A "call to arms" has gone out to the financial community.  One of our leaders, SEC Chair Mary Schapiro has been assaulted.  Verbally, yes, but assaulted, nonetheless.   It happened on Tuesday, at a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee, in front of CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler and Federal Reserve Governor Daniel Tarullo.

    Take A Regulator Out to Dinner ... or, at least, "Be Nice."  That's the general message issued by U.S. Representative Spencer Bachus (R-AL), who chairs the House Financial Services Cttee.  At Tuesday's hearing, Chairman Bachus chided committee member Bill Posey (R-FL) for brow-beating the Madam Chairman.  And now, he'd like committee members to be more civil. 

    What Posey Specifically Said.   Rep. Posey repeatedly asked Schapiro if any SEC employees had been punished for their failures leading up to the financial crisis.  "Has anyone had their wrist slapped yet?"  "Have we blamed anybody?"

Ms. Schapiro began to respond several times, at one point saying most of the employees that missed the Bernie Madoff scandal were gone from the agency.  However, Posey interrupted her each time, demanding a simple "yes" or "no" answer to his question.  At one point, Bachus stepped in, telling Posey to allow Schapiro to answer.  "She's not answering, Mr. Chairman," whined Posey.  At that point, Chairman Bachus asked all the lawmakers in the committee to exhibit proper respect for witnesses, noting that:

they're "not on trial, and I think they're due a certain amount of decorum and respect.  Treat the witnesses with the dignity and respect that they're due."

The Chairman further added that the regulators testifying before the panel, including Ms. Schapiro, were not in their current positions before the financial crisis.   [C-I Note:  Hopefully, Mr. Bachus's efforts were in time to prevent too much injury and pain.  

For the original story, to go:   [The Hill, 2/16, "Bachus calls for good manners..."]