for Responsive Politics.

• The commercial banking industry has donated nearly $1.8 million to Senators so far this year, and securities and investment industry donors have handed over $5.8 million.

• The 44 Senate Republicans who signed a letter in May pledging to filibuster any CFPB nominee (plus Sen. Dean Heller who later added his name once appointed to the Senate) have received over $6.5 million from the financial industry in 2011 and nearly $125.6 million over their careers.

• Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the ranking member of the Senate Banking committee (and lead signer of the letter), has received at least $81,850 in 2011 and $6.2 million from the FIRE sector throughout his career.

• Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who said in June the more that can be done to slow down implementation of Dodd-Frank regulations “the better America will be,” has received at least $617,715 from financial interests this year and $6.4 million over his career. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has received at least $82,334 this year from the sector and $5.6 million over his career.

• Sens. Pat Roberts (R-Kansas) and John Thune (R-S.D.) both have fundraisers in New York City this weekend, according to invitations obtained by the Sunlight Foundation’s PoliticalPartyTime website. Will Wall Street donors be in attendance?

Wisconsin fascist Ron Johnson was, predictably, one of the most vehement opponents of confirmation. He's against all regulations that protect consumers, small businesses, workers and the environment. He's a quintessential Ayn Rand simpleton who is comfortable with a 18th century Law of the Jungle perspective. Wisconsin Democratic Party chairman Mike Tate, was ready to throw up after the vote this morning. "After middle class families across Wisconsin were crushed by irresponsible financial decisions by Wall Street," said Tate, "President Obama stood up for Wisconsin families by establishing Wall Street reforms dedicated to protecting moderate Americans from being cheated by mortgage lenders, payday lenders and debt collectors.

“In a purely political move, Congressional Republicans rejected Richard Cordray, former Ohio Attorney General with bipartisan support from fellow Attorney Generals, from doing his job to protect Wisconsin families hoping to buy their first home or send their kids to college. Republican candidates for President including Mitt Romney continue to claim that middle class families are at fault for their own struggles, that they’re on their own. We know that vision has never worked and won’t now."

Wisconsin progressive, Rep. Tammy Baldwin, who's running for the open Senate seat would have voted, like Herb Kohl did, for confirmation. How do I know that? This is what she had to say about today's vote: "Time and time again, middle class families and everyday American workers pay the price for Wall Street excess, while the CEOs and big banks continue to run amok. It's time to say enough, and put in place real reforms that protect workers and middle class families from Wall Street greed and abuse. It's outrageous that Republicans are protecting the corporate special interests and demanding that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau be weakened before they will consider approving a Director." I suspect she and Ron Johnson won't be seeing eye to eye on very much.

President Obama seemed pretty pissed off about this. I suspect that he figured if he didn't give the job to Warren, enough Republicans would confirm a moderate nominee like Cordray to make this work. When will he ever learn? (I'll answer that: never; he will never learn.) This is what he said on TV today just after the filibuster vote:

A couple of days ago I said that we are in a make-or-break moment when it comes to America's middle class. We either have a country where everybody fends for themselves, or we create a country where everybody does their fair share, everybody has got a fair chance, and we ensure that there's fair play out there.

Now, to ensure fair play, one of the things that I talked about was the importance of making sure we implement financial reform, Wall Street reform that was passed last year. And a key component of that was making sure that we have a consumer watchdog in place who can police what mortgage brokers and payday lenders and other non-bank financial entities are able to do when it comes to consumers.

This is a big deal. About one-in-five people use these kinds of mechanisms to finance everything from buying a house to cashing their checks. And we passed a law last year that said we need this consumer watchdog in place to make sure that people aren’t taken advantage of.

Now, we have nominated somebody-- Richard Cordray, former attorney general and treasurer of Ohio-- who everybody says is highly qualified. The majority of attorney generals, Republican and Democrat, from across the country have said this is somebody who can do the job with integrity, who has a tradition of being a bipartisan individual who looks out for the public interest, and is ready to go. And he actually helped set up the Consumer Finance Protection Board.

This morning, Senate Republicans blocked his nomination, refusing to let the Senate even go forward with an up or down vote on Mr. Cordray. This makes absolutely no sense.

Consumers across the country understand that part of the reason we got into the financial mess that we did was because regulators were not doing their jobs. People were not paying attention to what was happening in the housing market; people weren’t paying attention to who was being taken advantage of. There were folks who were making a lot of money taking advantage of American consumers.

This individual's job is to make sure that individual consumers are protected-- everybody from seniors to young people who are looking for student loans, to members of our Armed Services who are probably more vulnerable than just about anybody when it comes to unscrupulous financial practices.

There is no reason why Mr. Cordray should not be nominated, and should not be confirmed by the Senate, and should not be doing his job right away in order to carry out his mandate and his mission.

So I just want to send a message to the Senate: We are not giving up on this. We're going to keep on going at it. We are not going to allow politics as usual on Capitol Hill to stand in the way of American consumers being protected by unscrupulous financial operators. And we're going to keep on pushing on this issue.

Back, to Elizabeth Warren and Rove's latest shot at her. Ari Berman was up at The Nation within minutes of the ad's release, explaining in great detail, with an analysis by Simon Johnson, why the ad is so utterly ludicrous:

1. TARP was a Republican program-- proposed and implemented by President George W. Bush. At the time, Ms. Warren was busy championing people whose rights had been trampled by the financial sector through various kinds of abuses.

2. Ms. Warren became chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP) for TARP, precisely because people in Congress-- on both sides of the aisle-- trusted her to provide an honest and professional check on the support provided to financial firms. She did her highest profile work during the Obama administration, bringing relentless pressure on the Treasury and other agencies who just wanted to prop up big firms without any conditions.

3. Ms. Warren has also been a strong supporter of all efforts to rein in Too Big To Fail banks, including by breaking them up. She has consistently been one of the strongest advocates for curtailing the abusive power of megabanks (and others who have behaved badly).

4. At the same time, Ms. Warren has not demonized the financial sector. On the contrary, when charged with setting up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, she went out of her way to work closely with those in the financial sector who provide sensible products with reasonable conditions. Her emphasis throughout has been on transparency, fairness, and full disclosure in this sector. You are not allowed to sell dangerous toasters in the United States; her point is that you should not be allowed to sell financial products that have been proven dangerous.

5. The idea that Elizabeth Warren would ever side with “big banks” against the middle class is preposterous. Time and again, she has stuck up for the middle class (and anyone who uses financial services)-- even when it was deeply unfashionable to do so. The big banks have opposed her relentlessly and on-the-record, both directly and through various surrogates.

Let's keep the momentum rolling against Rove and Wall Street banksters and Scott Brown. If you can, please consider contributing to Elizabeth Warren's grassroots campaign for the Senate. Unlike most of the dreck the Democrats have dug up, she actually can and will make a difference.

Let's close with two old friends, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR). First a couple of words from Barney on today's vote and then a look at the video of Jeff on the floor of the Senate, explaining why it's not OK to be a predator and why consumers have to be protected. Barney:

The Republican filibuster blocking a vote on the nomination of Richard Cordray to be the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is an outrageous expression of disrespect both for the interests of American consumers and for the U.S. Constitution.

Substantively, Richard Cordray is a former Attorney General who has received broad support from both Republican and Democratic Attorneys General for his demonstrated expertise in protecting consumer interests in an appropriate and responsible manner. The effect of this refusal by the Republicans even to consider the nomination on its merits means that significant powers to protect consumers from abuses by non-bank financial institutions-– payday lenders, check cashers, non-bank mortgage lenders, money transmitters, debt collectors and others-– will be suspended.

And it is important to note that what the Republicans have done is to block a vote, not because of any objection to Mr. Cordray, but because the Republicans do not like the legislation which established the CFPB. Using the filibuster in this way to block a confirmation vote wrenches the U.S. Constitution off its moorings.

The U.S. Constitution-– to which my right-wing colleagues more often profess respect than demonstrate it in their actions-– sets forward two very distinct processes. One is legislation. If both Houses of Congress pass legislation that creates changes or abolishes any entity, and it is either signed by the President or instead approved by two-thirds of both Houses, that has a binding legal effect. An entirely different process is that of confirmation, which is given by the Constitution to the Senate alone, and does not involve general legislative powers, but is restricted to a mandate that the Senate approve or disapprove a nominee for any office created by appropriate legislation.

In this instance, the Republican Senate Minority, lacking the votes to accomplish with legislation their goal of subverting the independence of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, have instead misused the confirmation process to achieve what they do not have the votes to do legislatively. This is an example of my Republican colleagues’ willingness to abuse the Constitution even as they claim to be its defenders.

The Republicans have made clear that they oppose an independent Consumer Protection Bureau, and wish to go back to the period when consumer protection was an afterthought on the agenda of bank regulators whose primary legal function was concern for the banks, and who, in the words of the House Financial Services Committee Republican Chairman, were there “to serve the banks.” (This is an unfair characterization of many of those regulators.)

The major Republican concern about the CFPB is that we created an agency that is independent of the bank regulators so it can focus on protecting consumers. And ironically, what the Republicans have accomplished today by blocking a vote on whether to confirm Richard Cordray is to postpone until a later day the ability of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to protect consumer interests-- not in the banking context, where the powers are already vested-- but against those non-bank financial institutions where abuses are more common.

And Senator Merkley: