(Mis)Representative Ron Kind Smooches And Does Some Heavy Petting With The Big Banksters While Leaving Us Freezing In A Snowbank … Again

When the banks say jump, Ron Kind asks “How high, Sir?”on the way up.

Apparently Rep. Ron Kind so enjoyed voting for you to bail out the crooked banksters in 2008 he wants you to do it again. (Or, at least his Wall Street sponsors want you to do it again.)

While bills to address the needs of working and middle class American families and small businesses languish in congressional committees to never even get a hearing, Ron Kind and his Republican banker pals rushed a lucrative hand-out package to the banks straight through the House of Representatives to a vote on the second day of the new congressional session.

When the banks say jump, Ron Kind asks “How high, Sir?”on the way up.

Just who is he representing?

Wisconsin’s cynical Congressman Up Yours, representative of the dark and deeply treacherous state of To Hell With You, predictably lined up with the Republican House majority to suck what was left of the spine out of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which sought to put some level of accountability, safety and sanity back into the crooked banking system. (Mis)Representative Kind was joined by 34 other bank sponsored Blue Dog Democrats to embed the middle-class more firmly on the rusty hook for the inevitable future bank bailouts to come. (We can assume by that time Mr. Kind will have followed the tradition of the D.C. revolving door into some cushy bankster job by then. Why else would he be such a Benedict Arnold?)

You can read a detailed account of what Mr. Kind’s vote did to put our financial future at risk, here.

To quickly summarize points made by Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), Mr. Kind voted to:

• Weaken the Volker Rule which was designed to prevent deposit-taking banks from making risky bets with taxpayer insured funds. This far-reaching, dramatic provision was rammed through without public debate or review and is guaranteed to pump up the already grotesque profit statements of big banks like JP Morgan Chase and Citibank and guarantee you will pay those banks when they do something stupid, illegal or stupidly illegal, as is their wont.

• Weakens Derivatives Provisions of Dodd-Frank which provided for increased federal regulatory oversight and review of the kind of dangerous and opaque derivatives, like the toxic credit default swaps, that knee-capped the economy in ’08 leaving taxpayers paying out hundreds of billions (probably a hell of a lot more when you consider all the people who lost jobs, homes and retirement savings).

• Undermines Investor Protections. Mr. Kind voted to place investors — including those who manage your retirement funds — at far greater risk by hiding information about investment funds and permitting misrepresentation of investment funds. Mr. Kind’s bill even permits, as Rep. Ellison noted, “… 75% of all public companies to no longer report their financial statements in computer-readable formats.” In other words nobody will really know what you or your retirement fund are investing in. Next time you see Rep. Wall Street at his Annual Corn Roast ask him how intentionally blinding investors works for you. (You never knew exactly  Mr. Kind was actually roasting, did you? Well, now you do.)

Bait-and-Switch

For far too long, Rep. Switcheroo has practiced Washington DC “bait-and-switch” on trusting Third Congressional District voters. This week’s vote for Wall Street hustle was not the first, and will certainly not be the last, in which Kind will betray the good people of the 3rd CD. Expect to see Kind line up tight and cozy with the bank-funded Republicans in the House over the next two years. The Daily Call has an archive of stories documenting Mr. Kind’s true loyalties to Wall Street and big business that you can access here.

You have to know Ron’s true roots

You have to remember that Ron Kind is one of the Honorary Co-chairmen of the Wall Street backed and supported Third Way. This is the same group that almost a year ago slimed consumer advocate Sen. Elizabeth Warren with an error-filled screed in the Wall Street Journal. When asked at the time about his membership in the group, Mr. Kind looked me square in the eye and lied that he had quit the group. You can read about it here. He’s still tapped into the group and this week paid his Wall Street sponsors back.

There is with Mr. Kind — the smiling corn-fed local boy who made good at Harvard — a kind of deeply disturbing level of cynicism. No one works a room better than Mr. Kind; the ever ready, photogenic smile, square jaw, firm handshake and pat on the back. The practiced, reflective look of faux concern. He listens to his constituents and it is all like water splashing off a bird-poop splattered boulder of indifference. The man has his mission. He has received his orders, and trust me, that mission and those orders have nothing to do with you.

Stay tuned. The level of Ron Kind’s betrayal is about to be turned up.

* * *

Here are the 35 Democrats who voted to set up the middle class for bailing out crooked bankers, again:

Brad Ashford (NE-02)
Ami Bera (CA-07)
Don Beyer (VA-08)
Sanford Bishop (GA-02)
Julia Brownley (CA-26)
Cheri Bustos (IL-17)
John Carney (DE-AL)
Gerry Connolly (VA-11)
Henry Cuellar (TX-28)
John Delaney (MD-06)
Suzan DelBene (WA-01)
Elizabeth Esty (CT-05)
Bill Foster (IL-11)
John Garamendi (CA-03)
Gwen Graham (FL-02)
Jim Himes (CT-04)
Hank Johnson (GA-04)
Derek Kilmer (WA-06)
Ron Kind (WI-03)
Rick Larsen (WA-02)
Dan Lipinski (IL-03)
David Loebsack (IA-02)
Sean Maloney (NY-18)
Patrick Murphy (FL-18)
Scott Peters (CA-52)
Collin Peterson (MN-07)
Jared Polis (CO-02)
Mike Quigley (IL-05)
Raul Ruiz (CA-36)
Bobby Rush (IL-01)
Kurt Schrader (OR-05)
David Scott (GA-13)
Terri Sewell (AL-07)
Kyrsten Sinema (AZ-09)
Albio Sires (NJ-08)

Additional Democrats may have initially voted for the bill, only to change their votes later onto prevent it from reaching the 2/3 threshold. Nancy Pelosi, who released a statement criticizing the bill earlier today, likely pressured them to flip their votes.

There is a deep and despicable cynicism at work in the behavior of many so-called “moderate” or “centrist” Democrats. They will vote with Wall Street every chance they get because they get to accomplish two objectives at the same time: (1) please their donors and (2) lower their “vote with party” score. Such purple district Democrats love being able to talk up a low “vote with party” score and a record of “independence.” But that independence normally just means shilling for the rich and the big banks.

Expect them to do this again and again throughout the next two years. Bipartisanship in action.

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