Marathon Pundit: Durbin the shrewd investor

Monday, June 15, 2009

Durbin the shrewd investor

Illinois voters had the opportunity seven months ago to toss Sen. Dick Durbin out of Washington and replace him with the man on the right, Dr. Steve Sauerberg.

But the misinformed masses here chose to reelect, with a resounding majority, the Springfield Democrat.

Two months before election day, Durbin, who has spent almost his entire adult life as a legislator or working for one, began making some financial moves:

The Senate's No. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin, sold more than $115,000 worth of stocks and mutual-fund shares as U.S. stock markets plummeted last September, using much of the money to invest in Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

The Illinois senator's 2008 financial disclosure statement shows he sold mutual-fund shares worth $42,696 on Sept. 19, the day after then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke urged congressional leaders in a closed meeting to craft legislation to help financially troubled banks. The same day, he bought $43,562 worth of Berkshire Hathaway’s Class B stock, the disclosure shows.

Altogether, Durbin sold investments worth $116,000 in September. By Oct. 2, he had invested $98,046 in Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway, the form shows.

Okay, lots of people pulled out of the market after the crash, but few of them of course enjoy one-on-one time with the chairman of the Federal Reserve.

I wasn't sure what to make of this story when I first read it on Saturday, but luckily Ed Morrissey of Hot Air was able to cut to the chase on this story better than I could have:

Durbin's spokesman says that the September meeting revealed nothing of an insider nature, and that Durbin traded along with the market as the storm clouds gathered. I wonder if the SEC would consider that a compelling alibi if it had been a Wall Street regulator who met with Paulson and traded like this the next day. The Democrats in Congress would be screaming for his head in the latter example, but will surely remain silent as the graveyard about Durbin's suspicious trading.