Arianna on Phil Gramm

Phil Gramm obviously had the quote
of the week. Voters dealing with skyrocketing gas prices and collapsing
home values just love being called "whiners" by a millionaire. This
kind of out-of-touch condescension comes as no surprise to anyone who has
followed Gramm's career. He's left his fingerprints on some of the worst
economic debacles in U.S.
history. He was a champion of energy deregulation, which gave us Enron and
blackouts and price gouging. He was a champion of deregulating the
savings-and-loan industry, the bailout of which cost taxpayers hundreds of
billions of dollars. And his leadership on banking deregulation helped create
the current sub-prime mortgage crisis. Republicans love to talk about Obama's
lack of experience. I'll take fresh blood over Gramm's kind of track record any
day of the week.