Jeb Hensarling moves to the front of the class

Hensarling, who represents the 5th Congressional district, usually doesn’t get much attention when those of us who speculate about these things do our pondering. But maybe it’s about time for that to change.

Hensarling has been one of the leaders of the House Republican resistance to the Bush Administration’s bank bailout plan. “You were being asked to choose between financial meltdown on the one hand and taxpayer bankruptcy and the road to socialism on the other and you were told do it in 24 hours,” he said. “It was just never going to happen.”

These are strong words, especially given how quiet, regardless of party, the rest of the Texas House and Senate delegations have been about the bailout. Which makes me wonder if Hensarling’s leadership on this issue -- the House rejected the bailout on Monday -- means he needs to be taken seriously as a senatorial candidate when Kay Bailey Hutchison quits to run for governor.

Despite Hensarling’s surprisingly low profile around here, he is a big deal in Washington –- the chairman of the influential and conservative Republican Study Committee and a member of what is always referred to as the powerful House budget committee.

Those connections should help Hensarling raise money if he wants to run for the Senate. In addition, he had $1.5 million on hand at the beginning of the summer, and since he’s running unopposed, most of that will still be there. Meanwhile, Hensarling’s opposition to the bailout will raise his profile locally, something that probably wouldn’t have happened if he had been just another Texas Republican with a safe seat. It’s one thing to complain about waste in government, as Hensarling has for years. It’s another to get on the front page of the New York Times for doing it.

Finally, there is the 5th district itself, which takes in parts of East Dallas and Lake Highlands. The district is important in Texas political history for electing the first GOP congressman from the state since Reconstruction in Bruce Alger in 1955, and its alumni include heavyweights like former Dallas mayor Earle Cabell and former state attorney general Jim Mattox.

   

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Comments

[CBS]

yeah, nice job Jeb. Dow down >10%. Thanks. I am actually a Jeb supporter, but this is not the time to signal one thing and vote another. Markets do not like misdirection and today's vote has cost taxpayers, including Jeb's district to suffer greatly. Now is a time for leadership and a voice that will provide citizens and the marketplace clear direction. This "no" vote did nothing but cost taxpayers their savings.

[Charles Ingram]

This was not the time to play politics with the country and the world's economic well being. Jeb simply doesn't have the mental horsepower to understand the very serious and complex problem that faces us all. Regardless of where the blame belongs or what your personal principles are, when the ship is sinking, first you plug the leaks, then you redesign the hull. If you liked what the world markets, which do have a better grip on what is going on than Jeb, taught you today, wait till you see what happens the rest of the week till Congress gets back to work on Thursday. If you thought a $700 billion bailout package over several years that will in all liklihood be repaid in full (as have all other bailouts in recent history) bothered you, how do you like a $1.2 trillion loss of capital in this country alone in one day! Jeb is grandstanding. What most people don't understand is that, if the government pays $.50/ $1.00 on all those mortgages then 66% of them go into foreclosure and we only recover a $1.00 on 20% of that, the US will have recovered everything they put out over 5 years plus a return of 12% when the government borrows at 4%. What fool wouldn't do that deal. Obviously not Jeb and his brainless friends. We need a few more MBAs in Congress than Lawyers for Christ's sake!

[chris]

I'm not a big fan of any congressman who's playing politics with this crisis but saying silly things to the effect of it being the "slippery slope to socialism".

Don't insult me, Jeb. You lost my vote.

[No Opponent for Jeb?]

I was very disappointed the Democrats didn't run someone against Jeb this time around. This means we are stuck with 2 more years of his so-called "leadership". Had the Democrats put someone up against him they might have actually won the race this year, given recent events.

[Terry Pair]

Everything Charles Ingram said is right on. This is not an open invite to socialism. Our congressman ought to first stop the damage to the market and then reform the regulations and legislation that allowed this mess to happen.

[Susan]

Jeb Hensarling has become a true leader in the House, standing up to Nancy Pelosi the wicked, who promised bipartisan compromise with Republicans. Since the Dems took over the House & Senate, all of a sudden the economy goes down the toilet and they have a robust 9% approval rating. You keep up the pressure Jeb! Great Job! You have my VOTE STRAIGHT TICKET REPUBLICAN!

[CBS]

Susan, I'm sorry, but your post just made me giggle. Partisan politics aside and you would be amazed at my party affiliation and significant party involvement, what does voting straight ticket accomplish? It is humorous to me that when a R is in the white house and the economy slides, it’s the other sides fault. I guess I see little value in painting in broad strokes.

Jeb has stood up against excessive spending and has made that his mantra; however, his sound bite on socialism places him in the politicking for politics sake, which I find undesirable and misleading.

This country needs true leadership…and really I don’t care what label he or she comes with.

[DS]

Straight ticket voting is ignorant voting. If you know nothing about the candidate then please leave that vote blank. If you want to vote for everyone please educate yourself before you get into the booth. I wish we could take that option off of ballots so it’s not so easy to make stupid choices. Not every Republican is the best choice and not every Democrat is the best choice.

[Charles Ingram]

I am not embarrassed to say that I have usually voted a straight Republican ticket in the past, with a couple of notable exceptions. What is sad for me is that Jeb goes to my church and serves in my Lector corp. I think he is a fine person, but he is dead wrong on this deal and I will not vote for him in this election as I have in the past because I can no longer ascribe to the simplistic scare tactics he and many Texas Republicans have been using as an excuse for a campaign on the issues, and I do believe Republicans have great issues to stand on. But to this point, I am not ashamed to say that I have an MBA in Finance and Economics and I have been in the Banking and Financial Services Industy in Dallas since 1976. I know more than a little bit about derivatives and mortgage securities, having spent 10 years with a Wall St. Investment Banking firm, First Boston Corporation, now Credit Suisse, working with institutional clients educating them about how they could use the products to manage their portfolio risk. The product I knew when it was first created had real value. The modern hybrid (some would say deviant) evolution of those products are complex beyond comprehension, even to those who managed those who created them. Everyone should understand that Wall St. is totally mercenary, but so are most professions. They simply create what investors are willing to buy. If you want hi-tech start-ups you'll get them, till you stop wanting them. If you want something that looks like a pig with lipstick on it, they will give it to you, which is exactly what happened with sub-prime and alt-A mortgaged derivatives that were constructed to redistribute the risks of default. Just like the hi-tech bubble in 2000, it all went too far with mortgage derivatives, as it always does on Wall St. The difference was that with hi-tech you had to at least have a business plan that maded SOME, if not much, sense. What is not understood is that, as long as there was some fool willing to enter a mortgage obligation they felt they were personally never going to have to repay, Wall St. was there with UNLIMITED LEVERAGE to securitize it and sell it to investors who had way too many dollars to invest and were too eager to earn a rediculous return they were entitled to because they were smarter than the rest of us. Too many investment professionals, started reading their own press and believing how smart they were and that they had analysed the risk and these were safe products when they never were. They were foolish and they got greedy. Who is to blame? A lot of the blame has to fall on Congress for authorizing and encouraging Freddie Mac & Fannie Mae to expand lending to, what is the fashionable word now, "underserved markets"? It was Congress again that FORCED Banks to expand their lending to "underserved markets" and make more uncreditworthy loans or get a low CRA (Community Reinvestment Act) rating and lose their banking charter. The borrowers and Wall St. simply played their type-cast roles in this drama. The real culprits are those in Congress who pressed this totally untenable charade on the nation in the guise of "fairness": they flat out required a quasi-federal agency and every bank in the country to make "bad loans" because it was "fair". What kind of idiot does that? You don't need an MBA to know that is just plain stupid. Where were our great Republican Congressmen when that was going on? I grant you that these were all Democrat initiatives and policies (the source too much financial foolishness), but Republicans controlled the Congress when this happened. I think the reason the Senate just voted for this proposal by a 75/25 margin is because they at least understand that they were major contributors to the problem and they needed to stop politiking and fix it. I only hope the Congress (even with Jeb and the throwbacks) can finally figure out they created the problem and they need to fix it too!