Tim Griffin argued in a post published Saturday that Senator John McCain should propose appointing a special prosecutor to look into the mortgage crisis. This prosecutor should, Griffin wrote, investigate what caused the crisis, and who was responsible for it. If specific individuals were to blame due to negligence they should, seemingly, be prosecuted.

Although the move may appeal to those who believe that McCain needs to do something to get the momentum back, the idea seems quite useless to me. 

Famous federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald

There are certainly specific individuals who played an important role in the crisis. There are certainly people who enabled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to hand out bad mortgages. And I’m pretty sure other financial institutions are also in the situation they are in right now because CEOs made awful decisions, while they were protected by their friends in Washington, D.C.

All true.

But the crisis was caused by a variety of reasons. Even culture is part of it. Who are you going to prosecute for a culture of debt? Furthermore, what people rightfully demand are solutions, appointing a special prosecutor will not give them any. Instead, it will probably result in more partisan mudslinging, which is not good for anyone, let alone the economy.

In short, the idea may sound nice in theory, but it will be a bad one in practice.

Instead, McCain should develop a plan that would revive the economy, that would bring growth, and then present it to voters.