I don't think the Wall StreetJournalwould allow me to copy every Thomas Frank column on this blog (I sometimes wonder how they can bear to run the column themselves). But it's been a few weeks since I last mentionedhim, and in that time a lot has happened. The champions of deregulation, including McCain's economic advisors and, yes, including McCain, must now answer for the spectacular failure of their policies, which protected and even encouraged reckless practices in the financial industry. Instead, they will bemoan the excesses of a few rogues, insist that this not count against their free-market mania, and try to convince us that no one saw this coming. Putsme in mind of the neocons who, after it became clear that we weren't going to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, shrugged and said, "Well, everyone was wrong." The same dodge, the same party. Here's Frank:

There is simply no way to blame this disaster, as Republicans used to do, on labor unions or over-regulation. No, this is the conservatives' beloved financial system doing what comes naturally. Freed from the intrusive meddling of government, just as generations of supply-siders and entrepreneurial exuberants demanded it be, the American financial establishment has proceeded to cheat and deceive and beggar itself -- and us -- to the edge of Armageddon. It is as though Wall Street was run by a troupe of historical re-enactors determined to stage all the classic panics of the 19th century.By the way, this is the same system the Republicans would still apparently like to put in charge of Social Security. The same system that is minting millionaire CEOs, that is holding the line on wages, and that we will be bailing out for years.On Monday, John McCain blamed the disaster on "greed by some based in Wall Street." It's a personal failing of some evil few, in other words, and presumably capitalism will start working again once we squeeze the self-interest out of it. In the weeks to come, maybe Sen. McCain will also take a bold stand against covetousness and sloth.

Read the rest here.