Another way to restore confidence

Seven hundred billion dollars is a lot of money. It's unprecedented. It's unimaginable.

But that's how much of your money the United States Congress is about to authorize the Treasury to spend to buy up the catastrophic errors of the financial services industry. It has to be done, the lawmakers insist, so the rest of us don't have to spend the next few years living in the first half of a Frank Capra movie.

That's a Great Depression joke, if you're unfamiliar with 1930s movies.

We will leave it to others to sift through the record of the last two years, or ten years, and count up the campaign contributions from the financial services industry that went to the lawmakers who knew something of the scope of this problem and dealt with it by firmly ordering another bottle of champagne for the table.

You can look it up yourself at OpenSecrets.org, if you're interested.

But we would like to make a suggestion to lawmakers of both parties, and both presidential candidates, and the Democratic and Republican House and Senate campaign committees, and the Democratic and Republican National Committees.

Announce today that you will accept no campaign donations or contributions of any kind from the financial services industry. Not this year, not next year, not ever again.

That would go far to restore the nation's confidence that you are appropriating money and writing regulations with the best interests of the country as your only consideration.

Because, you know, that's not what we think now.

We know what you think of this suggestion.

Unprecedented. Unimaginable.

Election Day is coming. Don't send out the laundry.

Copyright 2008

.