Cantwell reigns in corporate recklessness and greed
Editor, The Times:
Kudos to Sen. Maria Cantwell [“Cantwell takes on big finance,” NWMonday, Feb. 22]. She is a voice sorely needed to address the reckless and greedy manipulations of the financial system that led to the worst recession since the Great Depression.
The timid measures now proposed will not do. In particular, it’s obvious the Glass-Steagall Act that separated the activities of investment banks from commercial banks was a mistake to repeal and should be reinstituted.
The Times’ article quotes Peter Wallison at the American Enterprise Institute as contending that no evidence exists that links derivatives to the economic meltdown. This reminded me of the tobacco companies, who for years insisted that there was no evidence linking smoking to cancer.
— Dick Gillett, Seattle
Tea party calls to hang Murray
It is unfortunate that someone has gone so far as to “jokingly” say that we need to hang Sen. Patty Murray [“Murray seeks funds for civility,” Around the Northwest, Feb. 19]. However, it does show just how much she has lost touch with her constituents.
I have written to her many times on matters of broad interest and have realized that she and her staff are busy people dealing with important state matters. The occasional replies were unspecific generalizations — form letters, I suppose — explaining what a great job Sen. Murray was doing. They were more like campaign statements, giving the impression that she really didn’t have time to waste on the little people.
— Marvin Hartshorn, Port Orchard
Tea partyers quick to forget
I hear that an organizer of the local “tea party” — where the woman wanted to hang Sen. Patty Murray — says that some of her partyers aren’t “politically sophisticated” or something. Well this Democrat thinks they’re just plain stupid!
These partygoers must have gotten some “funny mushrooms” into their tea if they can’t remember that the major problems our country is facing right now — two wars, unemployment, Wall Street and banking chicanery, housing market foreclosures and the budget deficit, to name but a few — were all caused by the disastrous policies of their guy: George W. Bush.
If these tea partyers want to use movie analogies, here’s one for them: I want Captain Kirk to swing by in the Enterprise and have Scotty beam the whole nitwit wing of the Republican party onto the moon.
As for the bike shop owner who can’t wait for the Obama administration to be done, well suck it up dude. I waited eight long, ugly years for Bush et al. to get finished with their idiocy. If you still want to enact failed Republican policies after all of the Bush crap in the 2000s, I hope you suffer a lot during the next seven years; just like I did back then.
— Matt Andrews, Seattle
Election campaigns detract from getting work done
The article by Ruth Marcus, “No Senate for bold men,” [Opinion, Feb. 19] pointed out the major challenge Congress faces trying to find solutions to our nation’s problems is partisan politics. She said she is optimistic that the decision by Sen. Evan Bayh to not run for re-election may be a wake-up call for the Senate. I wish I could be as optimistic.
Unfortunately, the partisanship we see in Congress is driven more by the desire to get re-elected than any concern to solve problems and getting re-elected is directly dependent on the huge sums of money needed to wage a campaign. Until we change the way political campaigns are financed, I doubt we will ever again see Congress act in a bipartisan manner.
I was optimistic a few years ago when congress passed the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act. It wasn’t perfect, but it at least set some limits on campaign contributions. Unfortunately, that act was gutted by the U.S. Supreme Court when it ruled that money is a form of free speech. Then, this year, the Supreme Court drove the final ‘nail in the coffin’ of campaign-finance reform with its decision that corporations could spend unlimited sums of money on political campaigns.
We have sold our “democracy” to the highest bidder.
— Mark Riebau, Renton