One Lie He Didn't Tell

On the wire services today, we read that the Obama team has selected "Chicago businesswoman" Penny Pritzker to head his Commerce Department. Oh, she's a businesswoman? What business would that be?

Could this be the Penny Pritzker who sat on the board of Superior Bank, the same Superior Bank that collapsed and sucked down about $800 million taxpayer dollars? What happened there is instructive, but not surprising. In a 2002 report FDIC Inspector General Gaston Gianni Jr. wrote, “the failure of Superior Bank was directly attributable to the Bank’s Board of Directors and executives ignoring sound risk management principles.” Sounds serious, all right. What was the end-game?

The Pritzker family paid the FDIC $460 million to end the investigation and sidestep a possible crminal investigation. This was a bit more than half what the Superior Bank fiasco cost the FDIC and, by extension, you and I. Naturally, Penny and the rest of her family lived out their remaining years in seclusion and shame.

Just kidding! They have no shame! Penny has worked as National Finance Chair of Barack Obama's presidential campaign for more than a year. Good choice; if anyone knows how to squeeze money out of the taxpayers and walk away without conscience, it would be Penny.

Getting back to the lie that Obama didn't tell: At least he didn't claim his adminsitration would be "the most ethical in American history."

Update: Over the weekend came news that Pritzker was just a trial balloon, testing the waters, feeling out the zeitgeist, and wondering just what they could get away with putting over on us. New Mexico governor Bill Richardson is the actual choice for Commerce, it seems. Perhaps the Obama administration will hire two press secretaries, so they can pronounce competing visions on each issue. Dee Dee Myers and George Stephanopoulos may be busy, but I'm sure someone else will step forward.