Insider trading, congressional edition

The Obama administration has been very active in creating memes on the subject of greedy bankers and predatory investors; however, according to the WSJ, it looks like congressional staffers are among those climbing aboard the gravy train:

Chris Miller nearly doubled his $3,500 stock investment in a renewable-energy firm in 2008. It was a perfectly legal bet, but he's no ordinary investor.

Mr. Miller is the top energy-policy adviser to Nevada Democrat and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who helped pass legislation that wound up benefiting the firm.

Jim Manley, a spokesman for Mr. Reid's office, initially defended Mr. Miller's purchase of shares in the company, Energy Conversion Devices Inc. He said the aide had no influence over tax incentives for renewable-energy firms, and that other factors boosted the stock.

But on Sunday, Mr. Manley added: "Mr. Miller showed poor judgment and Senator Reid has made it very clear to Chris and all his staff that their actions must not only follow the law, but must meet the higher standards the public has a right to expect from elected officials and their staffs."

Mr. Miller isn't the only Congressional staffer making such stock bets. At least 72 aides on both sides of the aisle traded shares of companies that their bosses help oversee, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of more than 3,000 disclosure forms covering trading activity by Capitol Hill staffers for 2008 and 2009.

The rot runs deep, my friends. It’s really no secret that socialists and their ilk are still subject to human nature, are still driven by the profit motive; it’s just that they’re very selective – nay, very hypocritical - about who should benefit. If, God forbid, these parlor Marxists ever succeed in remaking this country in the image of, say, Venezuela, I’m afraid our grasping masters will find that, when you kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, you’ve got nothing left but goose offal.