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Attack of the "MellonHeads", or, Do you still believe in the Bush Doctrine?

In honor of the Herbert Hoover CNBC contributor, James Pethokoukis confronts the MellonHeads, those conservatives who are having a knee-jerk reaction to the inevitable mortgage banking bailout. The moniker “MellonHeads” refers to Herbert Hoover’s Secretary of Treasury Andrew Mellon, who advocated a very hands-off approach on monetary matters, which contributed to the hard slide into the Great Depression.

Many conservatives are concerned about the expansion of government into the market (as if they’re not already there). They argue, among other things, that the bailout would expand government and cost taxpayers billions upon billions of dollars – and they are right. But how much would it cost in money and lives if we do nothing and let the financial markets slide further into collapse, as happened during the Great Depression. Not I’m not here predicting doom and gloom, I don’t think we’re anywhere near that type of economic collapse. Nobody knows what the future holds.

Looking at the names on the “MellonHeads” list, Michelle Malkin, Club for Growth, Newt Gingrich, Bill Kristol, I realized that all of them supported the pre-emptive reasoning for war in Iraq. Curious – why is it that the same people who supported the notion of pre-emption when going to war in Iraq, are the same who won’t support it when trying to save the economy.