Pelosi aide calls '60 Minutes' report a 'smear'

[alp227]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's office accused the news program "60 Minutes" of omitting key information from its report Sunday on how members of Congress use privileged information to profit from stock trades.

Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill also called the report "a right-wing smear" based on a new book by conservative author Peter Schweizer of the Hoover Institution, a think tank based at Stanford University. The book is titled: "Throw Them All Out: How Politicians and Their Friends Get Rich Off Insider Stock Tips, Land Deals, and Cronyism That Would Send the Rest of Us to Jail."

Pelosi, a San Francisco Democrat, was highlighted in the report along with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., among others.

In an interview Monday, Schweizer said the "most egregious" allegations of insider trading concerned Bachus. At the height of the 2008 financial panic, Bachus participated in private briefings by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson warning that the financial system was about to collapse.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/15/MNIV1LUUBG.DTL

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Article of report "Congress: Trading stock on inside information?"

[ixion]

1. Yep, this is one of the things that the Occupy Movement is about

[atreides1]

2. There's an easy fix

Have her introduce legislation that will repeal exemptions that are enjoyed by members of Congress...so they have to follow the same laws that apply to all Americans!

I know...monkeys will fly out of my butt first!:banghead:

[Uncle Joe]

11. This sentence should be the "Prime Directive" of the United States.

Have her introduce legislation that will repeal exemptions that are enjoyed by members of Congress...so they have to follow the same laws that apply to all Americans!

[sarcasmo]

12. She won't do that, how else would you turn 170,000 into millions.

[Merlot]

15. They already tried that - you can guess the results

For now, it's legal.

[EC]

3. Not a word back in 2007-2008 when Claire McCaskill

was saying that Bill Frist and his group would run to their offices and call their brokers after they passed Legislation that would affect stocks.

[global1]

4. And How Do The Brokers Of Those In Congress Handle This Info?....

Seems to me if a broker got a call from a Congressman/woman to buy or sell some stock - they would put in the order for them and then put in the same order for themselves. How many of these brokers also benefited off of inside information they learned about from Congress and became rich themselves. I don't think that this stops at the broker. I'm sure that info is passed up the system and lots of people are prospering off of the info these Congress people pass on.

This needs to be stopped. They need to remove the exemption from Congress and make sure all their money is put in blind trusts. Now the picture is becoming clearer why people spend so much of their own money to get a seat in Congress. I guess some crimes do pay.

[EC]

6. You're right... n/t

[closeupready]

8. Ding, Ding, Ding!!!

nt

[cstanleytech]

10. And what about spouses? Dont get me wrong I would love if there were curbs

put into place to cover this problem but can it be done in such a way that doesnt carry a high risk of being thrown out of court?

[wordpix]

17. +1000

[slackmaster]

5. It definitely didn't go far enough

If the whole story was told it would have been a nuclear smear.

[closeupready]

7. So, Nancy, then co-sponsor the Stock Act, and unsmear yourself.

nt

[bvar22]

9. I don't know how much of a "smear" it was,

...but Pelosi was Tap Dancing her ass off to avoid answering direct questions.
She didn't come off very well at all.

She looked frightened, defiant, and arrogant.



You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.
Solidarity99!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Dover]

13. Yep, her face and body language told the truth while her lips lied...n/t

[Merlot]

14. I disagree. It looked like the Kroft was accusing her of giving favors

to the CC companies through legislation. His question was poorly worded and sounded like he was accusing her of selling out to the CC companies.

What she (and the other critters mentioned) did was legal – that is another issue altogether. And the issues was brought up - you really think they're going to vote against this?

Honestly, this is a rabble rousing, "hate the government" throw the bums out type of issue brought to us by a conservative repub.. The agenda here is pretty clear.

Until this practice is illegal, it makes more sense to focus on BIG issues, like getting money out of elections.

[wordpix]

18. considering that working people have their retirement $$ in 401K's & the like, this IS a big issue

If you're going to invest, you want to invest where there's a fair system and fair value for what you're investing in, and not invest in a casino type market where the House wins 90% of the time, and your investments tank most of the time. This is a huge issue. As for me, I'm out of the stock market b/c it's too much of a casino. The fat cats get richer and the working people get poorer. That is no investment for me, and it's one more thing that is ruining the country.

[Merlot]

19. If this were illegal, would it put more money in my 401K?

No.

There is no correlation between what the congress critters do with their investment dollars and how much money is in the working peoples 401K. It wasn't the congress critters investments that brought down the economy.

[wordpix]

16. more reasons why people should not invest in the stock market

How much more evidence do people need to know the deck is stacked against them and the House holds all the good cards, always?

:grr: