John McCain is now shocked, shocked, that there was no oversight of the financial system over the last 8 years, and wants “new rules for Wall Street.”
John McCain was chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, which has as part of its jurisdiction “interstate commerce.” He could have called for hearings any time he wanted to. He didn’t want to.
Now, maybe he didn’t because he didn’t care, or maybe he didn’t because he didn’t want to offend Richard Shelby, the chair of Senate Banking. Ah yes–playing by insider Washington rules.
How exactly is that being a “maverick” again?
(In an otherwise good article today, the NYT’s Jackie Calmes gets spun and excuses McCain because he wasn’t on the Banking Committee. Nonsense. Senate chairs have hearings on all kinds of things whenever they want: that’s what makes the Senate the Senate. Legislation might be another matter. But the fact is that McCain had the subpoena power, and arguable co-jurisdiction, and didn’t lift a finger because he was too busy listening to Phil Gramm.).