This isn't about rescuing capitalism, it's about destroying it, which has been the goal of the Left as long as I've been alive. In recent years, it's also been the goal of the Democratic leadership.

Talent will flee these crippled companies, replaced by the easily-controlled political toadies the politicians wanted in there in the first place. These companies will be on the dole for all time, while competitors who don't have a pipeline to the Treasury will have to work harder to compete.

It doesn't matter to people like Dodd if the economic "stimulus" actually helps the economy. It matters that it gives the government more control, and more power.

I've been watching government parasites in hearing chambers lecturing industry leaders for a long time now, not just recently. Politicians who have never created one damn penny of new wealth themselves telling us how it is, and how our lives should be run.

And I've been listening to people who are quite willing to overlook a century of history to tell us that snapping the neck of the private sector is the key to prosperity.