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Tuesday, October 07, 2008

The Wachovia Debacle And The Missing Saturday Night Live Skit



Hat Tip To Faustasblog for the video above... it may not be up long before it is pulled, but I will continue to try to keep a live version up as long as I can find it.

Saturday Night Live produced a skit that slammed, Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, and Democrats for opposing reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They also skewered Herb and Marion Sandler as predatory lenders. The SNL video has mysteriously disappeared.

Herb and Marion Sandler were co-chief executives for Golden West Financial Corp., and were once hailed as "voices of reason" as they guided their company and it's subsidiary, World Savings, safely through the 1980's and 1990's, when thousands of other savings-and-loan failed.

In October 2006, after 40 years of running what was once referred to as an "endearing mom-and-pop shop" they sold their business to Wachovia in a $24.3 billion deal as USA Today reports.

This past weekend, Saturday Night Live (SNL), produced a skit dealing with the massive bailout for Wall Street that has just been passed by the U.S. Senate, House and signed by President Bush.

In the skit, SNL cast skewered Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Congressman Barney Frank who is the Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee for opposing reforms regarding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and toward the end of the skit cast members played Herbert and Marion Sandler, with the screen shot showing the caption "people who should be shot" as well as George Soros, with the caption "Multi-Billionaire hedge Fund Manager, Owner Democratic Party."





Hat Tip MM for the screenshots.

Herb Sander spoke to the Associate Press the morning after seeing the SNL skit which derided them as "predatory lenders" who had duped borrowers and Wachovia, After seeing the skit replayed on the Internet, Sandler was described as "seething," about how he and his wife were portrayed.

More information about the Sandlers can be found at New York Times Magazine from a March 9, 2008 piece called "Self-Made Philanthropists."

Although many SNL skits are available at Hulu and other video uploading sites, this particular skit was uploaded, was shown and linked to, but has mysteriously disappeared and now when someone clicks the link they are greeted with a message saying "Unfortunately, this video is no longer available but here are other related videos to watch," and underneath are clips from other SNL skits.

The video was captured and uploaded by Pat Dollard, who declares "yank this b*tches".

Conservative author, blogger and syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin has painstakingly transcribed the whole skit with screenshots at her blog MichelleMalkin.com.

Others interested in why this specific video was yanked off of every video upload site it was put on are claiming that NBC is also deleting questions about the bailout skit from their messageboards.

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