Another prominent Democrat is in serious trouble and is probably going to prison for a long time. I for one am absolutely shocked … that he’s not from Chicago. This particular Democrat, however, is not a politician and is being railroaded by the government – in a comparative sense.
Somewhat lost in the buzz about the FBI taping Illinois Gov. Blagojevich agonizing over the decision of whether he should use Sotheby’s or Christie’s to auction off Barack Obama’s Senate seat, we find this news: Wall Street trader Bernard Madoff has been arrested for running what’s been called “the biggest swindle ever.” This was a fraud to the tune of about $50 billion that threatens to send some annoying, blinded-by-greed Hamptons/Palm Beach socialite types into quick arrears on their country club dues and be forced to lay off their polo pony’s masseuse – but the scandal also has its innocent and undeserving victims.
Madoff, once the Nasdaq chairman (it’s all starting to add up now, isn’t it?), has apparently been getting away with this for decades. While Madoff’s $50 billion scam was ongoing, the Securities and Exchange Commission was apparently focused on finishing up a detailed inventory of Ken Lay’s paperclips. It’s being reported that the SEC arrested Madoff because it was tipped off by his two sons (not exactly Uday and Qusay, are they? Where’s the loyalty, fellas?). These two sons ruined the next Father’s Day by rolling over on pop faster than a plastic surgeon answers the phone when he sees Nancy Pelosi’s number pop up on the caller ID.
What’s not being reported much is that Madoff was a major Democrat donor. In September of this year, Madoff gave $25,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Madoff has also contributed to the man who’s the centerfold in the latest issue of “Smug Congressional Weasel Quarterly” magazine, Charles Schumer, as well as Charles Rangel, the New York Representative who believes that to not waste his constituents’ money is to disrespect them.
But even though Madoff is a Democrat, I’m fully prepared to make a bipartisan gesture and help defend him against these charges by accusing the government of committing the same crime, but under the bogus guise of “helping” Americans – you might call it “immoral equivalence.”
Madoff’s scheme was of the “Ponzi” variety, which the Times Online described this way:
A Ponzi scheme, named after the swindler Charles Ponzi, is a fraudulent investment operation that pays abnormally high returns to investors out of money put into the scheme by subsequent investors, rather than from real profits generated by share trading.
Madoff paid for current excessive outlays by charging it to people who will be “taken” in the future, and the venture never generated “real” profit, but was misrepresented to look like it could create actual wealth. Does that modus operandi sound familiar? It’s a lot like the Democrats, and way too many Republicans, government philosophy. This must be frustrating for Madoff. The government busting you for running a Ponzi scheme is like Madonna accusing you of being skanky.
From the government’s perspective, what crime did Madoff commit? “Copyright infringement”? Madoff’s defense against government charges should be that the $50 billion was just a proactive bailout plan for a makeshift mortgage industry that only finances houses of cards. What’s the big deal? AIG execs are on a beach in Fiji lighting cigars with our money, and Bernard Madoff’s going to jail?
All Madoff really did was start a private-sector version of Social Security, and/or the “government jobs programs” that Barack Obama wants to “create,” and jail is the thanks he gets? Not to defend the guy, but that doesn’t seem right. Either both Madoff and the government should go to jail (preferred), or neither should.
If Madoff was instead one of those politicians he’s been giving money to who are entrenched in Washington, D.C., doing the same thing, he’d be receiving accolades for his years of “public service.” There’s a fine line between “swindler” and “noble and selfless public servant.” That line is called “the Beltway.”
I saw a bumper sticker yesterday that sums up why Madoff is in trouble: “Don’t steal, the government hates the competition.”
Bernard Madoff should either be appointed a high-ranking position in the Treasury Department, be given (or sold) Obama’s old Senate seat, or he should be released from custody. Anything less just doesn’t seem to be acceptable justice in a country where the government commits the same crime and runs free.
