Oh Mr. Breuer you did us so wrong. And you did the right thing when
Max Smith at PBS busted you for your incompetence (collusion?) and you bowed out...and then we all said, "hey, I wonder what he's gonna do next?"
My old civics teacher used to always tell me, "read the papers on Saturday morning, because nobody reads them, and you'll find the juiciest stuff there."
Well, in the internet age with 24-hour news cycles, it's a bit more complicated that. But what better time to drop some ugly news from government officials and agencies than Easter? I always pay extra close attention during holidays and "busy days" to the kinds of news that the mainstream doesn't like to report.
Sure enough, there was an Easter Egg to be found over by the revolving door between DC/Wall Street.
Months ago, our friend Timmy Geithner decided to join the Council on Foreign Relations after leaving the Department of Treasury, signalling a desire to remain in public service perhaps in the future (as CFR is considered just a "think tank" and in the public interest).
But old Lanny Breuer (the guy Frontline busted in an exposé on lack of action against Wall Street criminals) at the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice has no such plans to do so.
Instead, Breuer has decided to join the Corporate Criminal Defense Team at prestigious Wall Street (among other international hotspots) law firm Covington & Burling (the same firm Eric Holder was part of). He'll be earning approximately $4 million a year, far exceeding his meager public servant salary as a protector of Wall Street at the DoJ. I guess he built up a pretty high demand after he padded his resumé with a painfully underpaid public service job.
Thanks to the timing of this press release (a coincidence, of course), this news has gone unreported even at the most left-leaning of blogs and new sites.
The announcement comes as Jack Lew, former Citi banker, has just been confirmed to head the Department of Treasury, and Mary Joe White, white collar criminal defender of JP Morgan, is up for confirmation as the Head of SEC, who JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon called "a perfect choice" for the position.
Thus, Obama has learned nothing from his blunders and continues to nominate the same old crooks to key economic advisory, policy, and enforcement positions. While this is consistent with his questionable personnel decisions ever since he's entered office, the American people's interests will not be well-served with more bankers and Wall Street lawyers in powerful positions in the Executive branch. It's one thing to have someone who understands the system with some light experience early in a career, but not someone dancing back and forth through the revolving door.
But hey, who cares about economic injustice and revolving-door corruption when there's gay marriage, abortions, and guns to talk about, right? We must not let the American oligarchs confuse the priorities we should have about regulating Wall Street, stopping corruption, and fighting inequality.