Yet another typical Bush appointment coming up

The Securities and Exchange Commission was created in 1934 to enforce the rules and regulations that were designed to transform those statements from rhetoric to reality. Over the years that followed, it did a reasonably good job of protecting investors and, as a byproduct, enhancing stability in the nation's financial markets.

In recent decades, however, as corporate interests have successfully pushed for deregulation, enforcement has grown increasingly inconsistent. As a result, corporate scandals and debacles have become commonplace.

One of the best ways to address the current crisis of corporate irresponsibility - and, by extension, to restore confidence in American business - would be to muscle up the SEC. The decision of SEC chair William Donaldson to give up his position offered an opportunity to do just that, but, unfortunately, President Bush does not appear to be interested in strengthening the agency.

Instead, the president has tapped U.S. Rep. Chris Cox, R-Calif., as Donaldson's replacement. Bush says Cox will "leave all politics at the door."

But Washington watcher David Sirota of the Center for American Progress describes the plan to put the conservative congressman in charge of this critical agency as a "Cox in the SEC henhouse" scenario. Sirota says, "Big Business, still looking to evade even the weak post-Enron reforms, could not have asked for a better corporate shill than Cox."

The congressman's relationship with the industries he would supposedly be regulating can best be described as "cozy." Since his election to Congress, Cox has collected close to $650,000 in campaign contributions from commercial banking, securities, insurance and finance interests. In return for the electoral largess, he led the fight to pass legislation - thePrivate Securities and Litigation Reform Act - that one analyst said "paved the way for corporate chieftains basically to lie without fear of being sued."

Even after the Enron scandal blew up, Cox reportedly "rejected the notion that Enron's meltdown should cause Congress to debate the wisdom of deregulation."

The good news is that Cox is not yet the SEC chair. Because the Senate must approve his nomination, citizens have one last chance to keep Cox out of the SEC henhouse.

  Madison.com article

Update 8:30 pm:

Billmon has more info on Cox.