Cramer Attacks Congressmen For Holding Up Sirius & XM Merger (XMSR, SIRI)

Jim Cramer came back from vacation and on CNBC’s MAD MONEY, he slammed Congress for taking more than a year now for holding up the Sirius Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) and XM Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: XMSR).

• We have earnings from both satellite radio providers this week and a full preview can be seen here where we ponder earnings versus "merger rulings" on importance. 
• Stanford Research recently called for an approval here. 
• Proxy forms Glass Lewis and ISS both advised a vote in favor.
• Barron’s has recently noted that there are concerns on this one.

He wants to know why the deal is being held up, and he is blaming conflicted Congressmen that are getting donations and pressure from lobbyists.  Jim Cramer said the National Association of Broadcaster spent more than$4 million in lobbying to block this deal.  He even named the "lobbyingoffenders" that are out to block this: Gene Green, LouiseSlaughter, John Spratt, Roy Blunt, and Tom Cole (forgive any spelling errors on the names) were all among the onesthat Cramer bashed for protecting their campaign contributors.

a673b.bigscoots-temp.com will tell you ourselves that it is about ten-times more than obvious that the National Association of Broadcasters pushing their "in-pocket Congressman" that land-base (terrestrial) radio has been lobbying to block this.Mark our words….. If they block this merger, traditional/terrestrial radio won’t do any better.  But they will effectively put at least one of these out of business as far as they exist today. 

Cramer noted OpenSecrets.com and campaignmoney.com as sources for you to look these up.  He said these Congressmen are what are keeping this from being approved.

Jon C. Ogg
February 25, 2008