Well, this is kind of embarrassing for a sitting member of Congress who just participated in a major financial reform overhaul.
Earlier this year, as the financial reform debate was taking shape in D.C., one idea on the table, promoted by U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell and U.S. Sen. John McCain, was reinstituting the Glass-Steagall Act, a Depression-era reform that put a firewall between Wall Street investment banks and Main Street commercial banks....
On Saturday, Rep. Reichert, for his part, was caught at a candidate forum at the Newcastle chamber, clueless as to what Glass-Steagall even is....
Question from the audience: “I agree with you that overregulation is not a good thing, but do you think that they should reinstate The Glass-Steagall Act and at least separate the banks’ ability to gamble with our money?”
Reichert:
“Well, the Glass-Steagall Act is one that I’m not familiar with. I’m sorry I have to go back and look at that, but I do agree it’s something that we haven’t dealt with on the House side in committees that I’ve had, so I’d be happy to look at that and come back and give you an answer on that.”
Watch (and note what sounds like an incredulous laugh when Reichert admits his ignorance):
And that's after the questioner gave him a big fat clue: "at least separate the banks’ ability to gamble with our money?” Not to mention the months and months of debate over financial reform in Congress this year, which Reichert seems to have missed. Maybe he was just waiting for his leadership to tell him how to vote and not really paying attention to the debate.
In contrast, here's Dem candidate Suzan DelBene back in June in an interview with PubliCola, arguing for a modern version of Glass-Steagall."
We could help raise the IQ in the House at least marginally by booting Reichert and by helping Suzan DelBene get to Congress.