The disgraceful behavior of establishment watchdogs
Roger Simon has owned the story of the the pathetic behavior of Paul Volker’s commission and the resignations of investigators Robert Parton (senior investigative counsel) and Miranda Duncan (deputy counsel), and now the lying to the media that has ensued — a cover-up of the cover-up, as it were. (We remember the very old days, when President Reagan gave the green light to Paul Volker to take the brave measures to stamp out inflation; now it looks that the courage was all Reagan’s, if this current performance is indicative.)
Our suggestion, as a modest punishment, is that whatever Volker is being paid, it be tendered in the form of forged currency featuring the pictures of Dick Thornburgh and Louis D. Boccardi. (See our pieces here and here.)
We understand the pressures on the leaders of these investigative bodies to be extra judicious, and to self-define the scope of their work downwards. But if that’s what you are inclined to do, don’t take the investigative job. There are plenty of shills who have had fancy titles to take the work. And in today’s world — where the communications are global and immediate, and where your reports and footnotes are frozen in the amber of the internet — the disgraceful work doesn’t vanish down the memory hole as it did twenty years ago. You end up looking the fool, and that is no worthy capstone for anyone’s career.