Yes Virginia, there is greed on Wall Street, but, last I checked, it’s still a crime to commit fraud on both the rich and/or the poor.

When the government sets up a “snake oil” enterprise, all the people, both the rich and the poor, who are represented by this government, are responsible for the actions of their respective “snake oil” representatives in making good on their claims, so don’t think of this as a bailout, but rather restitution.

I realize that restitution requires assumption of responsibility, and responsibility seems to be the most difficult concept for any public official (and the public, rich or poor) to assume.

This is why voting is a function of civil society that infers duties and responsibilities on both the electors and the electees.

I agree that the Democrats bear the lion’s share of responsibility for this fiasco, which is why I posted the video at my own site. But bear in mind the date: Republicans had the majority of both houses of congress at this time. Unless someone can show that Democrats were through filibuster or some other means able to block a reform bill, I can only assume the Republicans had enough votes to pass one, but not enough Republicans cared. They were thus satisfied to let the situation fester, in spite of the pleas of their party colleagues for reform.

Those of us with Republican representatives and senators who were there when the various reform measures came up need to hold them accountable, too. We should demand to know where they stood on the matter what they did, if anything, to help fix the problem.

This mess represents a colossal failure of responsibility on the part of congress, and no one should get a free pass. No one.

And when Election Day comes, let’s make sure we let our friends know which of the two tickets is the only one that tried to fix the dam before it burst and is the only one likely to do what it takes to fix it in the future.

This video from House hearings in 2004 on the accounting problems at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shows two things over and over: Republicans aghast at the problems with accounting and other financial practices at the two agencies, and Democrats…