Sep 18th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Don’t Know Much About the SEC
“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 nominates and the Senate confirms the SEC chair, a commissioner of an independent regulatory commission cannot be removed by the president.
Oh well.
46 Responses to “Don’t Know Much About the SEC”
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September 18th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Not to mention the fact that the reason McCain wants to fire him is because he is enforcing the laws that have helped create this financial crisis. Maybe he’d replace him with Phil Gramm. There’s a reassuring thought.
September 18th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
You might ask Dennis Schornack about that. How’d that case come out?
September 18th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
“the president cannot do X” is clearly pre-9/11 thinking.
September 18th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
And yet the headline I’ve seen (Reuters) reads “McCain says would fire SEC chairman”
So if you just read the headline, you might think, “Ooh that McCain sure is tough. He’s ready to make decisions on day 1.”
I guess it’s hard to fit “McCain says would fire SEC chairman, even though he would not have that power as president” into a headline.
September 18th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
I look forward to the clarification that McCain meant he supports a constitutional amendment overruling Humphrey’s Executor v. United States.
September 18th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
How about “McCain Clueless on Presidential Duties”. That seems to sum it up pretty succinctly.
September 18th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Maybe McCain as President would not have the power to fire the SEC chairman, but Sarah could do it! She can do anything, fire anyone, for any reason. Just look at what she has done in Alaska!
It’s not that you are engaging in pre-9/11 thinking. You’re engaging in pre-Sarah thinking. The world has changed, now that we’ve got a reformer.
Anyone who say “Thanks, but no thanks” to Congress without ever really ever saying that to Congress but can nevertheless keep all the earmark money anyway and not use it for what it was earmarked to be used for . . . well, I’m just out of breath. She can do anything.
Don’t ask her how. That would not be deferential.
September 18th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Times like these call for a little Dramatic Prairie Dog:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW8RgmEJs-8&feature=related
September 18th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
1) Somebody should send John McCain the DVD for the 1983 movie “Trading Places” –with Eddie Murphy as Billy Ray Valentine and Dan Aykroyd as Louis Winthrope III.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trading_Places
2) Billy Ray had some nice lines in the movie”
“You know you can’t just run and shoot people in the knee-caps with double barreled shotgun ’cause you’re pissed at them. ”
“It occurs to me that the best way you hurt rich people is you turn them into poor people.”
Guess who’s looking like Mortimer Duke?
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5826500&page=1
3) Remember the end –the yacht and the island?
“Louis Winthorpe, III: Looking good, Billy Ray!
Billy Ray Valentine: Feeling good, Louis!
4) Tell John McCain that Obama is Billy Ray. And Biden is Louis Winthorpe, III.
September 18th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
We’re pumping this accurate narrative about McCain’s shoddy knowledge of the American governmnt and international affairs, but it should also underline the fact that his campaign seems to be filled with hacks, none of whom know things like the fact that Spain doesn’t have a president. Your campaign is supposed to spare you these senseless gaffes. It’s like he has the production team from Fox and Friends in there proofreading his message.
September 18th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Stop speaking right now, John.
September 18th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
If Obama can connect Gramm directly to the financial markets meltdown this week – and a simple, direct 30-second spot could do it – he’ll really be in the driver’s seat in this election with 45 days to go.
p.s. How about “McCain says would illegally fire SEC chairman”? That works too.
September 18th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
You’d think that somewhere in the past McCain said something glowing about Cox’s SEC nomination or his presiding there.
The current situation makes these American Spectator columnists who touted Cox as a great VP pick look pretty silly:
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=12847
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=12769
September 18th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Don,
Somehow I don’t think he’s in danger of homelessness.
September 18th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
There you liberals go again with that “knowing things and expressing them correctly and coherently” threshold you arbitrarily want to put on the Presidency. It’s about vision, man.
http://thesebastards.blogspot.com/
September 18th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Oh, come on, Matt. That’s just a technicality. After all, the mayor of a tiny town probably can’t legally fire the librarian AND the police chief, but Palin did. It’s all about seizing the day and ignoring the law, and McCain can totally do that.
September 18th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
I’m with pieta; Sarah says she can fire anyone she wants, so let her do it. She has that Cheney ‘tude.
September 18th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Are you sure the President can’t fire the head of an ‘independent’ agency. It’s the unitary executive, my friend. I’d take my chances with Chief Justice Roberts.
September 18th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
McCain domestic policy advisor Randy Scheunemann later wrote to clarify the Senator’s position: “What Senator McCain meant was that if he were president today, he would have the SEC chairman detained as an enemy banker and sent outside of American legal jurisdiction until such a time that Congress would see fit to confirm his replacement.”
September 18th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Spain doesn’t have a president.
No, Zapatero’s official title is “Presidente del Gobierno”–President of the Government.
September 18th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
No need to psychoanalyze what Randy Scheunemann knows or doesn’t know. The man advocated bringing Georgia into NATO and potentially placing the lives of millions of people at risk as a result. After this, his support for Iraq, and the advocacy he’s done on starting a war with Iran, whether the guy knows anything about Europe is as useful a question to me as whether or not the guy knows how to use a toilet.
September 18th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Had Senator McCain not voted to confirm Chris Cox in 2005, perhaps he wouldn’t need to contemplate this paradox. But then again, maybe he always knew something about the economy and just planned this whole scenario out so that he could get this catchy headline in the newspaper as his poll numbers slip. Perhaps his statements last week (along with his running mate) were designed to make the AIG situation so incredibly bad so that he could look like he knows what he is talking about with respect to naked shorts, and the “up-tick” rule.
September 18th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
The sad thing is that McCain couldn’t possibly give a coherent answer to “Why fire Cox?” He was just a convenient target to allow McCain to appear the maverick.
The SEC does not regulate the substantive activities of investment banks and other financial entities. Cox is a disaster, but there are probably 10 regulatory authorities with more ’splaining to do than the SEC.
September 18th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Fire him? What a joke. The whole SEC has done nothing but what free-market politicians like Sen. McCain wanted it to do. Which is NOTHING!
September 18th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Are you sure the President can’t fire the head of an ‘independent’ agency. It’s the unitary executive, my friend. I’d take my chances with Chief Justice Roberts.
I actually think you’re right about that, which of the three branches does the SEC fall under? Its not a House of Congress and its not a federal court. The only one left is the executive branch. The Constitution says the president has the exective power. Coast Guard pilots in Texas, FDA food inspectors in Iowa and, yes, securities regulators in DC are just doing the work the president himself would do if only he had the time.
September 18th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
How does one get rid of the SEC chairman? Seriously, I’m asking. Does Congress have to impeach him?
September 18th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
SqueakyRat, per Beowulf, POTUS fires him, that’s how you get rid of the SEC chairman.
September 18th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Maybe what McCain meant was that he get Phil Gramm to replace the SEC with the Blue Sky Laws.
September 18th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
Steve Bainbridge–a lawyer who actually knows something about the SEC, unlike Matt and whoever came up with this stupid talking point back at Obama headquarters–points out that Matt’s wrong over at his site.
I love to watch this bunch of ignorant monkeys patting themselves on the back for their cleverness. Show your ass now Matt.
September 19th, 2008 at 12:46 am
Sure, Thomas. Because a hand-slap demotion is totally the tough response for someone who has betrayed the public trust.
September 19th, 2008 at 8:33 am
Well Josh, if you’re saying it’s a stupid idea, I agree, but not because Cox has done anything wrong. He’s been an excellent SEC chairman, and together with Paulson and Bernanke is doing everything that can be done to restore order to the markets. But that position is a lot different from the McCain-doesn’t-know-how-the-SEC works idiocy above.
Back to throwing your crap. Show your ASS!
September 19th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
I thought Obama went further and said to throw all of the bureaucrats at the SEC out?
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