Minimal Oversight

Washington Post columnist Robert Novak points out that members of the Senate Banking Committee failed to press witnesses on even the most basic issues at a hearing on the Bear Stearns bailout. Novak wonders why the Senators failed to demand clear answers on how the initial buying price of $2/share was arrived at and how J.P. Morgan was chosen as the buyer.

He also notes that the failure to raise serious questions was bipartisan:

A fraternal mood prevailed on both sides of the table, as if Wall Street had moved to Washington. While conservatives inside the administration are unhappy about the intervention in markets, President Bush seems content with how the Federal Reserve and the Treasury cooked up the deal with erstwhile colleagues on Wall Street. There is little that's conservative or Republican about the administration's approach to the fiscal crisis.

Uncritical Democratic senators were not even inquisitive.