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Keith Fimian: Jail the Banking Committee

A House Candidate I Can Support

By: Brian Faughnan (Diary)  |  October 17th, 2008 at 09:23 PM  | 

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Keith Fimian is running to succeed Congressman Tom Davis in Virginia’s 11th District. The most notable thing about his race so far has been the extraordinary attacks that Democrats have leveled against him for being a Roman Catholic. Today Fimian made news with a call to jail the members of the House and Senate banking committees:

Republican congressional candidate Keith Fimian called for members of the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee to be imprisoned for their role in the country’s current economic crisis.

“We can’t even govern our way out of a situation like this without larding up the bill. It’s tragic,” said Fimian. “There should be people indicted and imprisoned that are on the Senate and House banking committees.”

Fimian’s comments were made in a debate against Democrat Gerry Connolly, chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. They’re vying for Rep. Tom Davis’s (R) seat in Virginia’s 11th district.

Fimian couldn’t be more right: there are people on the committees of jurisdiction who knowingly gambled with the nation’s housing system and economy, and they ought to be forced to answer for their recklessness. It’s not too late to call for a special prosecutor to investigate those on Capitol Hill and elsewhere who created this mess. Other Congressional candidates should take a lesson from Fimian, and make this issue part of their platforms.

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COMMENTS

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  • Doc_Holliday

    who actually wants to get something done. What a rare trait in a Congressman. Almost anyone would be better than that RINO Tom Davis, sounds like we are getting a lot better than just “anyone” :) !

  • Flagstaff

    was very good on a related subject–the harm done by thinking that the government does or should run things like the economy, and that they can know what facets of the economy should be encouraged and follow that up with subsidizing them.

    Walter Williams was an excellent guest expert.

    I doubt that a special prosecutor will be appointed, and I know sure as heck that Congress won’t investigate them. After all, passing stupid laws is what they do. McCain could be charged for his work on McCain-Feingold, which has made election campaigning even more of a nightmare than it was before.

  • ETCartman

    Makes me want to move to his district, just so I can vote for him.

    Imagine that, somebody you want to vote FOR, not against !

    • muffhugger

      While extortion is illegal, instilling fear is quite legal if the threat is following the law. It is essentialy extortion for good, and if not corrupted, people tend to be pressured to behave themselves.

      All too often officials get rapped up in the sense of power that certain immunities elected or government employed people enjoy, or protection offered by other relationships. That can lead to violation of the public trust, and examples need to be dragged out into the light and into the prisons to discourage graft.

      Look at Ted Stevens and the Alaskans. They were used to having a sugar daddy from the oil patch. They never imagined Bill Allen with his balls in a vice and DOJ cranking on the handle. And they were making legislation for the benefit of biggies in the Conoco/BP/Phillips/Exxon CEO, pilfering the state’s resources, tax base, and PFD checks.

      They had power and they had no fear that what they were doing was wrong or that they would get caught and or that they would be punished for it.

      Finian has the right Idea. Instill fear of the law, and being caught a real possibility where this stuff just doesn’t go on anymore. Make examples of the perpetrators that are readily available here and now.

      Maybe this could be part of a Republican 50 state strategy, out with the old and in with the new with a vengence. Or as Patrick Fitzgerald says think globally, prosecute locally. Forget cozy symbiotic relationships with questionable or corrupting influences, excise them. Reformers can have meteoric successes in this day and age.

      And why not put the bankers and finance people who caused this trainwreck in prison? If they did it they did it, they blundered in a criminal way. And fraud is rarely or never a victimless crime if it is successfully perped.

      This time there were hundreds of millions of victims worldwide. Forget the Geneva Convention, OPEN FIRE AT THE GUYS WITH THE GOLDEN PARACHUTES!

      • Good_Captain

        I must disagree that appointment of a special prosecutor will not or can not work. I agree that the Congressional majority does not want to appoint one and therefore retains veto power over the appointment of a Special Prosecutor. Still, a Congressional minority potentially supporting this option has an important “card up their sleeve” on this issue – the potential overwhelming support of the electorate who view this not as a partisan issue but a as a fundamental issue of right and wrong.

        If properly set up and boldly proclaimed, this issue would be seen by many as a true investigation into the debacle potentially leading to real answers. I believe this could carry as much resonance as the “Drill now” campaign. As such, Congress would have to decline the investigation at their own peril. Given the Democratic leadership’s recent track record, there is little doubt in my mind that they would intice that peril (at least for a little while).

        This anticipated intragisence (sic), could overnight highlight to the public the real source of the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac and related sub-prime melt down. If done right, this is a “Game Changer”, flipping the public’s general association of the mess w/ the Republicans and placing it squarely where it belongs.

        The key to note is that the benefit is not only months and years later when findings / prosecutions occur but now during the push for the legislation appointing the Special Prosecutor.

        • delphi

          what crime did they commit? (because you have to commit a crime to go to jail.)

          • muffhugger

            Most modern day crime is said to be motivated by money, sex, or drugs. There seems to be alot of money in this equaision so I will call that the motive.

            When the government has to do a bail out to the tune of $700 billion dollars something is wrong.

            My money is on the chance that someon(s) misrepresented the financial condition of their companies or banks or finance institutions. My bet is that at some point they once or several times played this misrepresentation to one or many other people who had faith in the person they were dealing with.

            I would also guess, probably correctly that at some time they typed up a known misrepresentation, put in an envelope. sealed it,stamped it and deposited it in the U.S. Mail. That is mail fraud, a crime, and it probably happened numerous or even countless times.

            It is my guess that there were more than one or two people that knew of the fraud, which goes in to conspiracy and racketeering laws. A little harder to prove, but my money is on that there was concerted actions to misrepresent.

            Then you also have a powerful new enforcement/regulation tool called Sarbannes-Oxley act that deals with securities and retirements and investments and or divestments by those people knowing a fall is imminent. This law was enacted in the wake of Ken Lay, Jeffrey Skilling and the enron/Arthur Anderson debacle. There are stringent reporting requirements uinder this legislation which should be examined.

            When dealing with Billions of dollars it attracts the worst of ruthless people with the most compelling of motives-greed.

            Greed is just some part of one’s human nature and how an individual is suceptible to it is what is the crux of the argument. And again, I wager there is something criminal that can be proven in all of this mess. And that it has nothing to do with any particular political party, but greed.

            Gold Parachute is about greed. The old saying “He who dies with the most toys wins” is not necessecarily true. He who dies with the most toys only just dies. Ask Ken Lay, dead in his coffin, and probably with lots of toys, maybe even the most toys, but is a true loser in Federal Criminal court.

          • charliehall

            Only the Executive Branch can do that.