John McCain's Buddy Got Us Into This Mess

Does anyone seriously think John McCain is the man to lead our country out of financial crisis?

That would be like hiring Bob Guccione to clean up the porn industry.

In fact, one of McCain's best buds is largely responsible for our current mess. Consider the words of syndicated columnist Froma Harrop. She lays much of the blame for the U.S. financial meltdown at the feet of former McCain economic advisor and ex-Texas Sen. Phil Gramm:

On Dec. 15, 2000, hours before Congress was to leave for Christmas recess, Gramm had a 262-page amendment slipped into the appropriations bill. It forbade federal agencies to regulate the financial derivatives that greased the skids for passing along risky mortgage-backed securities to investors.

And that, my friends, is why everything's falling apart.

So the woes of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns, AIG, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers? All set up by Phil Gramm.

The wily Texan recently lost his title of economic adviser after making his fabled remark about this being "a nation of whiners." But he still is the architect of McCain's economic plan--the one that is supposed to lead us out of the very jam that Phil Gramm helped create.

Would you want Evel Knievel to teach your children about health and safety practices? If that sounds like a good idea, by all means vote for John McCain to handle a fiscal crisis that seems to get worse with each passing day.