Idiocy In The Cable "News"

It was a real hoot listening to Olbermann and Robert Reich talk about having "Obama put BP into receivership" last night on Countdown. That way, Reich said, they could take all of BP's money and use it for the Gulf oil cleanup. I'm not a corporate or constitutional lawyer so I may not have the precisely right take on this, but I do read history and current news.

First thing is that I'm not sure how different this would be from Truman's attempt to take over the steel industry during the Korean War, but I'll bet it's close enough that the Supreme Court would nix this idea just as it did that one. The President can't "put into receivership" any corporation, he has to get a court to do that, and the court is going to need a better reason than Reich was giving. Claiming a "national emergency" isn't going to fly.

I would like for Reich to provide one example of a "national emergency" during which the government took over financially as he describes. He specifically mentioned a "nuclear meltdown," but at Three Mile Island the government did not take over the finances of the company which owned the reactor. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission took command of the scene of the accident, but Reich is not suggesting anything like that be done now. He is suggesting the opposite; that BP continue in operational command and that the government take over BP financially.

I strongly doubt, in any case, that an American court is going to place a British corporation into receivership. In 1812 we fought a war with England because they were stopping our ships at sea and "impressing" our sailors. I shudder to think what British reaction might be if we decided to impound the proceeds of one of their major corporations. They would not be happy.