Mitch Explains It All

After getting busted by the President in his weekly address over the weekend, GOP Sen. minority leader Mitch McConnell tried to explain to CNN's Candy Crowley about that little meeting he had with Wall Street execs. He should have kept his mouth shut.

"Did the meeting take place?," CNN Chief Political Correspondent and State of the Union anchor Candy Crowley asked McConnell. "What was the conversation?"

"Well, we certainly didn't talk about blocking the bill," the Kentucky Republican replied. "I don't know anybody who's in favor of blocking this bill."

McConnell added, "I thought [the president] wanted us to have a bipartisan bill. That's what I would like to have. We are in the process of gathering information from people all across the country, from Wall Street to Main Street to try to get advice about doing this right."

McConnell also said that he met recently with bankers in his home state who oppose the current version of the financial reform bill.

Pressed by Crowley about how Cornyn's involvement, at least created the appearance that Republicans were playing politics with the issue of reform, McConnell denied Obama's accusation.

"Well, look, we were talking about financial regulation, as everybody in the country is talking about it," the top Senate Republican said. "Most of the people in New York supported the president, the vast majority of them are on his side. They supported him during the election, they still support him. Is he saying we shouldn't sit down with his supporters and talk about a bill that he thinks we ought to pass and that I think we ought to pass? This is absurd, he..."

"Why was Sen. Cornyn there?," Crowley queried.

"Candy, [Obama] is the one who is trying to politicize this issue. We are the ones who are trying to get it right," he replied.

Nobody's in favor of blocking the bill, says the guy who is leading the efforts of all 41 GOP senators blocking the bill.  They're not politicizing the issue, says the guy saying the bill needs to go back to the drawing board.  That's pretty damned funny.

Hey Mitch, I'm a registered independent in the state of Kentucky, and I'm telling you, you're blocking the bill.  It really is simple:  the GOP is so cocky now that they will gain back the House and possibly the Senate that they believe they can shut down any legislation -- even overwhelmingly popular financial reform -- and get away with it.  I don't think reality is quite that bad for the Democrats, especially if the Republicans keep going down this road.

But the GOP figures you'll vote for them even if they side with the banks, insult your intelligence and lie to you about doing so by telling you they're not in Wall Street's pocket and let the banks off with a slap on the wrist, thus assuring we get another bubble that will burst and wreck our economy time and time again.

It's bad enough that even Candy Crowley is calling Mitch out on it.  The GOP leadership really does think you're that stupid, folks.