THE POLITICAL LANDSCAPE:

Area political leaders remained skeptical of a proposed $700 billion bank and mortgage federal bailout plan as U.S. markets edged lower Wednesday in the uncertain financial climate.

John Moorlach, chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, knows a few things about money problems. He predicted the largest municipal bond portfolio loss and bankruptcy in U.S. history during his 1994 campaign.

Moorlach isn’t buying plans for the $700 billion bailout of the U.S. financial system. The plan would only “enable” greedy Wall Street tycoons, he said.

“When I ran against Citron, I learned a lot about Wall Street and greed,” Moorlach said. “We’re going to step in to protect sloppy business decisions and leave taxpayers holding the bag.”

Orange County Treasurer-Tax Collector Chriss Street is reassuring taxpayers this week that the county investment pool hasn’t been tainted by exposure to troubled firms. The treasurer’s office has $5.7 billion invested for the county, school districts and area cities.

“During this time of market stress, our office is giving each purchase heightened scrutiny and we are employing enhanced oversight techniques,” Street said in a written statement. “Taxpayer investments are safe, sound and secure.”

However, the county has a large chunk of holdings in troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Moorlach said.

“We’re safe now, but there’s more news every day, and we’re not out of the woods yet,” he said.

‘economy is shaking’

Newport-Mesa Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and Democratic challenger Debbie Cook are both leery of the bailout plan.

Both are calling for more regulation in the financial industry and limitations on the size of large lenders.

Having the government pay the price for bad decisions made in the private sector seems like a bad idea to Rohrabacher, and he says he would likely vote against any proposals for massive bailouts.

“The economy is shaking like an earthquake, and financial structures are up there shaking and those with weaknesses because of bad decisions are coming down,” Rohrabacher said.

Cook doesn’t like the idea of a bailout either. She thinks government resources should be used only to the extent necessary to keep the national and international economies from “falling off a cliff” because of the mortgage crisis.

“I think you have to look at this as how can you protect the most people with the least amount of government action,” Cook said.

Cook and Rohrabacher agree that financial institutions should not be allowed to grow so large that it wreaks havoc on the economy if they fail as long as the government is going to guarantee their loans.

“If there are going to be government guarantees, we have the right to set the parameters,” Rohrabacher said.