I know it’s starting to look like we’re piling on Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, and we are–for good reason.

Read this story and try to justify why this empty suit is still in office.

What is the definition of a financial institution under the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was asked on Tuesday. He couldn’t give a specific answer.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Tex.), a member of the House Financial Services Committee, told Paulson he recently read about a group of plumbing contractors who were applying for TARP funds. They wanted to use the money to refurbish foreclosed properties, and they made the case that doing so qualified them as a financial institution.

“And so in your mind, since you are essentially in charge of disbursing the funds, can your give me a clearer, black-and-white definition of what a financial institution is?” Hensarling asked Paulson.

“Congressman, I can’t,” Paulson responded. “We have a broad definition, we got very broad authorities and powers [from Congress], and I think that’s appropriate.

This just gets worse every day.

The economic hits just keep on coming, don’t they? As if we didn’t have enough going on with this credit crisis and and the increasingly broad socialist bailout, we now read that China has surpassed Japan as the largest foreign holder of Treasury debt:

China surpassed Japan in September to become the biggest foreign holder of U.S. Treasuries, as foreign investors sought the relative safety of government debt as stocks plunged 9.1 percent that month.

China led all foreign official investors in September by posting a net increase in U.S. Treasuries for the sixth month in the past seven, bringing its total ownership close to $600 billion. Japan was a net seller of Treasuries for the fourth month in the past six.

China’s ownership of U.S. government debt has doubled since July 2005, while Japan’s holdings are down from a peak of $699 billion in August 2004.

Foreign demand for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other U.S. agency debt increased from a month earlier. Purchases of long- term agency debt totaled a net $6.2 billion, compared with net sales of $8.7 billion in August.

The shills on Wall Street and Washington will tell us that we ought to be thankful for China’s and other foreign government’s purchases of our debt or we the economy would be in even worse shape. That might be correct, but only short-term.

I’m not suggesting that we ban foreign government investments in Treasury securities, but perhaps they should be limited.

Is anyone going to tell me China holding so much of our debt is a good thing and not an economic risk?

Well the answer can pretty much be found by watching the following video put out by the folks over at How Obama Got Elected. If there was ever a case to be made for requiring a voter intelligence assessment test before being permitted to vote, this clip would be the evidentiary centerpiece.

My two favorites: The young lady who openly laughs at her ignorance; and the young lady who admits she gets her news from The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart.

Watch, and be afraid. Very afraid!

This video proves that the media’s attacks on Sarah Palin and question her intelligence worked. That’s both equally sad and scary.

Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Ok) is the latest to call Paulson out:

U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe said Saturday that Congress was not told the truth about the bailout of the nation’s financial system and should take back what is left of the $700 billion “blank check” it gave the Bush administration.

“It is just outrageous that the American people don’t know that Congress doesn’t know how much money he (Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson) has given away to anyone,” the Oklahoma Republican told the Tulsa World.

“It could be to his friends. It could be to anybody else. We don’t know. There is no way of knowing.”

Inhofe’s comments, unusually pointed even for a senator known for being blunt, come on the heels of Paulson’s shift in how he thinks the bailout funds should be spent.

Last week the Treasury secretary announced he was abandoning his plan to free up the nation’s credit system by buying up toxic assets from troubled financial institutions. Instead, Paulson wants to take a more direct action on the consumer credit front.

“He was able to get this authority from Congress predicated on what he was going to do, and then he didn’t do it,” Inhofe said.

“So, that’s enough reason right there.”

Michelle Malkin has a great article summarizing the absurdity that is Hank Paulson as Treasury Secretary.

If you’ve read this blog for any length of time you undoubtedly know I have a tremendous amount of respect for Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC). Well, I have even more respect for him after he not only properly diagnosed the cause for the last two GOP defeats, but he also named names:

The conservative senator, speaking to a group of GOP officials gathered in Myrtle Beach at a conference on the future of the Republican Party, described how the party had strayed from its own “brand,” which, according to DeMint, should represent freedom, religious-based values and limited government.

“We have to be honest, and there’s a lot of blame to go around, but I have to mention George Bush, and I have to mention Ted Stevens, and I’m afraid I even have to mention John McCain,” he said.

DeMint offered a long list of complaints about McCain’s record in the Senate and on the campaign trail.

“McCain, who is proponent of campaign finance reform that weakened party organizations and basically put George Soros in the driver’s seat,” DeMint said. “His proposal for amnesty for illegals. His support of global warming, cap-and-trade programs that will put another burden on our economy. And of course, his embrace of the bailout right before the election was probably the nail in our coffin this last election. And he has been an opponent of drilling in ANWR, at a time when energy is so important. It really didn’t fit the label, but he was our package.”

Bush and Stevens, he said, had corrupted the party brand by expanding the size of government and engaging in wasteful government spending. Had Republicans not strayed from their core beliefs in recent years, DeMint argued, the election results might have been different.

“Americans do prefer a traditional conservative government,” he said. “They just did not believe Republicans were going to give it to them.”

Finally. Finally! Someone outside of conservative talk radio or the blogosphere finally named a few of the culprits behind the last two Republican Party debacles.

Senator DeMint needs to be in a Republican leadership position.