Congressman Sherman Takes On CNBC

The more I watch Brad Sherman go up against Wall Street's apologists the better I like him:

There's More To AIG Than Their Bonuses

The story that (thankfully) won't stop about AIG's $165 million in bonuses has provided another shock to an already repulsed nation. As the media holds on to it, politicians from the President on down are expressing their outrage at the situation. How dare they take those bonuses! The gall! The audacity! The....oh come on now, we knew that they'd go ahead and further enrich themselves with the Fed's our money. If anything, our elected officials should have known this would have happened.

Actually they did:

Sherman told me in an interview today that the Treasury Department wouldn't have to be withholding $30 billion in aid from AIG until the company restructures its bonus payments, because Congress already had given Treasury the authority to prevent those bonuses from being paid.

Referring to the original bailout Congress passed in October, Sherman told me:

We had a provision in there that said Treasury was supposed to establish, by regulation, standards for executive compensation. We required that to be done -- had it been done, it would have been binding, whether [or not] these contracts had been signed earlier. It's entirely within the power of the federal government to have contracts modified [at companies receiving public aid]. Nixon had contracts modified by the federal government. We gave a similar power to Treasury.

Oh but wait you say, in October Bernanke and Hank Paulson were in charge, why would this be anyone but Bush's problem? Well, Geithner and Summers were a problem back then and they still are now. The decisions they make are at odds with what Obama says in front of the cameras and empathize with the traders, not the American people who were bludgeoned by the greed of Wall Street.

It's great that we have people like Cuomo that want to go after these financiers for their bonuses, but we still need to address the systemic problems such as Obama's conservative choices when it comes to dealing with the financial industry. The hard truth is, we still need the change Obama promised as far as Wall Street goes. Until proven wrong, I still see Geithner as part of the problem, not the solution.

Rep. Sherman Calls Limbaugh A Coward, Demands To Debate

Rush Limbaugh thought he was hot stuff when he tried challenging President Obama to come on his show to talk about the issues of the day. Of course, since Obama is President, his priorities include things like the economic crisis, dealing with Congress and fixing all the other problems created under eight years of George Bush. Talking to Rush Limbaugh is incredibly low on that list, if it's there at all.

Being the good Democratic Congressmember that Brad Sherman (CA-27) is, he has willingly stepped up to take Obama's seat and debate the hatemonger radio personality himself. Rush hasn't responded to Brad's requests, so he has written Mr. Limbaughg an open letter. A letter I might say that doesn't pull any punches.

From The Huffington Post:

"If you had any confidence in your position, you would agree to my request to have me on your show--where I'm sure I could demonstrate the merits of my views," he wrote.

"You are a coward," he assessed. "Very truly yours, Brad Sherman."

Limbaugh has yet to respond, said a spokesman for Sherman. Limbaugh's producer, Kit Carson, told the Huffington Post he hadn't seen the letter, but that he couldn't speak for Limbaugh. The radio talk-show host, who Democrats portray as the leader of the GOP, is taking the next two days off, said Carson, and will return Monday.

Rush can return whenever he wants, but being able to actually take on Brad Sherman when it comes to finance is a losing proposition. As a former intern of the Congressman, I can tell you that I've seen that degree from Harvard Law and that he knows his stuff in the field. Oh and he isn't just any lawyer, he's a tax attorney, one of the toughest fields to go into (not that it doesn't pay of course). Rush on the other hand, is a right-wing blowhard who relies on malicious lies, fear and innuendo to bully his opponents. Thinking that this debate would be a fair fight is a joke and Rush knows it.

Brad Sherman Talks About Watered-Down Executive Pay Caps

Congressman Sherman corrects Fox Business News anchors in that the pay caps for bailout-taking companies top earners was actually toned down, not "secretly added at the last moment" as conservatives try to paint it as.