This is how the GOP Congress regulate Wall Street? (Salon)

Reuters/Gary Cameron Stelios VariasRep. Spencer Bachus, R - Ala. and Senator Richard Shelby, R - Ala.

Rarely do you see a politician very honest this: last Wednesday, hours after securing the position of the Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Spencer Bachus, R - Ala., said the Birmingham News that "in Washington, the view is that banks should be regulated, my opinion is that Washington and regulators are here to serve banks."

In the following paragraph, the newspaper reported that Bachus "more later to clarify his comment that regulators should define the parameters in which banks operate but not to micromanage the. But the damage was already done. Quote from the Bachus climbed around of the lefty blogosphere and Monday night, Member of the old Congress 62 years won a coveted award of "More person in the world" in Keith Olbermann on "Countdown to MSNBC."

The sincerity of the initial declaration of the Bachus is farmed to greenling, without doubt, but the fuss and hassle on her revealing is a little misleading. Do not listen to words of Alabama Republican to understand just who master it intends to use - all that you need to do is to look at his actions. Together with his colleague Republican Alabaman, Senator Richard Shelby, the powerful of the Senate Banking Committee ranking member it is part of a dynamic duo market fundamentalist Crusaders who will probably set the tone for the banking reform and regulatory oversight to Wall Street are implemented for the next two years.

Immediately after the midterm elections were well prior to his confirmation as Chairman Bachus obtained quickly work its agenda anti-regulation. The day after the election, in fact, Bachus sent a letter to the Supervisory Board of financial stability, which, as I wrote last month, was written as if dictation by Bank lobbyists. Its main objective: the so-called rule Volcker, would, as economist Simon Johnson has so eloquently, "in principle force major banks to get out of the company of their capital in ways that can bring down the entire financial system bet."

Three weeks later, the Office of the Inspector General Department of the Treasury and Federal Reserve corédigés letters Bachus requiring detailed information on the manner in which the Office of consumer financial protection is implemented.

"History shows that the process of creation of a new Government agency is extraordinarily difficult and hard," both legislators writes, according to Bloomberg. "Until now, we know very little on the activities undertaken by the Treasury Board to establish the Office."

But do not be fooled by "a clear lack of accountability and transparency" Bachus lament surrounding the creation of the CFPB. Clear intention is to harass and block the provisional CFPB Director, Elizabeth Warren, at each step of the way. More in the Senate, Richard Shelby made no attempt to hide his contempt for the idea of consumer protection or its reluctance to Warren, but it has been relatively powerless to do anything. BACHUS, however, will have many opportunities to create friction. Reports are due January 10. Hearings will no doubt follow. Want some compelling the CSPAN TV? View Warren, with his Oklahoma twang repel hostile questions soon to come deep drawling Bachus.

Let's recap: who hates the Volcker rule the most? Banks. Which is more irked by consumer financial protection agency? Banks. The agenda is Spencer Bachus already used to the best of its ability? Banks.

With a democratic majority still control of the Senate and White House, Bachus Obama and Shelby will be not completely subverting the reform of the Bank and hose regulatory oversight. But there is little doubt there is a new Sheriff in town. Alabama, a State which, in terms of GDP, is about one-sixth the size of New York, is defined to have an influence on how disproportionate Washington rides herd on Wall Street.

Birmingham News tell us that Bachus is the first Republican Alabama at the Chair of a Committee of the House from the 19th century. It is above all an accident of history. Deeply conservative Alabamans already run the primary committees banking supervision in both the Senate and the House of Commons - but they were at the time the Democrats since there was no place for Republicans in the South of the post-Reconstruction. The chain of events set in motion by the voting rights act which eventually transformed democratic South in a sea of Red States changed all this. (Richard Shelby, it of easy to forget, was a Democrat until 1994, when he switched sides after the Republican victory big divide in the same year.)

The most famous Alabaman influence on Washington regulators Wall Street was probably Henry Steagall, whose name resonates throughout the history of its inclusion in the name of the glass-Steagall Act that separates the investment and commercial banks for most of the 1960s. Bachus and Shelby voted to repeal of glass-Steagall and two of them have worked hard to ensure that the spirit of regulation given birth in the great depression and reanimated by the great depression, died stillborn. Henry Steagall was no ignited Liberal, but it is difficult to imagine that it would be too pleased by the agenda of Alabama.