How Congress Occupied Wall Street

by Sarah Palin - November 18th, 2011 - Wall Street Journal

Mark Twain famously wrote, "There is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress." Peter Schweizer's new book, "Throw Them All Out," reveals this permanent political class in all its arrogant glory. (Full disclosure: Mr. Schweizer is employed by my political action committee as a foreign-policy adviser.)

Mr. Schweizer answers the questions so many of us have asked. I addressed this in a speech in Iowa last Labor Day weekend. How do politicians who arrive in Washington, D.C. as men and women of modest means leave as millionaires? How do they miraculously accumulate wealth at a rate faster than the rest of us? How do politicians' stock portfolios outperform even the best hedge-fund managers'? I answered the question in that speech: Politicians derive power from the authority of their office and their access to our tax dollars, and they use that power to enrich and shield themselves.

If you wonder why so many Republicans who claim to be conservative joined in the Alinsky smears of Sarah Palin, this article will tell you why. Sarah Palin is not a part of the inside the beltway corrupt crony capitalist wing of the Republican Party. She is in fact its enemy. I find it amusing how many of these Republican insiders sneer at Palin's efforts to make money legally (writing and speaking) as profiting from her popularity, when at the same time they secretly profit from insider knowledge and special consulting.

Okay. I know that is smearing everyone with a broad brush. Yet I find it hard to see it as anything but true.

At this very moment one of the lead stories gaining attention is how Newt Gingrich secretly received $.18 million from Freddy Mac. Is there any organization less compatible with conservative values than a giant corrupt financial institution that has lost trillions of American tax payer dollars throwing money at the consequences of a tax law created housing boom that destroyed the value of the primary investment vehicle of the average American, their home?

First they pass a law insisting that banks had to loan to minorities even when they were not capable of repaying the loan. Then they pass a law insisting that any profits from capital gains were taxed at vastly lower rates than dividends. Next they allow bundling of mortgages to be treated as low risk securities in the classic scam that was last tried during the great depression. Voila. A boom and bust cycle that leaves America destitute and creates a recession.

What on earth would persuade anyone that Newt Gingrich was not doing as Freddy Mac insisted, 'consulting' on how to keep Republicans on board with the sub-prime mortgage scam?

Yet Newt Gingrich is the new hot Republican candidate, surging to the top. His previous narcissistic behavior, his support for global warming against all logic, his ability to take any side of any issue and tout brilliant explanations of why he is always right, his incompetent management of his own campaign, his smearing Clinton for sexual transgressions while he is at the same moment cheating on his wife, his secret profiting from insider deals - all these horrible flaws are forgiven. No one cares if he is proven to be a corrupt crony capitalist who got on the government gravy train to self enrichment.

How can this be? How can someone derided as being stupid, such as Sarah Palin, see the obvious corruption when so many Republicans cannot? Is it because they are "brilliant" like Newt Gingrich?