Quotes of the day: hank paulson edition

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free _Mother Jones Daily_. From _Newsweek’s_ summary of Hank Paulson’s upcoming memoir, which

recounts his days running the Treasury Department during the great financial meltdown of 2008: > Paulson delivers a continual and biting critique of > Republicans….Kentucky Sen. Jim 

Bunning is a “cantankerous > conservative” (page 275). Meetings with Senate Republicans were > “a complete waste of time for us, when time was more precious than > anything” (page 

275). Ideas that Republicans do add are > “unformed,” like Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor’s plan to replace > TARP with an insurance program. In a rare moment of sarcasm, Paulson > goes 

off on the minority Whip: “I got a better idea. I’m going > to go with Eric Cantor’s insurance program. That’s the idea to > save the day” (page 285). This is no surprise. In his

_Vanity Fair_ interview last year, Paulson had glowing comments about Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, and Tim Geithner, but about his fellow Republicans he was considerably less charitable.

Basically, he says they were preening, ignorant, ideologues. Imagine that.