Conway Takes Liberal Stand on Principle

Are you searching for a reason to vote for Jack "I really don't want to run again" Conway? Here it is.

From Firedoglake:

The latest AG to stand with Schneiderman and against the attempts to whitewash the fraud of the big banks is Kentucky AG Jack Conway. He is up for re-election this year, and is known nationally by virtue of his unsuccessful challenge to Rand Paul for Senate in 2010. Conway, in conjunction with the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, sent an email to supporters aligning himself with Schneiderman.

The same Wall Street banks whose irresponsible actions led to our nation’s economic collapse are now pressuring all 50 states to give them legal immunity. The banks want to block any criminal or civil accountability for actions that have yet to be investigated.

Attorneys General from Delaware, Minnesota, Nevada and New York have been fighting back. Today, I want to make a clear statement in support of Wall Street accountability and against immunity for banks — and I ask you to join me on this statement:

“Today’s economic crisis was caused by Wall Street acting improperly. Every American has paid the price — with families losing their homes, investors losing their money, and many Americans losing their jobs. There should be absolutely no criminal or civil immunity given to banks for activity that has not yet been investigated.”

Several things are important here. Kentucky didn’t really have a big housing bubble – Conway is supporting this on principle, rather than in service to a wide swath of dispossessed and struggling borrowers who are victims of fraud. Second, he writes this in the context of an election which has tightened up minimally. So he obviously finds this to be a winning issue on the campaign trail. Third, it would be tempting to just ignore a proposed settlement that isn’t going to happen. Conway sees political advantage in stamping on this process, which is already flailing.

The PCCC put this out with a petition, getting supporters to sign on to Conway’s vision that there should be no liability release without an investigation. Conway becomes at least the sixth AG – joining Schneiderman (NY), Beau Biden (DE), Martha Coakley (MA), Catherine Cortez Masto (NV) and Lori Swanson (MN) – in objecting to a settlement without proper investigation.

I think this may be the first time in Jack's career that he has taken a liberal stand on principle. Maybe he's finally figured out that there's a giant pool of Democratic votes out there just waiting for someone to show some spine. Or maybe he doesn't realize that Schneiderman is on the side of the dirty fucking hippies.