In the cesspool that is Washington politics as usual, much has been written about greedy former members of Congress and White House administrations who try to enrich themselves working in he corporate world, often for their former big buck contributors, taking care of their gazillionaire clients by schmoozing/bribing former colleagues and screwing the common good.

Hypocritical Democrats, like Tom Daschle and Dick Gebhardt plus a slew of Clintonites, also are players in this sleazy, corrupt world, often to the detriment of and damage to the American people, but Republicans are the masters at this despicable, devious, venal game.

Joe Sudbay at AmericaBlog writes about one recent GOP player.

"Used to be that elected officials would leave the public sector for high paying jobs in the financial services industry. They'd parlay their political connections for business. That's what former GOP Congressman John Kasich did. He went to work for Lehman Brothers. Now, Lehman is gone and Kasich is running for Governor of Ohio. There's a nexus.

"Turns out Kasich was trying to get a couple of Ohio state pension funds to invest with Lehman:

Republican gubernatorial candidate John Kasich tried to persuade two state pension funds in 2002 to invest with Lehman Brothers while he was the managing director of the investment banking house's Columbus office.

In a reply to questions from The Dispatch, Kasich campaign officials acknowledged that the former congressman helped arrange the two meetings between Lehman officials and representatives of the Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund and the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, known as OPERS.

Kasich campaign officials said in a statement that "these meetings did not result in business for Lehman Brothers, and John earned no commission from this or any other public sector business." Kasich never approached any other Ohio governmental entity about doing business with Lehman, the campaign said.

"Still not sure why anyone thinks GOPers are better on fiscal issues. They're not."

Which reminded me of what I wrote in 2008 about Jeb Bush, Lehman Brothers, and Floridian who got scammed.

"Yesterday, like many others, I wrote about the Wall Street debacle. 

 

"I mentioned Jeb Bush in the article since he was a consultant for Lehman Brothers.

 

"Here's more information: "Lehman Brothers and Jeb Bush, now that's a pair; Jeb a "consultant" for Lehman Brothers.

 

" 'Another scandal associated with the infamous Bush brothers, George, Jeb and Neil; a trio of scam artists, trading on family name and connections, associated with con men, and leaving ruin in their wake, more often for local, state, and national taxpayers to pull their chestnus out of the fire and the family name and connections keeping them out of the slammer.' "

"From an article in Counterpunch: " 'Jeb Bush left Tallahassee for Miami in January 2007, having served two terms as governor. He incorporated Jeb Bush & Co., and in June was hired as a consultant with Lehman Brothers, the Wall Street investment banking firm.'

" 'Coleman Stipanovich, a Bush loyalist, headed the Florida State Board of Administration, responsible for investing billions of dollars of state funds. Stipanovich's brother, "Mac", is a former chief of staff in the governor's office, Jeb Bush campaign manager, and now partner in the law firm, Fowler White, Boggs-the Tallahassee lobbying whip of the Growth Machine (he is also board member of US Sugar).

" 'In July and August, Stipanovich approved the purchase of $842 million in securitized mortgage bonds from Lehman.

" 'Today the value of those bonds is practically zero, vanished in the debt crisis that is tipping the national economy into a recession.' "

 

"The Miami Herald reports: " 'The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, a prestigious Wall Street firm, will touch Florida's pension funds and the state-run insurer because both hold its securities.

'The State Board of Administration holds $322 million in Lehman stock and bonds. The SBA manages the state's employee fund and more than two dozen other funds, including assets for the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund and the Florida Prepaid College Plan.

'Dennis MacKee, a spokesman for the SBA, said the agency has an $84 million unrealized loss on its holdings.' " 

"Wonder how much Jebbie made on the deal?  Will the main stream media even look into the matter?"

A few did.  Here's what it cost Floridians as reported by the St. Petersburg Times in July, 2009: "A price tag is now emerging for what last year's collapse of investment giant Lehman Brothers could cost the state of Florida: more than $1 billion.

"More than $440 million disappeared from the pension fund that pays benefits for some 1 million retirees and public employees.

Counties, cities and school districts face a loss of more than $300 million for roads, sewers and schools.

"The state has $290 million less to pay for everything from hurricane claims to health care, community colleges and care for infants with disabilities."

What does it say about those who voted for Kasich and Jeb Bush, and will continue to vote for such corrupt jerks?  These crooked gits know how to fool some of the people all of the time.