AUTHOR: Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) in the Huffington Post
LENGTH: 800 words
THESIS: I stood up to Goldman Sachs. It was epic.
WHAT SHE DID FIRST: Write a letter to "urge Goldman Sachs to repay taxpayers the $12.9 billion it received from them through AIG"
WHAT MUST HAVE REALLY STUNG: "The letter was signed 'Sincerely' and I let them know just how sincerely I felt about it"
WHAT AMERICAN TAXPAYERS ARE: "generous"
WHAT GOLDMAN EMPLOYEES ARE: "aliens"
WHOM SHE SIDES WITH: the former
GOLDMAN'S BOLD NEXT MOVE: Come to her and explain their position
AND THEN WHAT HAPPENED? "That's when I asked them exactly which planet they were in fact from"
WHEN THEY TALKED ABOUT MARKETS: "I resisted genuflecting"
WHY THEY COULDN'T STOP HER: "I was furious and on a roll"
WHERE THEY'RE FROM: "another planet"
WHO THEY ARE: "smarty pants"
WHAT SHE'S GOING TO DO ABOUT IT: Meet with them again
THE FINAL WORD:

By then I was furious and on a roll. "You are looking at one of the 57 members who voted against the repeal of Glass-Stiegel in 1999." That was the depression-era law that actually prevented financial institutions from becoming too big to fail by creating a firewall between the banking, insurance, and securities businesses. "And I am all for reinstating it, and I am from the school of, 'If you're too big to fail, then you're too big,' and besides all that, I am so far away from you in my thinking that your words barely compute, and from where I sit, you simply don't get it, and how stupid (yes I said the "s" word) can you be to think that any normal person can relate to "average" salaries for Goldman Sachs employees of $770,000 much less $21 billion in "accrued" bonuses," I sputtered as the bells rang in my office indicating a vote on the House floor ... My only regret was that I didn't know at the time that Goldman Sachs had gotten for itself and its priceless geniuses H1N1 vaccines that lots of at-risk children are still waiting in line for. That would have been good to mention as I dashed out the door.

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at hhorn at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.
Heather Horn