Blabbermouth Schumer: Don’t blame me!
Over the Independence Day holiday, I noted Loose Lips Chuckie Schumer’s appalling leak to the press of sensitive info related to Indymac bank’s financial insecurity. His blabbermouth caused a stampede that led to the bank’s collapse on Friday. Which led to FDIC intervention and taxpayer absorption of $8 billion in Indymac losses. Now, Chuckie’s wheedling: Don’t blame me!
Here are some choice quotes from the Senator as he tried to play the spin game on Sunday:
* “And now they are doing what the Bush administration always does: blame the fire on the person who calls 9-1-1.”
* The Office of Thrift Supervision was “asleep at the switch” when it came to IndyMac’s “reckless” behavior
* “OTS ought to stop pointing false fingers of blame and start doing its job to protect the future of the banking system, so that there won’t be other IndyMacs,”
* “IndyMac was one of the most poorly run and reckless of all the banks.”…”It was a spinoff from the old Countrywide, and like Countrywide, it did all kinds of profligate activities that it never should have. Both IndyMac and Countrywide helped cause the housing crisis we’re now in.”
* OTS is “known as a weak regulator,” and “my job was to try and toughen them up and that’s what I tried to do.”
Good points! But unless the regulators are lying, your letter still started the stampede.
Via WSJ:
Sen. Charles Schumer, hit with criticism from a federal regulator that he contributed to the failure of IndyMac Bank, said he may have caused some depositors to withdraw their money but said he wasn’t responsible for the bank’s downfall.
Sen. Schumer, a New York Democrat and member of the Senate Banking Committee, said IndyMac’s lending practices and lax federal regulation are to blame for the failure of the thrift on Friday.
He said he wrote letters to federal agencies in June, and then made them public, in order to increase pressure on the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Federal Housing Finance Board to conduct more aggressive oversight of IndyMac.
Like I wrote 11 days ago:
Democrat leadership: Not to be trusted with confidential information.
When Chuckie talks, markets balk.
Put those on bumper stickers and don’t forget it.
***
More from L.A. Land and the quip of the day from one of its commenters:
Schumer…The Gloria Allred of Congress.
See what others have said
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Schumer…what an absolute idiot.
Chuckles loose lips is what caused customers to move their assets out…not the Bush administration.
He’s such a tool.
Schumer is a pretty greasy guy. Unfortunately he’s my representative in the Senate and he’s dug in like a dog tick because he must have name recognotion come election time and the plebians don’t know any better. There’s an old saying about Schumer. If there’s a camera around Schumer will bulldoze you to get in front of it.
Was it not the democrats that FORCED the banking industry to give out loans to people they new could not afford them, because if they didn’t they we’re being prejudice against the poor….
He may have caused “some ” depositors to take their money out?…. what a moronic tool!
One more argument for Term Limits for Congress.
Make this an issue in your State elections.
How isn’t this a crime? I know that US Senators are immune from a lot of things when they are speaking in the Senate, but how can leaking confidential information fall into that category?
Why isn’t he facing charges?
pfffft!! He’s a liberal Dim-ocrat. NOTHING is ever his fault!!!
Ahh that’s better.
While it is true that Indymac was in trouble my goodness I can’t think of a more damaging action than a goverment official publicizing the issue in correspondence “leaked” to the public. The amount of capital leaving during the “run” played a substantial part in the federal government having to step in.
I hope that those who lose any % of their deposits sue him personally for liability and that he is charged with obstruction.
I’d like to smack Schmucky Schumer in the face with a cold mackerel. He’s such a pompous gas bag!
My question is, why are the Democrats allowed to get by with so much? What kind of a hold do they have on the people that would bring them to task if they were Republicans? Just wondering.
This weasel should be removed from the Senate banking committee since he can’t stop himself from revealing confidential information.
Come to think of it, is this moron on the Armed Services committee? If so better get him off before he pulls a Geraldo and gives our enemies vital information.
As with ALL Liberal/Fascist Sen. Charles Schumer roams the land devouring what he did not create, dumping on the remains and whining when called on it. The man is a net drain and a parasite on our society and needs to be plucked off.
Perhaps New York could find him a job guarding Senator Hillary’s Lock Box; I think his Pair is in there. Or he might become a lifeguard at Chappaquiddick.
Follow the money.
Ya think some Hedge Funds might have made some serious money off the reverberations from the IndyMac collapse.
Why don’t this guys like Schummer get arraigned and tried. He belongs in jail.
Have we noticed a pattern with Democrats and loose lips lately. Jimmy Carter, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid ……….. feel free to add to the list.
I’m thinking the word TRAITOR needs to be added to the D platform. Right now Obamas lips FLAP and hot mean spirited bile spews out. Who needs it?
Schumer wrecked the bank so his minions could buy up the stock at a cheap price.
This was stock manipulation, pure and simple.
His “blaming the fire on the person who calls 9-1-1″ analogy would be valid if a capitalistic economy actually worked that way, but it doesn’t. If you panic, you self-fulfill the prophecy.
To recap:
* If a State Dept. employee reveals that a war critic’s wife works for the CIA, but not in a secret capacity, then all Republicans up to and including the President must be summarily executed for treason.
* If a Democrat leaks secret information which leads to the collapse of a bank and an additional burden to taxpayers, then there is nothing to see here. Move along.
Got it.
Yeah DirkBelig, maybe it should be called
On July 14th, 2008 at 9:20 am, henryinga said:
Ditto!
If a Republican had said or done what Schumer, Dodd and Conrad have to our country’s banking/financial system, there would be no safe place on earth for them to hide from the excouriation of the MSM!
What’s more, it isn’t just elected Democrats who get a free pass on saying damaging things: just look at how cnbc’s Jim Cramer got away with causing a lot of people to lose a lot of cash with his “sage” investment advice.
If someone at Fox Business News had done something like that, the MSM would not only have hounded that individual out of the finance and broadcast industry, but would most likely have pushed for that person’s prosecution.
It is indeed shocking, and downright depressing, how the American people tolerate this sort of double standard from the MSM.
I’m also tired of the double standards liberals have. Pour it to them Conservatives. We get pilloried no matter what we say, so forget PC and just hit them with everything we’ve got. NO MORE MR NICE GUY.
The sad truth, yet people keep voting for these idiots. Just what will it take for voters to pay attention and get these fools out of office? Or, is no crime too big to excuse when it’s a Democrat?
Was IndyMac the bank behind the “Mortgage Minute Guy”, Roger Schlesinger, that used to advertise on the Salem radio network, especially Hugh Hewitt’s show?
Boy, I tell ya’. I love New York dearly. Every time I get a chance to visit I do. Hell, I’m even a YANKEES and a METS fan. Can’t get a whole lot crazier then that!!! But, could someone PLEASE explain to me HOW you people keep voting for people like SCHUMER, CLINTON, BLOOMBERG, and oh yes SPITZER??? They say you get the GOVERNMENT you deserve, but these NIMRODS???
I’ve been stationed upstate New York in the Navy. They are pretty regular folks, but the population is concentrated in the moonbat/welfare lands near NYC.
NY still doesn’t hold a candle to the land of Markey, Frank, Kerry and the DWI Killer, Massachusetts.
Schumer should resign. He’s trying to turn this into a political issue by saying the administration ( regulators) didn’t do their job. Now lots of investors and some account holders will lose money.
I have emailed a few Republican senators to encourage them to call Schumer to task on the senate floor. I won’t hold my breath. Please email your conservative senators to put some pressure on Schumer.
Why should Schumer be concerned? Most Democrats don’t care what people think of them. Their constituents, for the most part, don’t hold them accountable as long as they pass on the plunder.
The typical Republican, on the other hand, is terrified of bad press or being labeled racist or anti-immigrant. They should learn to counterattack their critics and call BS when appropriate.
When called racist they should explain that they’re actually a Stupidist, and have a problem with stupid people. They should also stress the word “ILLEGAL” whenever speaking about immigration.
Until they get on the offensive, they’ll always be playing catch-up defense.
DBNinKY said,
“If a Republican had said or done what Schumer, Dodd and Conrad have to our country’s banking/financial system, there would be no safe place on earth for them to hide from the excouriation of the MSM!”
Actually, if you recall, Democrats were hysterically up in arms over the fact that George Bush didn’t publicly announce Enron’s impending failure, since Bush was supposed to have had some kind of insider knowledge because he and “Kenny Boy” Lay were friends.
There is always money and power to be made in the midst of someone else’s disaster.
The question is where in this mess?
I do not have that answer yet. But if we pay attention the dots will connect themselves.
Schumer is simply the pawn of the interests he bows to.
Schumer take responsibility for his action? ya right.
let me start over liberal take responsibility for their action? ya right. It will never happen they alway’s play the blame game and the blame never goes to them.
I think you are on to something oldcollegeguy1980. It would be very interesting to see if some financial interests in New York step up to “rescue” Indymark.
Schumer knew what he was doing, knew how to do it, and had reason to do it. It’s unfortunate that his manipulative remarks did exactly what they were meant to do.
It will also reaffirm Schumer’s elitist attitude and distance from his constituants. After all, there aren’t many people who can kill a bank on the opposite coast of the country with just a few words.
Schumer must have known the consequences of his actions and chose to write the letters anyway. Over 11 days, Indymac faced $1.3 billion in withdrawals after the letters were released.
It’s misleading to suggest that the failure of Indymac will cost “taxpayers” money because the FDIC is funded by premiums from banks and from investments in US Treasury Securities. That being said, it will acutally cost the lower and middle class money in the long run because they’re the people who will be effected by increased premiums to the banks.
The FDIC now has to take over Indymac and the deposit premiums for FDIC Insurance will increase significantly. That, in turn, will make loans, etc. more expensive, lead to lower interest rates on savings and CD accounts, and pretty much screw the consumer until the FDIC can build up its reserves again.
The FDIC insures each account at a bank for up to $100,000 (checking, savings, or CD) and some retirement accounts up to $250,000. It has nothing to do w/ securities, annuities, etc that many “rich” people invest in. The increased premium cost that the banks must now pay the FDIC will be passed on to the average American account holder.
For a party that is supposedly the voice for the common people, Schumer has certainly screwed us all.
In every article I read about Chuckie Schumer, I never see reference to the fact that his wife, Iris Weinshall, was NYC’s Department of Transportation Commissioner when the Staten Island Ferry Disaster of 2003 went down.
Eleven people died and seventy-one were injured due to Weinshall’s non-enforcement of Department regulations, and many blamed this oversight on her hiring of non-qualified “patronage” appointments.
Schumer’s wife not only escaped any form of serious scrutiny for her role in this disaster, she continued to sit in that position for another four years without any reprisal for her lax oversight in 2003.
Liberals should remember the case of Chuckie Schumer’s wife, Iris Weinshall, when they criticize President GW Bush for 9/11 happening on his watch. At the very least, they should know about it.
Schumer is not stupid – he’s playing it for all that it’s worth. The people that vote for him on the other hand…..they’re the one’s that are stupid.
Paging the lawyers on this site….
I thought after the Depression they made it illegal to bad-mouth banks. Is/was that true?
Not necessarily an either/or…
I to wrote my Senator’s and asked for Schumer’s resignation.
I am really surprised that people are treating this as politics as ususl.
A Senator brought down a bank by acting irresponsably. He needs to be held accountable in the harshest way.
Senator’s have had to resign for far less.
I am as angy as I can get.
Resign now Schumer. NOW!
I do not think that the Constitution’s clause on Congressional “speech and debate” exempts Schumer from a class action lawsuit seeking damages by the depositors and creditors of IndyMac. In fact, I am sure that this thought has occurred to more than one class hacktion attorney.
chsw (not an attorney)
I agree Schumer should be forced to resign and be run out of town on a rail.
Chucky is such a smuck. An arrogant pompus self hating …He is loathesome.
Charles, Chuck-u, Schumer (as Rush called him), does it again. The world famous check kiter, who’s illegal activities lead to the closing of the House of Representative Bank in the 1990’s, has done it again.
Well done you creep.
I would love to see his stock portfolio, I’d bet he did what he did to increase the value of some stock that he is holding.
I think it is past time that Crooked Chuckie resign from the Senate.
A better comparison, instead of “calling 9-1-1″, try “yelling ‘fire’ in a crowded theater”.
I believe there is a depression-era law against public statements that cause a bank-run. If there is, can we use that? He loves to try to criminalize other people’s private actions, if his public ones are criminal, he should pay…
Or perhaps a civil suit, and garneshee his wages until the $8b. is paid.
What fun!
Good ‘ol AP continues like a left wing blog rather than a supposed credible news source.
I noticed both of these articles (LA Times Blog and AP’s article) posted on Drudge earlier. The LA Times blog noted the facts I read in other articles, while AP’s original article posted two days after the LA Times blog was posted, never mentioned a word about the $1.3 billion withdrawn in the 11 days since Schmuckie ran his mouth in public.
The AP article has since been updated with no notice of the change from the original (business as usual for AP), but still titles it as Schmuckie defending himself.
AP must have noticed both articles were posted at Drudge, and realized they couldn’t ignore such a glaring omission…particularly two days after the Times blog post.
The original AP article seemed as much AP defending of Schmuckie as Schmuckie defending himself.
…especially in his case.
I just sent a letter to him asking him to resign. Like that will happen. I did inform him i would be writing and asking for an investigation into this matter as i feel he caused this and should be held responsible.
If legal charges can be brought to Schumer they should do it. You can’t yell fire in a crowded theatre, and that is what he did.