Madoff is latest proof of bipartisan duopoly on financial immorality

Disgraced hedge fund manager Bernard Madoff? The alleged multibillion-dollar hedge fu nd shyster whose misdeeds had skated past Securities and Exchange Commission staff? Well, per SEC Chairman Christopher Cox, that started happening happening in the Clinton Administration’s SEC:

The Commission has learned that credible and specific allegations regarding Mr. Madoff’s financial wrongdoing, going back to at least 1999, were repeatedly brought to the attention of SEC staff, but were never recommended to the Commission for action.

That would have been when Arthur Levitt Jr., now sainted as a voice of foresight about the current crisis was SEC chairman, a fact — as well as the overall timesline — that the NYT somehow fails to mention when quoting him.

But, the present financial meltdown is all Republicans’ fault, right?