Another one that doesn't do nuance....

As Wall Street lurches through the painful de-leveraging that is necessary to deflate the bubble that has provided 60% of the revenue and 40% of the pre-tax profit for investment banks over the past five years, the big question is exactly how the GOP will spin this, particularly the mouth breathing right. It seems a meme has emerged, namely, that this is all Congresses fault. I'm not quite sure how this squares with the reality of the last eight years of disdain for any sort of government regulation or oversight, but clearly a theme is emerging that someone, perhaps Chris Dodd, should be arrested.

John McCain added this to the conversation:

"We're going to need a '9/11 Commission' to find out what happened and what needs to be fixed," he said. "I warned two years ago that this situation was deteriorating and unacceptable. And the old-boy network and the corruption in Washington is directly involved, and one of the causes of this financial crisis that we're in today. And I know how to fix it, and I know how to get things done."

McCain has made no secret of the fact that he doesn't understand the economy, doesn't particularly care about it, and doesn't have the predilection to spend the time to look into it, as it is complicated business. As Digby notes, this is the man that intends to solve the centuries old conflicts in Western Asia this way:

“One of the things I would do if I were President would be to sit the Shiites and the Sunnis down and say, ‘Stop the bullshit,’” said Mr. McCain.

So, we probably shouldn't expect too much from Grampy McCranky when it comes to an enlightened or nuanced examination of the current tectonic shift in business models that is occurring on the Street. In my own personal opinion, we are reaping the result of eight years of unfettered capitalism, which grew out of the utter disdain that the right has for the notion of government itself. Movement conservatives hold as religion the thought that any regulation, any bureaucracy, any oversight, or any safety net that government would put in the way of the free hand of the markets is anathema, and that any discussion of the appropriate role of our government in checking the excesses of our systems is tantamount to treason.

And where have we ended up? The litany of Bush failures are underpinned by this broken calculation. Katrina, Freddie and Fannie, the subprime debacle, AIG, Lehman and Bear, the misery of the bankruptcy bill, all of these are part and parcel of the anti-government bent that drives their worldview. Along the way, they've been forced to bail out the very markets they swear by, ironically. So you and I will take on the mortgage responsibilities of Freddie and Frannie, we'll lend $50b to AIG, and we'll backstop Bear's losses on behalf of JP Morgan. If GM comes hat in hand to the Fed next week, how can we say no?

Thank goodness he's got Palin on his ticket to work through the complexities.