What no-drama Obama could learn from no-hysterics Eric - Salon

[nashville_brook]

http://www.salon.com/news/wall_street/index.html?story=/politics/feature/2011/09/25/schneiderman


What no-drama Obama could learn from no-hysterics Eric
With mild manners, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman takes a hard line

(snip)

Low-key and boyish-looking at 55, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is the American progressive movement's best and probably last hope for some kind of public retribution against the banksters, some righting of wrongs -- rolling of heads -- as far as the Great Recession. Yet, he is the anti-Spitzer, in style, if not substance. He has none of Eliot's dominating physicality, none of the hawk-eyed vigor of the man striding around town with everyone's high hopes riding on his shoulders, until he fell, quite literally, on his own figurative sword. This reasonable character could not, one hopes, turn out to be Client 10.

Schneiderman, like Obama, comes from the low-drama school of political presentation. He doesn't get red-in-the-face mad. He doesn't seduce. He's earnest and self-effacing and pedagogical. But unlike the president, he has a steady refusal to back down and a ready willingness to fight. He is the antihero that boiling mad progressives hope can manacle and perp-walk those responsible for the financial crisis.

Schneiderman may not disappoint. In an interview with Salon in his office, Schneiderman refused to get specific about criminal or civil, jail time or fines. But he made clear that he has committed time and staff to an investigation with goals that go well beyond extracting $20 billion in exchange for release from prosecution, the deal that his fellow state attorneys general have tossed onto the table down in Washington, and which the Obama administration would like to see him sign.

"The people who caused this crash have to be held accountable and I don't detect any diminution in the desire of the people of New York for that basic kind of justice to be done," he said. "Part of this is to air this out and expose it so we can make sure it never happens again."


(snip)

[Skittles]

1. Eric understands

you don't compromise with rabid dogs, you SHOOT THEM DOWN

[Mimosa]

2. Nashville, the perpetrators of the great theft are immune from prosecution?

No matter which party is in power I'd be surprised if anybody gets hauled to court.

If Attorney General Eric Schneiderman can accomplish any prosecutions he'll be a hero to many but a target for some. I'm thinking Jim Garrison here. ;)

[nashville_brook]

4. on Jim Garrison...for real!

my hope is there's at least the potential for re-regulation based on a thorough investigation + indictments. i think this is the only way for the entire system to survive...b/c as it stands, the parasite is consuming the host. i'm not sure if that's what i'd call a win/win...but it's probably as close as we'll get.

[snagglepuss]

3. He reminds me of Elizabeth Warren and Isabel. Isabel? Who might this Isabel be?

Isabel met an enormous bear,
Isabel, Isabel, didn't care;
The bear was hungry, the bear was ravenous,
The bear's big mouth was cruel and cavernous.
The bear said, Isabel, glad to meet you,
How do, Isabel, now I'll eat you!

Isabel, Isabel, didn't worry.
Isabel didn't scream or scurry.
She washed her hands and she straightened her hair up,
Then Isabel quietly ate the bear up.

Once in a night as black as pitch
Isabel met a wicked old witch.
the witch's face was cross and wrinkled,
The witch's gums with teeth were sprinkled.
Ho, ho, Isabel! the old witch crowed,
I'll turn you into an ugly toad!

Isabel, Isabel, didn't worry,
Isabel didn't scream or scurry,
She showed no rage and she showed no rancor,
But she turned the witch into milk and drank her.

Isabel met a hideous giant,
Isabel continued self reliant.
The giant was hairy, the giant was horrid,
He had one eye in the middle of his forhead.
Good morning, Isabel, the giant said,
I'll grind your bones to make my bread.

Isabel, Isabel, didn't worry,
Isabel didn't scream or scurry.
She nibled the zwieback that she always fed off,
And when it was gone, she cut the giant's head off.

Isabel met a troublesome doctor,
He punched and he poked till he really shocked her.
The doctor's talk was of coughs and chills
And the doctor's satchel bulged with pills.
The doctor said unto Isabel,
Swallow this, it will make you well.

Isabel, Isabel, didn't worry,
Isabel didn't scream or scurry.
She took those pills from the pill concocter,
And Isabel calmly cured the doctor.


- Ogden Nash

[chill_wind]

5. "The markets didn't crash because we were paying too much to teachers."

We can say that again.

"One of the things that concerns me right now is this effort to rewrite history, to move us away from the fact that it was bad deregulatory moves and greedy, risky conduct that caused this to happen and that it wasn't the fault of the teachers and cops and firefighters who now seem to be the targets of this effort to cut spending. The markets didn't crash because we were paying too much to teachers."

I asked, or rather told him, his fight was "dangerous."

"Well, we'll find out, won't we?" he shrugged.

:thumbsup:

For those who didn't see this a little while back, a little more, from DUer WillyT:

NYAG Eric Schneiderman Pushes Back
After being pushed off a national panel of state attorneys general looking into subprime mortgage abuses, Eric Scheiderman is basically telling the guys who ousted him where to file their briefs.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1808188

Good write-up,n_b. Thanks for posting this. I look forward to hearing his name a lot more.

K & R.