The collapse of investment banking giant Bear Stearns sent shockwaves through the financial sector over the weekend, and resulted in the Fed expanding it's safety net to cover investment firms like Bear Stearns. It also hit really close to home for one Virginian, Republican Jim Gilmore, who "was chairman of a Bear Stearns subsidiary that was set up to market some of its highest-risk securities."

The Fed's response to the Bear collapse was completely unprecedented, and is the result of years of utterly irresponsible financial practices that have resulted in Alan Greenspan predicting, "The current financial crisis in the US is likely to be judged in retrospect as the most wrenching since the end of the second world war."

But Gilmore's foray into irresponsible investments isn't his only financial experience. He's also widely regarded as a "naive" money-manager who poorly handled state finances when he was Governor of Virginia.

Gilmore demonstrated some of that famous financial ineptitude when asked about his role with Bear Stearns:

Gilmore said Tuesday there was no way to predict the subprime home loan industry crisis and its effect on financial markets when he joined Everquest's board in November 2006.

Yeah, who could predict that handing out high-interest balloon loans for more than the value of a house to people reporting no income, no job, and no assets was a bad idea?

Now Jim Gilmore wants to be in the U.S. Senate? Ridiculous.

By all accounts, the US is in serious financial trouble and correcting years of Republican crony capitalism requires leadership that understands how to run an economy, not flim-flam men who are most experienced at selling financial snake oil. Especially when the flim-flam man is too dense to realize that the snake oil doesn't work.