Car Czar Nicholas II

There has been a long-running investigation of allegations that certain hedge funds and investment groups were paying millions of dollars in kickbacks and illegal fees to gain access to NY's state pension fund. Now, people are getting arrested, all with the goal of reaching NY's former comptroller, Alan Havesi.At the moment, however, the inquiry has reached our nation's "car czar," Steve Rattner: Rattner Involved in Inquiry on Fees

Steven Rattner, the leader of the Obama administration's auto task force, was one of the executives involved with payments under scrutiny in a probe of an alleged kickback scheme at New York state's pension fund, according to a person familiar with the matter.

A Securities and Exchange Commission complaint says a "senior executive" of Mr. Rattner's investment firm met in 2004 with a politically connected consultant about a finder's fee. Later, the complaint says, the firm received an investment from the state pension fund and paid $1.1 million in fees.

The "senior executive," not named in the complaint, is Mr. Rattner, according to the person familiar with the matter. He is co-founder of the investment firm, Quadrangle Group, which he left to join the Treasury Department to oversee the auto task force earlier this year. Neither Mr. Rattner nor Quadrangle has been accused of any wrongdoing. Mr. Rattner did not return calls for comment.

This would be pretty explosive, if true. For all the talk about the GOP's "culture of corruption," the confluence of Big Government and Big Money has enriched a lot of opportunistic Dollarcrats over the years. How the government can hope to "reform" GM, while its lead reformer is fighting corruption charges arising from his day job on Wall Street, is beyond me. 

People weren't going to tea parties because they don't want to pay taxes, or because they're worried that Nancy Pelosi is going to take their guns. They're convinced that all of the billions that have flowed to the banks through the Treasury, the Fed, and AIG have passed through the hands of insiders who have become wealthy while tax payers are drained. 

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