Well, I may need to revise my opinion of Harry Reid. I cringe every time he comes on the television and starts babbling in his uniquely clumsy way about healthcare, the economy, the virtues of bipartisanship. Given the chance, I’d nominate Harry Reid as poster boy for why Democrats cannot accomplish much, even when they’re in the majority.
But that all changed Friday night thanks to a Harvard law professor named Elizabeth Warren. A few months ago, Bill Moyers had her on to talk about the truly criminal implications – she’s a law professor, after all – of the federal bailout. My impression of Elizabeth Warren was not objective. I liked the fact that she wasn’t slick. I liked the fact that there was a hint of the South and the Midwest in her voice. In the midst of the three- or four-month period where anyone speaking on behalf of the people losing homes and jobs and credit was dismissed by the pundits as “populist” – remember that? – the first time I saw Elizabeth Warren a little piece of me fell in love with her. I’m paraphrasing a bit here, of course, but she looked directly into Bill Moyers’ face and said, The financial system in this country is the biggest crock of shit ever, and that’s exactly what it smells like. The banks are bending the rules as far as they possibly can, freezing credit, raising interest rates, paying themselves outrageous salaries and even more outrageous bonuses while the people truly in need of assistance lose everything. I looked her up and read her faculty profile, but it didn’t say much about her except her teaching schedule and publishing history.
Friday night she was on the PBS program NOW, which I watch only because it bridges the half-hour gap between Gwen Ifil and Bill Moyers. It’s not a bad show, but squeezed between those two, even the most compelling programming is diminished. The theme of the program was how the billions and billions of dollars in bailout money aren’t exactly bailing out those of us who live closer to the bottom of the flow chart than the top. And there was Elizabeth Warren, talking, not just as a Harvard law professor, but as the chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, to which she was appointed by none other than Harry Reid. I realize it’s been busy the past several months, with that child in the balloon, and Jon and Kate, and Michael Jackson, and many other stories, but how did I miss the news that Elizabeth Warren is now not only teaching law but wearing a badge of sorts as well?
Perhaps she’d already been appointed the first time I saw her and I missed the chronology because I was fixated on her words. Perhaps in comparison to all the churning that goes into passing laws, an oversight panel isn’t that big of a deal. I don’t know.
Personally, I’ll take Elizabeth Warren’s dry commentary over the snide hype spewed forth by the know-it-alls any day. On Friday, the NOW host asked why she hates credit cards. Elizabeth Warren does not hate credit cards. She has two, and she loves having them, but she cannot understand why the terms cannot be clearly stated in a page and a half, in print that doesn’t require a magnifying glass. And she doesn’t understand why credit card companies can legally raise interest rates on debt accumulated under different terms. I don’t, either. Isn’t it socialism for the government to regulate pay for private sector executives? Sort of. But the banks aren’t strangers to socialist concepts: they are backed up even when we’re not having an economic crisis by that two-word, trillion-dollar phrase “federally guaranteed.” That’s socialism for rich people, she said. Of most concern to Elizabeth Warren, not surprisingly, are the laws that supposedly govern the banking class in this country. The time to take a long, hard look at those laws is now, she said, not only because it would be wise to fix the leaks before the pipes burst again, but because of the lobbyists. “The lobbyists,” she said, “are thundering through Washington in greater numbers than we’ve ever seen before.” Sadly, for all of us, I think, the network news programs in this country aren’t interested in people like Elizabeth Warren, which explains why populist people like me don’t hear much thunder.
But that all changed Friday night thanks to a Harvard law professor named Elizabeth Warren. A few months ago, Bill Moyers had her on to talk about the truly criminal implications – she’s a law professor, after all – of the federal bailout. My impression of Elizabeth Warren was not objective. I liked the fact that she wasn’t slick. I liked the fact that there was a hint of the South and the Midwest in her voice. In the midst of the three- or four-month period where anyone speaking on behalf of the people losing homes and jobs and credit was dismissed by the pundits as “populist” – remember that? – the first time I saw Elizabeth Warren a little piece of me fell in love with her. I’m paraphrasing a bit here, of course, but she looked directly into Bill Moyers’ face and said, The financial system in this country is the biggest crock of shit ever, and that’s exactly what it smells like. The banks are bending the rules as far as they possibly can, freezing credit, raising interest rates, paying themselves outrageous salaries and even more outrageous bonuses while the people truly in need of assistance lose everything. I looked her up and read her faculty profile, but it didn’t say much about her except her teaching schedule and publishing history.
Friday night she was on the PBS program NOW, which I watch only because it bridges the half-hour gap between Gwen Ifil and Bill Moyers. It’s not a bad show, but squeezed between those two, even the most compelling programming is diminished. The theme of the program was how the billions and billions of dollars in bailout money aren’t exactly bailing out those of us who live closer to the bottom of the flow chart than the top. And there was Elizabeth Warren, talking, not just as a Harvard law professor, but as the chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, to which she was appointed by none other than Harry Reid. I realize it’s been busy the past several months, with that child in the balloon, and Jon and Kate, and Michael Jackson, and many other stories, but how did I miss the news that Elizabeth Warren is now not only teaching law but wearing a badge of sorts as well?
Perhaps she’d already been appointed the first time I saw her and I missed the chronology because I was fixated on her words. Perhaps in comparison to all the churning that goes into passing laws, an oversight panel isn’t that big of a deal. I don’t know.
Personally, I’ll take Elizabeth Warren’s dry commentary over the snide hype spewed forth by the know-it-alls any day. On Friday, the NOW host asked why she hates credit cards. Elizabeth Warren does not hate credit cards. She has two, and she loves having them, but she cannot understand why the terms cannot be clearly stated in a page and a half, in print that doesn’t require a magnifying glass. And she doesn’t understand why credit card companies can legally raise interest rates on debt accumulated under different terms. I don’t, either. Isn’t it socialism for the government to regulate pay for private sector executives? Sort of. But the banks aren’t strangers to socialist concepts: they are backed up even when we’re not having an economic crisis by that two-word, trillion-dollar phrase “federally guaranteed.” That’s socialism for rich people, she said. Of most concern to Elizabeth Warren, not surprisingly, are the laws that supposedly govern the banking class in this country. The time to take a long, hard look at those laws is now, she said, not only because it would be wise to fix the leaks before the pipes burst again, but because of the lobbyists. “The lobbyists,” she said, “are thundering through Washington in greater numbers than we’ve ever seen before.” Sadly, for all of us, I think, the network news programs in this country aren’t interested in people like Elizabeth Warren, which explains why populist people like me don’t hear much thunder.
