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The following six-minute video is of Marcy Kaptur (Ohio) grilling Timothy Geithner about his activities, interests and intentions during and after the bailout.

Kaptur CHEWS Up Tiny Tim GOLDMAN And Spits Him Out (YouTube)

Kaptur is absolutely right to do this and Geithner’s exasperation comes across as extremly dickish. He is an appointed official, she is an elected official; he answers to her. That his every answer must be “Goldman Sachs” when asked about his cohorts is his fault, not hers. It would be nice if not only he, but many others who, as Geithner himself puts it, “were people of enormous integrity and experience operating in exceptional circumstances”, were actually prosecuted for what at best can be termed criminal negligence.

That Wall Street is riding high while the rest of the country—and world—rides out the big Recession[1] is something that didn’t just happen despite everyone’s best intentions: It was engineered by the worst of the worst, by the sociopaths that Geithner and his ilk invite to all of their pow-wows. Geithner should go down because he’s incompetent, if not criminal. He’s still defending his actions without admitting to any mistakes despite all evidence to the contrary.

Still, after getting a warm and fuzzy watching Geithner getting raked over the coals, remember that Bernanke just got appointed to another term—despite having missed (probably deliberately) the real-estate bubble[2]—so Geithner’s probably not going anywhere. Larry Summers, architect of the repeal of the last shreds of financial regulation, is also still gainfully employed by the administration and is happily making policy. Removing the incompetent from power is so 20th century; get with the times.