Obama’s Treasury Secretary threatened Rating Agency about U.S. credit downgrade

I wrote about this last year, well after the Department Of Justice initially filed suit against S&P in February. And as you might recall, the DOJ’s lawsuit was chockablock with staggering hypocrisy all on its own (h/t HotAir).

But if that move smelled like political retribution back then, it absolutely reeks of it now.

(via Reuters) – Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner angrily warned the chairman of Standard & Poor’s parent that the rating agency would be held accountable for its 2011 decision to strip the United States of its coveted “triple-A” rating, a new court filing shows.

Harold McGraw, the chairman of McGraw-Hill Financial Inc , made the statement in a declaration filed by S&P on Monday, as it defends against the government’s $5 billion fraud lawsuit over its rating practices prior to the 2008 financial crisis.

McGraw said he returned a call from Geithner on Aug. 8, 2011, three days after S&P cut the U.S. credit rating to “AA-plus,” and that Geithner told him “you are accountable” for an alleged “huge error” in S&P’s work.

“Who will Watch the Watchmen?” …because Gov’t Abuse of Power is now commonplace

Here in the United States, we operate on what’s essentially an honor system of governance: we trust that government officials (whether elected or appointed) will be honest and act within the confines of the law.

They’re our “Watchmen”: duty-bound public servants who’ve sworn an oath to protect and uphold our local/national Constitutions.

But what happens when that trust is violated? What happens when, time after time, we see that the folks entrusted to enforce the rules are bending, breaking or completely ignoring those very same rules to our detriment?