A little ranting can go a long way
Monday, February 23, 2009 at 08:10PM 
Last week CNBC's Rick Santelli was a little known voice in the chorus of commentators that is CNBC.
This week he's the face of the anti-socialsim "whatever happened to moral hazard" gang that is screaming bloody no to President Obama's housing and stimulus plans.
The Chicago Tribune has a great piece on Santelli's new found celebrity. Evidently, book publishers and radio stations have come a knocking with some offers. And none of it is lost on Santelli:
"I've been associated with them 14 years, 10 years on the payroll, and you never see me much in commercials and whatnot," Santelli said (referring to CNBC). "Boy, has that changed in the last 36 hours."
There's no doubt that Santelli's rant has hit a nerve, though the story reached the stratosphere only after Press Secretary Robert Gibbs singled Sanelli out at his press briefing.
But it's a nerve nonetheless. And the administration needs to be careful with overdoing the subsidies and bailouts. Everyone wants to see the economy recover, but at some point it needs to be allowed to de-leverage. Soft landing: yes. Socialism: no.
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