"Friends of Fraud"

On Friday, forty-three Senate Rethuglicans sent the White House a letter threatening to filibuster the appointment of the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, in the wake of the three Rethuglican hacks' DC Circuit's ruling that President Obama's recess appointments violated the Constitution (and since they've been newly empowered by Sen. Harry "Bending" Reid's craven capitulation on filibuster reform -- thank you again, asswhistle!). Paul Krugman takes a look at what the Rethugs are up to:

"What Republicans are demanding, basically, is that the protection bureau lose its independence. They want its actions subjected to a veto by other, bank-centered financial regulators, ensuring that consumers will once again be neglected, and they also want to take away its guaranteed funding, opening it to interest-group pressure. These changes would make the agency more or less worthless — but that, of course, is the point.

"How can the G.O.P. be so determined to make America safe for financial fraud, with the 2008 crisis still so fresh in our memory?"

What we're seeing is par-for-the-course behavior by the extortionists and crooks running the New Confederate/ Rethuglican party. After all, the bankers are the makers (you know, of wealth, campaign contributions), while the low-and-middle income folks are the takers. It's just another variation of the "I've got mine, you're on your own" philosophy that fuels the cynical Randian social Darwinist ideology of the right. And the Rethugs in the halls of power don't really give a damn who gets cheated as long as they're serving one of their primary interest groups.