Like ducks in the shooting gallery…

Did you ever see those cartoons where the shooting gallery duck get hit, falls over and then comes back up going the other way? That’s sort of like what our so-called leaders in Washington are like when it comes to things like regulating the financial industry.

Quack. Everything’s fine with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They’ll get through this OK. Bang!

Quack! The Sky’s falling. We need to bail them out now! Bang!

Quack. We don’t need any more regulation of the financial industry. Bang!

Quack! The sky is falling! How did we get in this mess? We need more oversight of these unregulated banks! Bang!

Quack. Investors should remain calm. Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and AIG have plenty of liquidity to see them through. Bang!

Quack! Bail out! Bail out! The sky is falling! We need a bail out immediately or the whole system will collapse!

Bang! You’re dead.

The best newspaper cartoon that I’ve seen lately shows our White House Bozo calling for taxpayer bailouts when Fannie and Freddie failed and taxpayer bailouts when the big investment banks failed and taxpayer bailouts when AIG failed and then looking befuddled (one assumes the cartoonist had no trouble with that pose) when the advisers said that now the taxpayer need a bailout. How true is that!

The really pathetic thing about all of this is that the same clowns who stood by and let this all happen are still there and now they’re in charge of getting us out of the mess that they helped create. I guess the only good news is that the pendulum has swung back to the “Do Something” side of the aisle, from the “Do Nothing” nothing side that it has been on for years. I’m not sure whether the “regulate everything and make everyone equal” crowd on one side of the legislative aisle is any better that the “regulate nothing and let the market work” crowd on the other side. There does not seem to be a “let’s find a reasonable, common-sense compromise” option in Washington any more.

So, like the ducks in the shooting gallery, we all cruise along.

Quack. I’m retired with a full pension and health care. Bang!

Quack! The sky is falling! The company just canceled my health care and turned my retirement into a lump sum cash payment. Bang!

Quack. I’m OK. I’ve got a good union job and seniority. Bang!

Quack! The sky is falling. My plant was closed and I was laid off.. Bang!

Quack! I’ve got a nice home in the suburbs. Bang!

Quack. The sky is falling and I’ve been foreclosed. I’m losing my house. Bang!

What the hell happened to America? Bang!