Gasparino v. Liesman On CNBC

This morning's CNBC Squawkbox program featured a wild verbal free-for-all between Charlie Gasparino, Steve Liesman, Becky Quick and Joe Kernen.

Mostly, however, it was a one-on-one match between Gasparino and the always-hapless, under-brained Liesman.

I'm no long term fan of Gasparino. He used to verbally bully the esteemed Wall Street Journal editor Alan Murray.

But this morning, I found myself in complete agreement with Charlie. He correctly noted that, prior to the House Republicans standing up and demanding to be heard in the negotiations on the Washington financial sector rescue legislation, it was largely a Democrat/Liberal Republican venture.

Forget John Harwood, CNBC's ultra-liberal apologist. He has no credibility, nor any shred of objectivity left. Leave it to Gasparino to point out that Paulson is a fairly liberal, East Coast Republican, and he chose to deal directly with only Democrats on the Hill- Barney Frank and Chris Dodd.

Given that those two are largely responsible for the GSE train wreck, it's arguable that Paulson made a serious error in his tactical approach.

Gasparino noted that, until the House Republicans slowed down the rush to take taxpayer funds, nobody even considered a simple, innovative idea like government-issued insurance that would actually make money initially, rather than ladle out most of $700B.

In response, Liesman and Quick squawked about how they thought it was a bi-partisan bill, and everybody said so. That Paulson initiated it, so it must be bi-partisan. Liesman further blathered something like,

'Sure, take more time to craft the bill, and let a few more banks go bust.'

Further proof that Liesman is incapable of any valuable thoughts on his own, but is a conduit for accepted wisdom from any liberal he can cite.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. How thick must those two be? Any slam-dunk legislation was always going to be railroaded by Dodd and Frank. It took a lot of courage for Boehner, for whom I also typically have little use, to protest the bums rush being orchestrated by Congressional Democrats and non-conservative administration officials.

I was stunned with how savvy and observant Gasparino is in this situation.