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Rep. Gary Ackerman cries shame at the SEC VIDEO

By April MacIntyre Feb 6, 2009, 3:03 GMT

The financial Patient Zero: Bernard Madoff (C) surrounded by reporters as he arrives to his apartment building after being placed under house arrest by a judge in New York, New York, USA. EPA/JUSTIN LANE .

CNN has been having fun rerunning the blistering dressing down delivered by Rep. Gary Ackerman at the SEC assembled honchos in Congress today.

The Village Voice notes that despite the shaming that Ackerman heaped upon the disgraced securities watchdogs, who are paid very well to make sure your broker or his firm isn't tipping off cousin Joe or Aunt Mabel about an inside trade, blew it in gargantuan proportions by overlooking the stinkiest fish in the pond: Bernie Madoff.

Ackerman is described by the Voice as an "AIPAC loyalist who once took cash from Bernie Madoff."

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is a special interest group that lobbies the United States Government in favor of maintaining a close US-Israel relationship.

The Voice contends that Ackerman "showed practically no interest in the SEC's operations until the current Wall Street meltdown.

Ackerman's rabid remarks are explained by the Voice as politics in play, as Ackerman "represents conservative Jews across the country and in Israel as one of Jewish-hawk lobby AIPAC's most ardent loyalists."

The currently free and at large Bernie Madoff committed crimes that deeply affected and impoverished many of Ackerman's constituency, according to the Voice.