Maxine Waters & Goldman Sachs- Just What is Your Point, Ms Waters?

Cross-posted by Gary Fouse
fousesquawk

Sadly, there is a certain amount of poison going around the Internet about "The Jews on Wall Street who are behind" this whole financial catastrophe. Certain elements in the Middle East are also pushing this theory for their own obvious purposes. The Wall Street Financial firm of Goldman-Sachs (with a strong Jewish history)is the target of a lot of these anti-Semitic accusations. It appears that Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) may be buying into this stuff as well. Last Tuesday, Waters was grilling Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner-specifically about Goldman Sachs. In her questioning,......well, as Jeno Leno would say, "here, take a look at the tape."




First of all, Waters has two absolute defenses in that:

1 She never mentioned the word, "Jews".

2 She is basically an ignorant woman.

But she is a congresswoman and wields a certain amount of power, which she has not hesitated to abuse over and over again. She also has a reputation for playing racial politics, so I think it is fair to ask, just what is it you are getting at Ms Waters?

Did you note the manner of how she formulated the questions? First of all, it is clear that Goldman Sachs was the focus of her questioning. Waters was obviously fixated on Goldman Sachs. Without naming names and sources, she referred vaguely to "linkages" and "connections" and "a small group of Wall Street types" making decisions. She referred to "the talk underneath", "people are thinking", and "you hear a lot....".

Ms Waters, who is talking "underneath"? Underneath what? What people are thinking about "the small group of people" on Wall Street? What linkages and connections are you talking about? Why are you so fixated on Goldman Sachs?

Is it "those damn Jews" again, Ms Waters?

If Maxine Waters is prepared to make charges of illegality on the part of Goldman Sachs and its officers, she should do so. But for a congresswoman to sit up there and talk vaguely about "linkages", "connections" and "you hear a lot about" is pretty irresponsible, in my view. She is feeding into a dark undercurrent because she knows that her viewers and supporters are making inferences. She knows the game because that type of talk has been historically used to imply negative thoughts about blacks.

But what can one expect from Maxine Waters?