What could possibly be more tragic than a 1400 page financial reform bill written by some of the key architects of financial ruin:  Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and Timothy Geithner ?  

How about a convenient show trial for Goldman Sachs, one of biggest beneficiaries of the bailout these clever men cooked up? 

Yes, folks, we are on to the farce portion of the meal.

It was Karl Mark who wrote that history repeats itself:  first as tragedy, then as farce.    It was tragic when the Bolsheviks slaughtered the ruling elites of Russia.   It was a farce when these same Bolsheviks were subject to Joseph Stalin's show trials.

Today, we have a new kind of political show trial in our midst.   It follows on the heals of a financial tragedy.

On the one hand, you have a handful of elite, well-connected financial intermediaries and their investing clients that loaded up on smart gimmicks that were too clever by half.   These derivatives instruments went poof when underlying real estate values declined more than expected.   In a normal world, this would mean those dabbling in these hot potatoes would get burned.   But lo and behold, these cats, who are perfectly capable of fattening themselves up for slaughter, were saved from their own idiocy by the bailout of their chief casino on credit -- AIG.

That was the tragedy.   It is a tragedy that continues with an effort by Dodd, Frank, Geithner to play house to the Wall Street whales -- for a cut of the take of course.

Now comes word that one of the main beneficiaries of the AIG bailout -- Goldman Sachs -- might have done something that might have looked like something that might be connected to something that could possibly be interpreted as greedy speculation.

I will let the judicial process pass judgment on whether Goldman Sachs hid the ball from some highly sophisticated investors and whether our cop on the street -- the SEC -- owes it to these big wigs to fight the fight on their behalf.

What I do know is that the timing and subject matter has all the earmarks of a show trial meant to distract from a far greater set of sins that took place within the government before, during and after the financial crisis.