Carl 'Scat Mouth' Levin and the Goldman deal

Charles Hurt:

Carl "Shi- -y Deal" Levin knows one when he sees one.

And when he finds a shi- -y deal, he likes to repeat "shi- -y deal" again and again and again. Eighteen times, to be exact.

Casual observers may have been startled to hear a United States senator -- complete with silver comb-over and half-glasses perched on the end of his nose -- repeatedly say "shi- -y deal."

Levin was just so excited, he was like a pig in, well, you know.

In fact, Congress peddles shameful "deals" involving amounts of money so obscene, they would make a member of the Goldman Sachs compensation board blush.

Take Fannie Mae, the shameless pusher of reckless housing loans that made Congress feel good by "helping" the poor but led to the financial meltdown and left taxpayers on the hook.

Or, as Levin put it, "an American symbol of financial success and affordable housing."

Now, that's putting lipstick on a pig.

Then there is the recent legislation intended to lower health-care costs and reduce the federal debt, which the Michigan Democrat also supported.

The government's own accountants say it won't lower health-care prices and it is projected to cost a trillion dollars. That's savings only Congress could comprehend.

...

Levin abused his position as chairman of the committee by his repeated assertions from an email that reflected one person in Goldman's opinion about a deal and not what the company thought of the deal. There are always going to be varying opinions of investment quality. That is what makes some people buyers and some people sellers.. The monumental ignorance about finance reflected by most of the senators yesterday should make it clear that a bunch of amateurs are trying to impose new regulations on an industry they do not have a fundamental understand of.