Joel Dykstra in 2008 SD Senate encounters

On Budget & Economy: Johnson was asleep at the wheel on Banking Committee

Dykstra said Johnson has touted his 22 years in Congress and projected himself as a veteran with influence and important committee assignments. But he questioned whether Johnson’s seat on the Senate Banking Committee had proven useful at all in the months leading up to the financial meltdown. “On that committee, either there was something he should have done or there was nothing he could do,” Dykstra said. “Either way, that’s not a strong recommendation.”

Johnson said he had called for more oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the troubled government-supported mortgage entities. But that call for oversight was opposed by President Bush and Republican supporters in Congress.

On Budget & Economy: Figure out where system failed in order to prevent a repeat

“Folks in South Dakota work hard and their earnings should not subsidize the bloated compensation of a CEO of a failing firm,” he said. The $700 billion bailout “package may be a necessary evil, but we cannot allow it to be a gift to those on Wall Street at the expense of those on Main Street.”

Dykstra said the establishment in Washington, D.C., both Democrat and Republican, must accept th responsibility for the nation’s current crisis. And as the nation moves forward in trying to fix the problems in the mortgage business and on Wall Street, it’s important to figure out where the system failed in order to prevent a repeat, he said.