Survey Time!
Just a reminder, BlogAds is doing its fifth annual reader survey and we could really use your help. The more we know about you, the easier it is to sell ads and keep paying the bills.
--Andrew Golis
Taxpayers Get Golden Shower
We're focusing today on Mack "MackDaddy" Whittle, longtime CEO of South Financial Group, who pushed 
up his retirement last month so he could cash out with a $18 million Golden Parachute just before sending his bank hat in hand to the Feds to get $347 million in choice Grade A Prime bailout money.
You don't have to know too much about complex derivatives or even simple accounting to know that all dollars are fungible. So the more money out to Whittle is more money needed from the taxpayer to keep South Financial Group on its feet.
But we also know Whittle isn't the only one who's pulled something like this. And we want to put together a list of everyone who has. It doesn't have to be precisely like this. Gazillion dollar corporate retreats while you've turned your company over to the Treasury Department's corporate ICU will do fine as well.
So let us know all the examples you can think of.
Late Update: Surprise, surprise -- turns out Whittle was a part of McCain's South Carolina finance team. And now a shareholder is suing him to cough up some of the loot.
--Josh Marshall
TPMtv: Senator Stevens' Farewell
Indicted, convicted and now defeated, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) made his farewell in the Senate today. We bring you the latest in today's episode of TPMtv ...
Full-size video at TPMtv.com.
--Josh Marshall
Yar!!!
I don't want to draw over-broad interpretations. But historically, the rising incidence of piracy has frequently, if not always, been a sign of the receding reach of whatever great power has taken on responsibility for policing the sea lanes. The decline of the Hellenistic monarchies in the Mediterranean before the rise of Rome. Caribbean piracy during Spain's long slide into decrepitude and before England decided she lost more than she gained from it. There are many examples. I note too that the Russians just announced that they're sending a few more warships to try to get things under control off the coast of East Africa.
--Josh Marshall
Holy Crap
Rep. Henry Waxman (D) has ousted John Dingell (D) as Chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
That's a hugely big deal on any number of levels -- not least of which is the two men's very different positions on energy policy. We'll have more soon.
Late Update: Here's the reaction from a Republican Hill staffer friend of mine -- very sane good guy, but, you know, still a Republican ...
Dude:The day Henry got into this race, this result was ordained.
The differences between the 2 are, as you mentioned, HUGE.
But, honestly, the real story here is Nancy Pelosi whacked John Dingell. She put a hit on him, and it was executed.
The rest of the story takes a back seat to that FACT.
For the moment, I'm still going with 'Holy Crap'.
Late Josh POV Update: My own take is that this is fundamentally Waxman's doing, not Nancy Pelosi's -- though certainly Pelosi could have come out in favor of the incumbent chair (and the principle of seniority) and quite clearly did not. This seems more like their interests being aligned. And off the insidery personalities front, this is a really, really big deal in policy terms. Note too that Phil Schiliro, Waxman's longtime top guy in the House, is now Obama's chief Hill lobbyist. This is more grease on the skids of real change on the energy and environment front.
Later Update: TPM Reader SW does not like it ...
Democrats in Congress have no sense of justice. Joe Lieberman who was rejected by CT Democrats and then rejected the party by undermining Obama during the campaign retains his committee. Congressman Dingell who helped deliver votes for Obama in blue-collar Michigan and has been a pillar of strength in the party for many, many decades gets the boot. What is wrong with this picture?
At the end of the day, I think you simply cannot make the decision on these grounds. But there's no denying or ignoring the very different outcomes.
--Josh Marshall
Election Central Morning Roundup
Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano is reportedly Obama's pick for Homeland Security secretary. That and the day's other transition news in the TPM Election Central Morning Roundup.
--David Kurtz
Need a Catchphrase
In our new economic era, I think we need a new catchphrase for CEOs like Mack Whittle of the South Financial Group, who pushed up his retirement ahead of schedule so he could bag his mega-Golden parachute a few weeks before he sent his company hat in hand to the government for bailout funds.
Total bailout for Whittle's company: $347 million. Total parachute for Whittle: $18 million.
Seriously, what's the catchphrase? Because I think we're going to see a lot of this.
Late Update: The unfortunate truth is that the tried and true 'golden parachute' is an even better name for what these new guys are doing than what we've usually known as a golden parachute. But since that's already taken, we must look elsewhere. The best entry I've seen so far is TPM Reader RB's 'bail jumping.' Or, as I might shift the words around, 'jumping bail.'
Latter Update: Perhaps just TPM Reader LP's simple 'Golden Bailout'?
Late High Altitude Update: A slew of readers mention some play or another on the name D.B. Cooper, which is extremely clever and really captures what the game is, though I fear may be too obscure for the younger set.
--Josh Marshall
Parody Lapping Reality
Last night I was mulling a 'deep thought' post suggesting that GM should just reorganize as a bank holding company and get TARP funds that way. Looks like I snarked too soon.
--Josh Marshall
Not Reassuring ...
From Reuters ...
Citigroup Inc faced a crisis of confidence on Wednesday as investors questioned the survival prospects of the U.S. banking giant, and its shares tumbled 23 percent to a 13-year low.The second-largest U.S. bank by assets has been reeling on concerns that mounting losses from credit cards, mortgages and toxic debt could overwhelm its efforts to slash costs and add deposits. Last month, Wells Fargo & Co dealt a blow by derailing Citigroup's bid to buy Wachovia Corp.
Citigroup shares closed down $1.96 at $6.40 on the New York Stock Exchange and have fallen 33 percent this week as some investors concluded that Chief Executive Vikram Pandit's plan to shed 52,000 jobs and cut expenses by one-fifth won't restore the bank to health.
"People are looking at their business model and wondering how on earth they're going to be able to survive," said William Larkin, a fixed-income manager at Cabot Money management in Salem, Massachusetts.
--Josh Marshall
Latest out of Minnesota
Today was the first day recounting in Minnesota. And Al Franken made up some decent ground against Norm Coleman. The day started with Coleman ahead by 215 votes. And after recounting 18% of the precincts, Franken had picked up 41 votes, bringing the deficit to 174. As you can see, that's about the pace Franken has to keep up if he's going to catch up with Coleman. But of course there's no reason to think that the 'pace' tomorrow will be better or worse than today. So there's still really no telling what's happening.
Another point to keep in mind is that these shifts are in ballots that neither side disputed. In other words, these were changes based on based on ballots where the voter intent was clear enough that neither campaign questioned it. There's a whole other pile of ballots that one or the other campaign challenged. And those won't get looked at until mid-December.
According to the Star-Tribune, Coleman's people challenged 146 today and Franken's 123.
--Josh Marshall
Ted Stevens Concedes
The old rascal finally admits defeat in Alaska's protracted election process.
--David Kurtz
Holder Is No Gonzo
A quick look at what Eric Holder's public statements on the issues swirling around the Bush Justice Department suggest about his potential tenure as attorney general.
--David Kurtz
The Streak Ends
Missouri officially goes for McCain.
And our map is finally completed.
--David Kurtz
The Mandate
Former Sen. Tom Daschle's possible nomination as secretary of HHS is another sign to advocates of heath care reform that Obama means business and will put health care front and center early next year.
--David Kurtz
TPMtv: Just Start Bailing
Bailout duo Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke took to the Hill again yesterday to talk TARP, while the CEOs of the Big Three car companies tried to get in on the action. In today's episode of TPMtv, we bring you the highlights, the lowlights and Ron Paul's quest for gold...
Full-size video at TPMtv.com.
--Rachel Slajda
A TPM Bailout?
No, don't fret, we're not reorganizing as a bank holding company to access TARP funds. And relative to a lot of other companies our finances are holding up well. But we are considering funding our own micro-bailout ... well, maybe nano-bailout, of one small sliver of the financial services industry.
What am I talking about? We're considering hiring a business and finance reporter-blogger. As you'd probably figure, we're not looking to gin up a TPM version of Squawk Box or have some slicked-back-haired right-winger ranting about zeroing out the capital gains tax or yelling about how undervalued the financial sector stocks are. And business and finance news wasn't something I'd really imagined TPM getting into. But we're already making plans to shift a lot of our TPMmuckraker.com resources to muckraking the financial collapse, the resultant bailout and all the shenanigans and self-dealing and new lobbying gambits. One of the things I most prize about TPM is that we've been able to stay nimble and light enough to be able to focus our resources on where the story is. And there's no getting around the fact that this is now where the story is.
We're not going to try to tell you which stocks to buy and, at least in our news coverage, what policies the government should be following. We'll focus on our area of core competence: muckraking ... finding where the wrong-doing is, the betrayals of public trust, particularly where business and finance intersect with government -- as they are now with a mounting frequency. Hopefully we'll also be pulling together the broader narrative that can be strewn about in a hundred different places and difficult to put together in clear view.
Now, I said above that we're considering hiring someone. And I put it that way because when we formally advertise a job listing we're not bluffing. We only list for a job when we're sure we're going to be hiring someone. In this case, we'll still in the planning stages. (I have to think through the finances and how it fits in with the rest of what we're setting out to do editorially this year.) But if this is an opportunity that interests you we'd like to hear from you. We're looking for someone in all likelihood with one of two professional backgrounds. Either someone with experience in business/financial journalism or (and here's where the bailout idea comes in) someone cast off by the rapidly downsizing financial services industry (who knows how things work) and always wanted to get into journalism and finds this a particularly auspicious moment. If you're interested, drop us a line at talk (at) talkingpointsmemo.com, with a letter and resume and the subject line "finance blogger".
--Josh Marshall
Going Greener: Waxman Ousts Dingell As Energy And Commerce Chair
House Dems voted 137-122 today to give the gavel of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee to Henry Waxman over John Dingell of Michigan, who has long been advocate for the auto industry.
CEO Got Golden Parachute Days Before His Bank Got Bailout
While his bank is getting $347M of the bailout, CEO Mack Whittle retired earlier than expected and got a golden parachute free from pay limits.
Ex-GOP Aide Pleads Guilty In Abramoff Investigation
Pakistan Summons US Envoy To Protest Strike
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- Rivals Attend DC Orientation From Undecided CA-04, OH-15
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- Obama May Face Billions In Bills For Extra F-22s
- Consumer Group: Daschle Appointment Breaks Obama Ethics Pledge
- Health Trade Groups: We Could Support Taking All Customers
- Dems Set Dec. 2 Deadline For Big 3 To Offer Spending Plan
- Senate To Investigate Credit Rating Agencies
- Perino: Bush Would Sign Jobless Benefits Extension
- Jobless Claims Jump To 16-Year High
- Bailout Oversight Panel To Include Two Veteran GOPers
- Oil Drops Below $50 A Barrel For First Time Since May '05
- Chrysler Hoping To Revive Merger Talks With GM
- Vet Learns Of Brother's Death In Nazi Camp -- 63 Yrs. Later
- Probe Of AR Dem Chair Slaying Closes With No Conclusion
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- UN Security Council Approves 3K More Peacekeepers For DRC
- China Unveils Wide Range Of Dairy Safety Measures
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