When does Michael Steele get his own reality show?

Will Wall Street be able to turn the populist rage against Obama before it eats them alive? Robert Reich considers.

Here’s an exchange from this afternoon between Sen. Cantwell and Secretary Geithner. Cantwell asks the question we and a lot of others have been asking: where’s all the money going? Who are the counter-parties?

We grabbed this exchange because I want to flag that this question appears to be gathering momentum up on the hill. But the exchange itself is interesting for two reasons. First, Geithner simply won’t engage. He just ignores the question. But in the course of doing so he provides the administration’s rationale for why we have no choice but to keep shoveling money down this hole. But clearly, talk to the hand on the counter-parties …

Since it’s apparently ground zero for the rebirth of the Republican party, I’ve decided to set up a twitter account: joshtpm.

No one rat me out.

I can see as well as you that my calls for disclosing the identities of the AIG counter parties have fallen on deaf ears. When Sen. Cantwell (D-WA) asked Secretary Geithner today who they were, his answer was an argument that letting AIG default on its obligations posed too grave a systemic risk to the US and global economies — a claim which I concede may be true but nevertheless ignored the question: who’s getting the money?

So how about this? Can we get a clear explanation of why we can’t know?

To the extent there is a good reason I figure it must be some form of argument to the effect that our effort to prevent the collapse or undermining of the counter parties would be undermined by disclosing who they are. In other words, if Bank X is owed mountains of cash by AIG. And the cash is only coming from Uncle Sam. Then maybe Bank X is actually in trouble. And you’ll get a run on bank us. This is a pretty crude example, I admit. But I figure some argument of this sort must be the rationale. But these sorts of arguments are too easy to make, too simple a way just to keep information secret because that’s what big institutions — be they treasuries, or banks or Feds — like to do.

So if we’re really not allowed who are billions of dollars are going to, can we at least have a clear explanation of why it is not in our collective interest for this information to remain secret?

(ed.note: And in case you’re wondering, no, this is only half meant in jest. Maybe there is a good reason not to disclose this. But the public is owed a very clear explanation of why. Very clear. Literally just ignoring the question amounts to treating us, the public, with genuine contempt. These are massive amounts of money we’re paying. Quite likely it will get up to a quarter of a trillion dollars with AIG. We deserves serious answers.)

and other moral hazards:

Katrina-ravaged areas are getting some love today, with a visit from key figures in the new administration: DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, and FEMA Director-designate Craig Fugate. That and the day’s other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

RNC Chair Michael Steele says he’s “in the business of ticking people off,” but I take that not to include ticking off the wrong people because he took his “mea culpa to Rush” tour on to Hannity’s show last night:

See more at Foxnews.com.

TPMmuckraker has obtained a copy of the “deal” that gets Karl Rove and Harriet Miers testifying to Congress on the politicization of the Bush-era Justice Department.

The document is here, and Zack Roth highlights some of the key terms here.