Re: Evan Bayh announcement: The strangest thing happened on Friday..

[Mike 03]

Do any of you follow the Banking Subcommittee on Bipartisan Banking Rules?

Bayh had called for this session--which was actually very excellent in terms of its quality of information and hypothesizing--but he gaveled in and then promptly left after being thanked for calling this meeting.

It was so bizarre. Now the pieces are starting to come together that something is not right.

Here is a link to that hearing, in case anyone is interested.

http://www.c-span.org/Watch/Media/2010/02/12/HP/A/29502/Senate+Banking+Subcmte+Hearing+on+Bipartisan+Banking+Rules.aspx

Gaveled in and vanished after accepting thanks for putting this thing together.

What do you make of this?

[eleny]

1. How curious

[ChicagoSuz219]

10. Did he say why he was leaving the meeting? n/t

[DJ13]

2. Maybe he had to make a quick run to the bank

Being blackmailed aint cheap, you know.

[Demoiselle]

3. My very first reaction to the retirement news:

Hmm. Somebody must have something on him....

(The chatterers today were alleging that he was leading all challengers by more than 20 points.)

[intheflow]

8. My first thought was he didn't want to perjure himself

before any lobby firms that might want to hire him in his retirement.

[malaise]

4. Did Goldman Sachs make an offer he couldn't

refuse? :shrug:

[spanone]

6. maybe a half-million dollar check under his microphone?

[mascarax]

5. I don't watch enough of these sessions to know, Mike, but

is that pretty unusual for the chair to leave 5 minutes into a session?
Especially with something that is (at least IMO) as "hot" a topic as this?

[karynnj]

13. I have seen chairs leave meetings - including early on,

but there usually is a reason given and apologies to the panel and comments on reviewing it later. Many meetings start later than expected and many things happen at the same time.

[mascarax]

17. Thanks for the response, karynnj

I didn't have time to watch the whole thing but watched thru him leaving, the reference by Corker that Bayh was leaving, and went back (and forward a bit) to hear any missed explanation about *why*...which, of course, there wasn't.

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. Here's a question..

Both Dodd and Bayh are on the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Senate Committee.

Is this a way to shift the balance on these important committees?



Who will replace them on the SUB-Committees they are on?

Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance, and Investment-Dodd and Bayh

Subcommittee on Financial Institutions--Bayh

Subcommittee on Economic Policy-Dodd

( Hugely relevant and experienced Committee Memberships, given the economy)

[HillbillyBob]

11. Some how this all connects

is it connected to this
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/04/AR2009120402016.html?g=0&sid=ST2009120402037
snip
It all began as it ended, abruptly. Kashkari was a 35-year-old business school graduate from a suburb of Akron, Ohio, who had gone to Washington in 2006 to learn how government worked. Then came the recession, and through a freakish set of circumstances, mixing pluck, cataclysm and luck, he was appointed by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson as the federal bailout chief.
Suddenly, he was in charge of $700 billion.

Congress savaged him. Wall Street Journal editorials doubted him. His home-town buddies urged him to use the money to buy the Cleveland Browns and fire the coaches. His wife spoke to him so rarely, she described them as "dead to each other." He lost sleep, gained weight and saw a close adviser, Don Hammond, suffer a heart attack at his Treasury desk. On May 1, after serving seven months under Presidents Bush and Obama, he resigned.

Within a week, Kashkari and his wife put their belongings into "indefinite storage." They moved to a cabin near the Truckee River in Northern California. "Off the map," he told his friends. He threw away his business cards, and made a list of the things he wante
snip
It was October 2008 when Hank Paulson announced that the government rescue operation, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), would be run by his aide, Neel Kashkari. The choice was met with considerable surprise. Who was Neel Kashkari? He was too young, too inexperienced and had ties to Wall Street, detractors said. To some, the appointment seemed all wrong. Critics described Paulson as a "Dr. Evil" figure who brainwashed Congress into giving him unprecedented financial authority so that Kashkari, his "Mini-Me," could distribute it to Wall Street friends.

Overnight, Kashkari became the face of the biggest, and one of the most controversial, market interventions in American history. Even he questioned their chances of success.

The Friday evening he was named, he slumped over a bowl of chips in Bethesda with a childhood friend. He held his head in hands and said: "Dude, tell me something funny."

HOW does it all weave together?
Any one have a clue?

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. Whoa! How the hell did I miss this?

I like to think I keep up, but I totally missed Kashkari fleeing DC.

Whatcha think...there is a quiet exodus going on?

[Delphinus]

15. Sure does

sound like it, doesn't it?!

[checks-n-balances]

9. I'm thinking it's one of three things..

As far as the politicians who are getting out now, imho...

1. It's about being threatened
2. They're being bought off not to run in order to shrink the Dem majority
3. They're getting out before everything collapses (someone else on DU tonight posted this)

That said, the story about the Subcommittee hearing is strange indeed.

[HillbillyBob]

12. If they are being threatened do none have the balls

or the patriotism to stand for their country or are they so craven or greedy?

[Delphinus]

16. Where can I find info on your point number 3?

I'd like to read that.