Know why McCain wants to distance himself from former Senator Phil Gramm? It's not because of Gramm's obnoxious remarks calling Americans "a nation of whiners" who are in "a mental recession." Those remarks were so ascerbic that they may've been made just to give McCain an excuse to distance himself from Gramm. This issue is a lot deeper than it looks on the surface.
When Gramm was a Senator he was Chairman of the Banking Committee. He pushed through the legislation known as the "Enron Loophole." This loophole allowed US investment banks to bypass Federal regulations governing futures trading, and is the reason why investment banks were able to falsely inflate the prices of oil, wheat, corn and other commodities through massive futures trading, causing your costs of gas, heating oil and food to go through the roof.
Gramm also created the Gramm-Leach-Biley Act, which got rid of the laws that seperate banking, insurance and brokerage activities in America. The Gramm Act was touted as a new way to protect consumer privacy, but the real meat on the Act's bones was banking deregulation. Essentially, this Act did away with laws written after the Great Depression to protect us from another Wall Street/Banking Industry collapse. That's right, Gramm stripped the system of it's safe guards nine years ago, and guess what? The value of the dollar has nose-dived, four major economic institutions have failed, Wall Street is unstable, and we are in a worsening recession.
Notably, the US investment banks that gained the most from the Enron Loophole and from the Gramm Act contributed more than a million dollars to Gramm's campaign.
Currently Gramm is Vice Chairman of UBS, the Swiss Bank that came up with the idea of "death bonds." Worse, though, UBS is involved in a scam where they sold auction rate securities to American customers. Auction rate securities are supposed to be as safe as cash, but the way UBS did it, the fees garnished by their in-house investment bankers were intentionally higher than the return on the securities, ripping off their American customers. The Massachusetts Attorney General has already filed charges against UBS, and private brokers world-wide have dropped UBS stock. UBS is forecasted to lose 82.91% of it's value in 2008. We are talking about the corporate bank where Gramm is Vice Chairman. Looking at his track record there and at the havoc he has wrought on the US economy through the Senate Banking Committee, it's clear that Gramm is a either criminal or grossly incompetent.
Now McCain wants nothing to do with Gramm, wants us to forget Gramm has been a key player on McCain's team. Gramm was McCain's campaign CO-CHAIR and LEADING ECONOMIC ADVISOR. Previously, McCain had said that he planned to appoint Gramm as SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
With Gramm as McCain's leading economic advisor, now you know why economists and analysts say that McCain's economic policy plans are untenable.
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The veepstakes is usually a guilty pleasure. One moment, everyone with access to makeup and a minute on cable TV is obsessing over shortlists. The next, they're quoting FDR's first No. 2, who claimed the gig wasn't "worth a bucket of warm piss." But this year's search offers more than empty calories. Yes, the old caveats still apply: no one votes for second fiddle, no veep since LBJ has swung his home state, and none has ever triggered a bump of more than 2 percent overall. But Barack Obama and John McCain are not typical nominees. At 72, McCain would be the oldest prez ever inaugurated. "I'm aware of the enhanced importance of this issue given my age," he has said. Obama, meanwhile, would be the least-seasoned chief in a century. The solution, says his campaign manager, is a VP who will "be a partner in governing"—not a political pander. So whom might they choose? NEWSWEEK political blogger Andrew Romano's historical crib sheet:
The McCain Archetypes
The Jack Kemp
Mitt Romney: Like Kemp, Bob Dole's '96 pick, Romney is a former foe who would add economic-policy heft to the ticket
The Geraldine Ferraro
Sarah Palin: Ferraro helped Walter Mondale make history in '84; Alaska Governor Palin could counterprogram Obama
The Dan Quayle
Bobby Jindal: Chosen for his youth, 41's veep was too lightweight; hot La. Governor Jindal, 37, may be too young
The Spiro Agnew
Tim Pawlenty: Like Maryland's Agnew, the Minn. governor appeals to the center and right, and could help in a key region
The Joe Lieberman
Joe Lieberman: Would do for Mac what he did for Gore in '00—boost moderate cred, Jewish support, ticket diversity
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