S.E.C.'s Cox is McCain's Target

J. Jennings Moss writes from New York: Chris Cox, the Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, isn't making any friends these days. The New York Sun leads its paper today with the headline "Is the SEC to Blame for the Crisis?" The latest issue of Condé Nast Portfolio has a story called "S.E.C. No Evil."

Media attacks on establishment figures, especially during a crisis like this one, aren't new. But it is surprising that the Republican nominee for the presidency, John McCain, would say that he'd fire the Republican head of the S.E.C.

"The chairman of the S.E.C. serves at the appointment of the president and has betrayed the public's trust," McCain said today in Iowa. "If I were President today, I would fire him."

In the speech tin Cedar Rapids, McCain made some of his harshest comments to date about the financial crisis and Wall Street and Washington's role in it. "Banks and brokers took on huge amounts of debt and they hid the riskiest of all investments," he said. "Mismanagement and greed became the operating standard while regulators were asleep at the switch. The regulators were asleep, my friends, they were not working for you."

Response to McCain from the White House was that President Bush remained a supporter of Cox. And reaction from Barack Obama was a dose of mockery.

"I think that's all fine and good but here's what I think," Obama said, according to the Associated Press. "In the next 47 days you can fire the whole trickle-down, on-your-own, look-the-other way crowd in Washington who has led us down this disastrous path. Don't just get rid of one guy. Get rid of this administration. Get rid of this philosophy. Get rid of the do-nothing approach to our economic problem and put somebody in there who's going to fight for you."

J. Jennings Moss

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