Warren Asks “The Question”

Senator Elizabeth Warren must have had her Wheaties this morning because in her very first Banking Committee meeting she asked the question we have all asked each other for nearly 5 years now: Why no prosecutions of Wall Street banks and hedge fund managers for their role in the fraud they committed that sent our economy into the crapper.

 

Her wording:

            “When was the last time you took a Wall Street bank to trial?”

This was a loaded question because Senator Warren, because of her banking expertise, knew full and well that no bank or manager has ever been hauled into court and tried. She kept asking the question and kept getting evasive answers. Here are two.

Answer 1: “"We do not have to bring people to trial" because they always settle out of court.

That wasn’t exactly answering the question, was it? The answer would have been “Never.”

Answer 2: “I will have to get back to you with specific information.”

Famous last words. The last time I heard that it was Mitt Romney promising to get back with an answer to a question about his finances.

And then the icing on the cake: her summation.

 

“There are district attorneys and United States attorneys out there every day squeezing ordinary citizens on sometimes very thin grounds and taking them to trial in order to make an example, as they put it. I'm really concerned that 'too big to fail' has become 'too big for trial."

And you know, it’s ironic. I’m pretty sure that there are tea baggers out there that would wholeheartedly agree with Warren.

Texas sent Ted Cruz to the Senate and he got his hand slapped by veteran senators for McCarthyesque demagoguery. Massachusetts sends Elizabeth Warren to the Senate and she turns Wall Street regulators into quivering and stuttering spineless masses.