Paging Eliot Spitzer

OK, enough with this amateur shit. You want the bank bailout fiasco handled by somebody who knows that the first step in dealing with Wall Street is to get their attention by smacking them upside the head with a two-by-four?

Then get the guy who used to smack Wall Street around for a living.

We deserve a Treasury Secretary who hasn't been a player in Wall Street's lifestyle of bonuses and legalized corruption. Nobel Prize winning economists Joseph Stiglitz or Paul Krugman would be strong choices; yet they are increasingly valuable as watchdogs and constructive critics working outside the Administration. I've also thought that Obama would be smart to promote former Economic Policy Institute Fellow Jared Bernstein, who is currently serving as Biden's chief economic adviser.

Then there's a novel idea. Why not bring in the man who took on Wall Street and AIG long before it was trendy? Eliot Spitzer. Call me crazy. But he foresaw the bubbles and disasters resulting from deregulatory frenzy and the financial service industry's creation of toxic credit default swaps and derivatives. As the Sherriff of Wall Street, Spitzer launched investigations and lawsuits deploying the creative cudgel of the previously-obscure 1921 Martin Act. Yes, he acted miserably toward his wife and family and he should pay the price for that. But some believe Spitzer was taken down by certain "masters of the universe" seeking vengeance for his aggressive policing of their financial fraud and corruption.

In his first television interview since resigning as Governor, on CNN"s Fareed Zakaria's "GPS" program, Spitzer offered a compelling analysis of how we got into this mess and spoke clearly about the need for new regulations to rein in Wall Street's "recklessness and greed." He criticized Wall Street's former masters for their "hot dog cowboy mentality which leveraged everything up." (And he praised old fashioned Wall Street types like Felix Rohatyn for not falling prey to that mentality.)

While acknowledging the outrage of AIG's bonuses, Spitzer focused on the larger outrage: the use of billions in taxpayer dollars to prop up AIG and various counterparties, including Goldman Sachs (which received $12 billion plus of the government's original infusion). He also castigated the media, including CNBC, for failing to ask the tough questions, and the SEC and other relevant government agencies for lacking the will and creativity to do their job. When asked about how he'd handle the legal issue of retrieving AIG 's bonuses, Spitzer referred to tort law and the theory of unjust enrichment--along with other creative ideas--to get justice for taxpayers.

Spitzer took on Wall Street's metastasizing corruption before the meltdown. He defended consumers' and taxpayers' rights. He speaks with passion and clarity about what went wrong and what needs to be done to restore integrity to our system. He is chastened by personal scandal, yet untouched by complicity in Wall Street's public scandals which have obliterated peoples' savings and devastated our country.

Spitzer for Treasury Secretary?

Read the whole thing.

Actually, fuck the Treasury Secretary. Make Spitzer the Wall Street Czar. Give him the power to match his experience and knowledge, to decide who gets nationalized, who goes bankrupt, who pays back bonuses, who has to disgorge profits hidden overseas and who goes directly to jail.

Who better to sort out whores than somebody who knows from whores?