NEWS FROM THE FLORIDA DEMOCRATIC PARTY
For Immediate Release: Dec. 18, 2009
MEDIA ADVISORY
–Online Video Launches–
McCollum Challenged to Apologize for Role in Economic Crisis, Mortgage Meltdown
A new video capturing former Congressman Bill McCollum’s latest denial of his responsibility in creating the financial crisis in America and challenging him to apologize for his role in the current economic debacle was launched online today at http://www.fladems.com/Will_McCollum_Learn.
The video can be viewed, linked to or embedded at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGvwKN6kisM.                                      
As a Congressman, McCollum cosponsored and advocated for a controversial piece of legislation in 1999 that repealed the “too-big-to-fail” financial safeguards, a repeal that has been directly linked to the cause of the financial crisis even by others who once advocated for it.
McCollum insists on denying his role in the financial crisis. But even the former chairman of Citibank has recanted his support for McCollum’s 1999 law and apologized for its role in the national economy.
McCollum is yet to make an apology, or even an acknowledgement, of his own.
“Former Citibank Chairman John S. Reed apologized in a Nov. 6 interview for helping engineer the bank’s merger with Travelers and for his role in building a company that took $45 billion in U.S. assistance. Reed also recanted his advocacy of the repeal of Glass-Steagall. The 1998 merger depended on Congress repealing Glass- Steagall before a five-year deadline that otherwise would have required Travelers to sell its insurance underwriting business. “We learn from our mistakes,” Reed said in the interview. (BusinessWeek 12/15/2009).
After leaving Congress, McCollum became a high-powered Washington lobbyist with a firm that represented Citigroup, the parent group of Citibank.
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