Yes I know, Republicans serve big banks, dog bites man, big deal, except I think many people assume both parties do it about equally. What's different this time is the specificity of the connection. Homeowners need help, Democrats in Congress try to let bankruptcy judges alter mortgages, Republicans listen to lobbyists seeking to remove this from the bill, Phil Gramm is one such lobbyist, Gramm works for McCain. That's a few dots, but they're connectible. I'm just wondering if "economic advisor" is correct. I heard he was a campaign co-chair. Sorry, don't recall where. I'm just thinking that sounds like a more direct link.

Fantastic! Love it! Don't even have to read the article.

Next article: John McCain's perineum speaks out against the slanderous language of the Left and their use of the T word.

If you want to write war room articles, can you please post them to war room? I'm sure Koppelman would let you.

Surely something important happened recently effecting how the

world works.

Let's see...

Indonesia leaving OPEC

China asking Japan's to send troops for earthquake relief

Electron avalanche improvements to solar cells

...

I'm sure there's more.

Are you getting bored with your HTWW beat?

sigh

Yeah, I BET his 70-year-old taint is subprime.

Sorry.

Why is McCain's taint subprime? Did he get melanoma there, too?

That's really the answer as to why people in the U.S. are so strangely OK with cutting taxes on the richest, even when they know that it's going to bite them in the ass. There is a pervasive myth in the U.S. that anyone can, with hard work, become a multi-millionaire. This leads to a general belief that if someone is rich, then it's probably because they deserve to be. It's like the lottery. No matter how many times you show them the math, lotto players still think that they're going to win big if they keep on playing. In the same way, no matter how often you show that 95% of the wealthiest people in the U.S. come from rich families, people still think that Horatio Algier was a freaking historian.

Yes, of course, McCain is a corporate shill. You dance with them that brung you, and it's not hard to figure out who's doing the bringing in this case.

So in a sense Koppelman is right — how is this really a surprise? Where's the news?

But the devil is in the details. It's not just that McCain is a corporate shill, in the same way that it's not just that Bush and Cheney are stooges for big business interests.

Lobbyists bring the particular interests of particular businesses to the table, not just general "interest". Think Haliburton, or Enron.

So while, yes, it probably doesn't matter that a corporate lobbyist is one of McCain's policy advisors. But it does matter that it's that particular one, because he's in there specifically to ensure that a McCain administration is candyland for his clients.

So what if john McCain is in the pocket of banking lobbyists? He always has been.

If our media were to try to report on this they would have to do actual research and ask questions.

Much better to continue to speculate on Hillary Clinton's references to RFK, or Obama's wearing of a flag lapel pin... the kind of "research" one can do from the lobby of a Kennedy Cneter concert or White House coctail party or McCain barbecue.

his taint is bound to be subprime

Yes, this is a real story. The question is, how to get traction on it? Everyone I know thinks that some day they'll be in the wealthiest 10% of the country, so they don't look too hard at what that class is really doing. My friends think they can get there by the sweat of their own brow, so they're okay with people like Bush, McCain, Rove, and Gramm erecting barriers to keep other people out.

so how do we guide this conversation in the MSM? The lobbyist thing went really well and forced McCain's hand. I'm still getting emails about it. But I agree this is MAJOR considering the housing crisis' role in our economic troubles and the necessity of effectively dealing with it to dig ourselves out.

Obama mentioned yesterday that McCain's plan didn't even address the housing crisis. Maybe he'll illuminate more this week.

Mostly (unfortunately) I see Dems (obama) allowing the republicans to frame the debate about what is mentioned and what isn't. He fights back fast and hard (I like that), but he should try going on the offensive with things like this. They did a good job with the Lobbying effort and look at how nicely that turned out. McCain is still reeling from it and his campaign is in a mess. This needs to be the next offensive attack. It should be strong and a ugly as the RF Kennedy debacle or Bitter-gate.

Its the ECONOMY stupid and they keep trying to make it about the war and 'national security' (which if they can keep focused on that, they'll fare better).

What can we do to raise this to dizzying heights?