Perspective

Today I woke up to reports that Treasury Secretary Geithner had shouted down David Axelrod in a meeting last night, insisting that the plan for disbursing the next $350 billion (a figure that shouldn't seem as small as it suddenly does) of the TARP funds couldn't come with any strings attached. Or at least that's what it sounded like to me.

And I was pissed.

I was shouting in the car, calling for his resignation. I was seething throughout the day. I had time for a quick peek at HuffPo on my way out of the office, where I read Cenk Uygur's insightful column. I read the first few comments--never a good idea--and found myself in an echo chamber of my anger at Geithner. I needed to shut down my computer, but--inspired by fellow angry people--I went to Whitehouse.gov and fired off a diatribe against Geithner. I was going to print it here, but I don't want it end up forwarded throughout the right-wing blogosphere as their new manifesto.

Especially because now that it's past my bedtime, I've actually read what was released today (and Paul Krugman' s blog on the subject) and I'm just not as angry. Sure the plan's a little vague, but it's more than we ever got from Paulsen & co. And from what I can tell, the $500K pay cap still applies, along with other regulations on allowable dividends and mandates for transparency. Now, I'd still like to see us nationalize the banks, the auto industry, and the airlines, but I'm just one pinko commie radical howling at the moon. It might not be what I'd do, but it also might not be as bad as I thought.