I heard a sound bite yesterday afternoon of SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt on one of the Sunday talk shows. In refusing to resign, Pitt implored that "the American people need me," "this administration needs me," and the economy "needs me."

I don't know about you, but that sounds positively Clintonesque to me. I'll never forget President Clinton's post-impeachment State of the Union, when he instructed us, the American people, that we "owe" Hillary Clinton "thanks" and "gratitude" for all she's done for us. Excuse me? Bill, Hillary, Harvey Pitt -- all of them serve at our discretion (okay, at the time Hillary shouldn't have been "serving" at all, as she was never elected). But government derives its power from us, the governed, not vice-versa. They should be thanking us for allowing them to serve. Frankly, I'm not convinced we need an SEC at all, much less Harvey Pitt at its helm.

Any time a politician starts telling us he's indispensable, that we need him, that we should be thankful for all he does for us, we all ought to be coming down with a third-degree case of the willies.