WAH! Wall Street Whiner Wants 15 Years of Fame

It should come as no surprise that Wall Street Whiner Rick Santelli wants more than his 15 minutes of fame. Greed has been the mantra on Wall Street for so long that it appears to have rubbed off on the CNBC Correspondent… Not only does Santelli feel entitled to throw stones at the houses of the less fortunate, he also wants to garner sympathy for his own mortgage foreclosure rant, claiming that the attention it drew was a personal attack on his name.

Rick should get a grip … other than the one he was using when he pretended to think Press Secretary Robert Gibbs’ reference to his luxury home was a public threat. To harm him how, exactly? Ring his doorbell and then break his kneecaps with a Louisville Slugger while security cameras recorded everything? Send Child Protective Services to remove his children from an atmosphere of hysterical overreaction? Throw red paint on his wife’s favorite, full-length fur coat? (Assuming that Santelli’s high adrenaline levels haven’t ruled out the possibilities of marriage and procreation)

By going ballistic over the use of taxpayer money to help strapped homeowners avoid foreclosure, when the very industry on which he reports and which he appears to champion has accepted billions in bail-out money, Santelli perfectly illustrates the attitude of self-centered entitlement that has made Wall Street so notorious. “Reward people that could carry the water instead of drink the water,” he said. Uh, Rick? How many more rewards do you want? It is easy to imagine him home alone with his remote, replaying that scene from the 1987 movie Wall Street, in which Gordon Gekko crows, “Greed is good.”

By seizing upon Press Secretary Gibb’s allusion to the obvious… that in Santelli’s own pricey neighborhood it is unlikely that anyone needed an ill-advised home loan to add a second bathroom… or pay for childcare or groceries or a parent’s medical bills… he also illustrates the reluctance of Wall Street to acknowledge that privilege is not inherently a virtue, and that empathy, when missing, can skew perception.

Santelli was happy to be in the center of a media spotlight when he ranted that he didn’t want to pay for his “loser” neighbor’s imaginary mortgage. But he was outraged by the response that maybe that foam of spittle in the corners of his mouth was the result of drinking too much coffee instead of actually reading the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan.

Since 15 minutes of fame isn’t enough for Rick Santelli, and since everyone from Kato Kaelin to Joe the Plumber can tell him that flash fame is not a big slice of cake one can have and eat too, here is some advice: Pull up your big-boy skivvies, Mr. Santelli, and help America deal with the mess that Wall Street helped create.

And for God’s sake… stop whining.