TX CD 22: If Wall Street Got Drunk, Phil Gramm And Pete Olson Were Tending Bar

By now, you’ve no doubt heard about President Bush’s infamous “Wall Street got drunk” comment at a fund-raiser for Nick Lampson’s Republican challenger, former Phil Gramm staffer Pete Olson on July 18.

It is particularly interesting that Bush would say those things, because Phil Gramm, with Pete Olson at his side advising him, were the ones giving Wall Street pitchers of Panty Poppers well after last call (Seriously, someone should turn those guys in to the TABC). Olson, of course, wasn’t just mopping up the spillage on the barroom floor–Gramm taught him how to mix, serve, and get Wall Street plain ol’ wasted:

“Senator Gramm was a great teacher and a great mentor for all of us. Pete sat at his feet and learned – and learned very quickly.” (Gramm’s former Chief of Staff, Ruth Cymber, Houston Chronicle, January 15, 2006)

Gramm, of course, is a Platinum Sponsor of the current sub-prime lending crisis:

There was little debate on the floor. According to the Congressional Record, Gramm promised that the amendment—also known as the Commodity Futures Modernization Act—along with other landmark legislation he had authored, would usher in a new era for the U.S. financial services industry.

“The work of this Congress will be seen as a watershed where we turned away from an outmoded Depression-era approach to financial regulation and adopted a framework that will position our financial services industry to be world leaders into the new century,” Gramm said.

The Lampson campaign has some very interesting things to say about this:

Lampson for Congress (TX-22) campaign spokesman Anthony Gutierrez said, “The President is acting like a victim of Wall Street and Phil Gramm is acting like America’s pop psychologist.  But the current recession wasn’t caused entirely by Wall Street.  Four dollar per gallon gasoline and the mortgage lending meltdown aren’t the result of Americans’ collective delusion as Gramm suggests.  The proof is in the rising energy costs or the number of foreclosures that occurred over the past year or the pensions that were lost during the Enron scandal.

These things are all directly related to reckless policy decisions pushed by the Administration and Pete Olson’s mentor Phil Gramm.  And whether Pete Olson was sitting next to Senator Gramm or across from lobbyist Gramm, he helped craft the legislation that created these economic woes.

It’s got to be wonderful for Gramm that he’s been able to get his protégé to help continue the economic meltdown he started. He must be so proud.

And, he’s already getting a head start. He’s stuck taxpayers with the $68,057.80 per-hour bill to bring the President to town for a fund-raiser–while Air Force One sat idling on an airport runway for three hours.

Oh, and did we mention that Olson has some very, very, very close ties to Tom DeLay? See Burnt Orange Report for more on that.