‘Brooks Brothers Riot’ Redux: Those CNBC Traders

--Sure enough--as previously posted--congressional GOP and other Republican spokespersons are coordinating anti-Obama talking points around that odd CNBC rant that got so much cable attention; see below. CNBC employee Rick Santelli, who led that ‘spontaneous’ uprising from a bunch of stock traders on the Chicago floor, was a trader himself before going to CNBC as a media personality. The guys essential to every act of irrational exuberance on the stock markets for the past decade, btw, are not exactly unbiased sources. More importantly, when they get on television, nobody requires full disclosure of any financial interest they may have in topics they discuss.

When I had the misfortune to see that little group action, on cable, I thought it resembled the infamous ‘Brooks Brothers riot’ in the 2000 election. That was the day when a group of vote-counters in Florida stopped tabulating votes, intimidated by a well-organized demonstration of synthetic outrage from a bunch of yuppie individuals who turned out to be Republican staffers and campaign workers. There was a parallel to that one at the time, too: GHWBush’s daughter Dorothy ‘Doro’ Bush wrote in her book that she was part of a similar demonstration yelling for Vice President Al Gore to get out of ‘Cheney’s house.’

Brokers make money from market volatility, because there is percentage in buying and selling, regardless of whether the transaction works out well for buyer or seller. That noise by finance persons against the housing bill might be called many things, but ‘populist uprising’ is not one of them.

See, however, a recent none-too-subtle message re same, from Texas Republican and former Congressman Dick Armey. The email is being sent around under subject line “Join the National Taxpayer Tea Party Revolt.” Full message follows:

Dear Margie,

Last week you may have seen or perhaps heard about CNBC’s Rick Santelli and his report from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, ground zero for American capitalism and free market commerce, where he called for a “Taxpayer Tea Party” in the wake of efforts to enact a new, multi-billion dollar taxpayer funded housing bailout.

If you are like me, you stood up and cheered.

Rick was channeling what so many limited government advocates have been feeling now for a long time when it comes to out-of-control spending on the backs of hardworking U.S. taxpayers to reward the irresponsible and the corrupt: enough is enough!

Whether it’s this latest housing bailout bill (the second in less than six months), a bailout for the auto-industry or failed banks, the more than $1 trillion sham of a “stimulus” bill, or the $400 billion omnibus spending bill that Congress is now debating, Americans are sick and tired of their hard-earned money being thrown around.  In just the last few weeks, FreedomWorks has been contacted by volunteers within the ranks of our own membership (a nationwide network of hundreds of thousands of activists) that want to take to the streets in mass protest to this big government bonanza.

And FreedomWorks is answering the call with a new website, IamWithRick.com.  True to its name, the site features the video of Rick on the floor of the Chicago Exchange and seeks to enlist those concerned taxpayers who want to go to the Taxpayer Tea Party that he talked about this summer in Chicago.  In addition, FreedomWorks is also helping to organize other tea party protests in cities around the country.  Currently, we have events planned in Chicago, Washington, DC, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Fort Myers, Orlando, Greenville, SC and cities across North Carolina.

We need your help to make these events a success.  Go to IamWithRick.com, sign up and select one or more of the tea parties that you would like to attend or help us to organize.  Also, please consider making a generous contribution to our tea party effort.  Your contribution will help us recruit more taxpayers to attend our tea party protests, making them more effective.

Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and the new Obama Administration are running the bailout train full steam ahead towards the destruction of our American capitalist system and ultimately to outright socialism. They must be stopped!

Join FreedomWorks at our taxpayer tea parties taking place all over the country.  Visit IamWithRick.com today!

Sincerely,

Dick Armey
Chairman
FreedomWorks.org

PS: Please consider making a generous contribution to help us pay for our efforts to organize tea parties across the country. With your help we can send a message loud and clear to President Obama and Congress that we are not going to accept their outrageous actions that are bankrupting our country.”