Oh please. I am as Republican as it gets but bad guys are bad guys no matter who blows the cover on their active or passive malicious self angrandizing behaviour. Focus on the corporate theives who rob our economy and industry of jobs, wealth, equity, tax base and other other hard won ecconomic gains.
There was obviously wrong doing going on with regard to bid rigging. However, it’s been totally blown out of proportion from there. Many have lost and will lose their jobs as a result of Spitzer’s over zealous attacks, which probably were politically driven. Many hard working people have lost half or more of their retirement. I feel for those about to retire, who now may not afford to do so due to huge drops in stock prices in the industry. What may have started as bid rigging in a small circle, has developed in to nothing short of the McCarthy trials of years ago. And for that, Spitzer should be ashamed.
Its not Spitzer’s fault that wrong was done, jobs lost, retirements impacted. Had Hank and now the other two who have “taken the 5th” done right Spitzer would have never had anything to spotlight for moral, ethical, legal or political reasons. What are people like Spitzer and others of us who believe in our industry and right acting people supposed to do? Look the other way and let bad guys continue because we don’t want to be political? Cost jobs? Retirement? The bad guys are the perps and they should do the perp walk. Too bad they take so many down with them.
Noting that your points are driven by a heavy partisan hammer, I’d ask that you stop and consider whether you are either a tax & spend democrat, a borrow and spend republican or an American under attack from both sides.
That’s the decision…
It’s obvious that Minarik is obsessed with borrowing against our future at the expense of common sense, reason and a balanced checkbook.
FIRST, it is illogical to blame Eliot Spitzer for doing his job by fulfilling his job as attorney general. I for one am tired of elected officials standing idle while the average citizen is being suckered and robbed! Pataki’s track record as NY Governor speaks for itself–and unfortunately it has not said much.
It is really simple…when you do a good job in your current post, you should be credited and promoted (Spitzer). When you do a bad job or nothing at all, which is equally as bad, you should be relieved (Pataki).
I am just glad that the truth is finally reaching the masses. The Greenbergs are corrupt crooks! I will not be satisfied until criminal charges are brought against, at the very least, AIG Greenberg and Marsh Greenberg. DON’T BLAME SPITZER FOR THEIR INDIVIDUAL ACTIONS. HE IS SIMPLY DOING HIS JOB.
PS. I want to thank RolfNeu and Jom Howse for their logical input.
Finally we have an Attorney General who performs his duties to ferret out criminal activity and corruption and he becomes the target of a smear campaign by Republicans to discredit his effforts or motives.
It is not Spitzer’s fault that the companies and individuals he takes to task turn out to be ‘guilty as hell’. While they never admit to any wrongdoing, they have all bellied-up pretty quickly to pay huge fines to avoid further protracted litigation. You know these guys wouldn’t be paying millions and even billions if they thought they could beat the charges in open court.
Eliot Spitzer is not the one killling off jobs in New York or anywhere else. It is the corrupt and unethical management of these companies that has jeopardized the jobs of honest workers.
Attacking Spitzer’s strongest point is reenacting Pickett’s charge at Gettysburg. The result for Republicans will be the same…embarrassing defeat. Republicans in NY should start making their case by returning to conservative policies that always work…lower taxes and rational regulations. They will then be in a position to contrast their vision with Spitzer’s more liberal view. Comew on! This is basic stuff, guys!
Wouldn’t it have been nice if Spitzer actually took these cases to trial, instead of trying them in the press (which he controls very well). Bid rigging made great headlines, but it was a minor occurrence, and for that thousands of people lost their jobs, and almosta billion dollars collected in fines. And where did that money go? Funny that it doesn’t go back to the allegedly aggrieved parties.
Minor occurrance? Minor to what? World pease. The reprocussions from your minor occurrance — thousands of lost jobs seems pretty significant to me. Try them in the press? You dang right. In the press, on the TV. On the radio. From the mountain tops. Everywhere until these jerks and others yet to be exposed understand that the vast majority of working Americans will not tolerate this self centered angrandizement. Billions $ of fines compared to XXXXX times that much in earning to AIG, Marsh etc. You are critical of the wrong persons. Spitzer and the other AG’s, regulators etc. mistakes are truely minor compared to those you would excuse and placate.
Folks like NY’s AG try to attain higher office by making themselves noticed through attacks on big business. The latter, however, have the expertise and the funds to lose billions and pay some relatively small fines, whether deserved or not. The real question is, does Elliot’s handiwork help the little guy and his family? If a big insurer allegedly conspires with a big broker to overcharge a Fortune 500 company, do you and I suffer? Are our auto premiums, homeowner’s premiums or anything else higher as a result? I don’t think so. Do you expect your insurance broker to work for nothing? Is there any harm in his/her getting paid a small percentage of the premium as remuneration for services rendered? Elliot seems to think so. As a result of our AG’s efforts, insurance practices centuries old are in question, little producers such as myself are confused and under suspicion, shareholders, small as well as large, of corporations under investigation by his office have lost unimaginable sums of money as stock prices plummet, and, of course, as those companies retreat, ordinary workers are laid off. Forget Republicans and Democrats. Do you think what he’s doing is good for the average Joe? In my opinion Elliot shouldn’t be elected dog catcher!
Seems that large and small alike say that size is the issue… then dismiss the criminal element as too large to go down.
As zealous or politically driven as it appears, Spitzer is merely doing his job.
Yet, while doing his job, The Spitz-man is lining his pals up at the trough to reap the bennies of a ‘government takeover/coup’ of the private Marsh and plugging in his old boss (NY City Attorney) as the head dog.
That’s the part that sux, because the scum-ridden cesspool at Marsh should be (figuratively speaking) burned to the ground buried in salt.
The comments by the ‘Small Broker’ border on absurd. Corruption by the big ‘dogs’ does impact everyone. If you don’t ferret out corruption and unethical behaviour, it will permeate all of the enterprise. Look at countries like Mexico and Russia and some countries in the middle east where nothing is done without someone having their ‘palm greased’.
As a small agent or broker the bad behaviour by Marsch or AON casts a bad light on you because you are in the same business.Why do car salesmen have such a bad reputation? Are they ‘all’ dishonest? The answer is ‘No’ but public perception of car salesman is very low because too many have been unethical.
Let’s stop indicting Eliot Spitzer or any other AG who is doing his/her job to ferret out corruption. Maybe Spitzer does have higher political ambitions…so what? Based on his track record so far, he deserves a much bigger job than the one he currently holds.
Maybe if big business in America operated ethically and showed a real sense of social responsibility, people like Eliot Spitzer wouldn’t be so busy sending out subpoenas, indicting people and negotiating large settlements.
Oh please. I am as Republican as it gets but bad guys are bad guys no matter who blows the cover on their active or passive malicious self angrandizing behaviour. Focus on the corporate theives who rob our economy and industry of jobs, wealth, equity, tax base and other other hard won ecconomic gains.
One might only wonder how much Marsh is paying that attack hack to attack the attack dog?
There was obviously wrong doing going on with regard to bid rigging. However, it’s been totally blown out of proportion from there. Many have lost and will lose their jobs as a result of Spitzer’s over zealous attacks, which probably were politically driven. Many hard working people have lost half or more of their retirement. I feel for those about to retire, who now may not afford to do so due to huge drops in stock prices in the industry. What may have started as bid rigging in a small circle, has developed in to nothing short of the McCarthy trials of years ago. And for that, Spitzer should be ashamed.
Its not Spitzer’s fault that wrong was done, jobs lost, retirements impacted. Had Hank and now the other two who have “taken the 5th” done right Spitzer would have never had anything to spotlight for moral, ethical, legal or political reasons. What are people like Spitzer and others of us who believe in our industry and right acting people supposed to do? Look the other way and let bad guys continue because we don’t want to be political? Cost jobs? Retirement? The bad guys are the perps and they should do the perp walk. Too bad they take so many down with them.
Jim Howse
Fiscal conservative? Where? Lafs…
Noting that your points are driven by a heavy partisan hammer, I’d ask that you stop and consider whether you are either a tax & spend democrat, a borrow and spend republican or an American under attack from both sides.
That’s the decision…
It’s obvious that Minarik is obsessed with borrowing against our future at the expense of common sense, reason and a balanced checkbook.
Bingo…
FIRST, it is illogical to blame Eliot Spitzer for doing his job by fulfilling his job as attorney general. I for one am tired of elected officials standing idle while the average citizen is being suckered and robbed! Pataki’s track record as NY Governor speaks for itself–and unfortunately it has not said much.
It is really simple…when you do a good job in your current post, you should be credited and promoted (Spitzer). When you do a bad job or nothing at all, which is equally as bad, you should be relieved (Pataki).
I am just glad that the truth is finally reaching the masses. The Greenbergs are corrupt crooks! I will not be satisfied until criminal charges are brought against, at the very least, AIG Greenberg and Marsh Greenberg. DON’T BLAME SPITZER FOR THEIR INDIVIDUAL ACTIONS. HE IS SIMPLY DOING HIS JOB.
PS. I want to thank RolfNeu and Jom Howse for their logical input.
Isn’t this par for the Republicans.
Finally we have an Attorney General who performs his duties to ferret out criminal activity and corruption and he becomes the target of a smear campaign by Republicans to discredit his effforts or motives.
It is not Spitzer’s fault that the companies and individuals he takes to task turn out to be ‘guilty as hell’. While they never admit to any wrongdoing, they have all bellied-up pretty quickly to pay huge fines to avoid further protracted litigation. You know these guys wouldn’t be paying millions and even billions if they thought they could beat the charges in open court.
Eliot Spitzer is not the one killling off jobs in New York or anywhere else. It is the corrupt and unethical management of these companies that has jeopardized the jobs of honest workers.
Attacking Spitzer’s strongest point is reenacting Pickett’s charge at Gettysburg. The result for Republicans will be the same…embarrassing defeat. Republicans in NY should start making their case by returning to conservative policies that always work…lower taxes and rational regulations. They will then be in a position to contrast their vision with Spitzer’s more liberal view. Comew on! This is basic stuff, guys!
Wouldn’t it have been nice if Spitzer actually took these cases to trial, instead of trying them in the press (which he controls very well). Bid rigging made great headlines, but it was a minor occurrence, and for that thousands of people lost their jobs, and almosta billion dollars collected in fines. And where did that money go? Funny that it doesn’t go back to the allegedly aggrieved parties.
Minor occurrance? Minor to what? World pease. The reprocussions from your minor occurrance — thousands of lost jobs seems pretty significant to me. Try them in the press? You dang right. In the press, on the TV. On the radio. From the mountain tops. Everywhere until these jerks and others yet to be exposed understand that the vast majority of working Americans will not tolerate this self centered angrandizement. Billions $ of fines compared to XXXXX times that much in earning to AIG, Marsh etc. You are critical of the wrong persons. Spitzer and the other AG’s, regulators etc. mistakes are truely minor compared to those you would excuse and placate.
Folks like NY’s AG try to attain higher office by making themselves noticed through attacks on big business. The latter, however, have the expertise and the funds to lose billions and pay some relatively small fines, whether deserved or not. The real question is, does Elliot’s handiwork help the little guy and his family? If a big insurer allegedly conspires with a big broker to overcharge a Fortune 500 company, do you and I suffer? Are our auto premiums, homeowner’s premiums or anything else higher as a result? I don’t think so. Do you expect your insurance broker to work for nothing? Is there any harm in his/her getting paid a small percentage of the premium as remuneration for services rendered? Elliot seems to think so. As a result of our AG’s efforts, insurance practices centuries old are in question, little producers such as myself are confused and under suspicion, shareholders, small as well as large, of corporations under investigation by his office have lost unimaginable sums of money as stock prices plummet, and, of course, as those companies retreat, ordinary workers are laid off. Forget Republicans and Democrats. Do you think what he’s doing is good for the average Joe? In my opinion Elliot shouldn’t be elected dog catcher!
Seems that large and small alike say that size is the issue… then dismiss the criminal element as too large to go down.
As zealous or politically driven as it appears, Spitzer is merely doing his job.
Yet, while doing his job, The Spitz-man is lining his pals up at the trough to reap the bennies of a ‘government takeover/coup’ of the private Marsh and plugging in his old boss (NY City Attorney) as the head dog.
That’s the part that sux, because the scum-ridden cesspool at Marsh should be (figuratively speaking) burned to the ground buried in salt.
The comments by the ‘Small Broker’ border on absurd. Corruption by the big ‘dogs’ does impact everyone. If you don’t ferret out corruption and unethical behaviour, it will permeate all of the enterprise. Look at countries like Mexico and Russia and some countries in the middle east where nothing is done without someone having their ‘palm greased’.
As a small agent or broker the bad behaviour by Marsch or AON casts a bad light on you because you are in the same business.Why do car salesmen have such a bad reputation? Are they ‘all’ dishonest? The answer is ‘No’ but public perception of car salesman is very low because too many have been unethical.
Let’s stop indicting Eliot Spitzer or any other AG who is doing his/her job to ferret out corruption. Maybe Spitzer does have higher political ambitions…so what? Based on his track record so far, he deserves a much bigger job than the one he currently holds.
Maybe if big business in America operated ethically and showed a real sense of social responsibility, people like Eliot Spitzer wouldn’t be so busy sending out subpoenas, indicting people and negotiating large settlements.