McCain, Mad Money and the suspicious CEO

A maverick like Sen. John McCain is wont to seek advice from unlikely folks.

That’s the mark of a maverick. But would the Republican presidential candidate tap Jim Cramer, the pulse-pumping host of CNBC’s Mad Money, for economic policy?

Whether or not he actually would, it makes Nasdaq CEO Robert Greifeld uncomfortable that, around the same time two weeks ago, both McCain and Cramer endorsed the so-called uptick rule as an emergency measure in financial markets. Greifeld, not shy of dabbling in politics, pointed out the eerie coincidence in the waning minutes of a conference call this week.

The topic was the U.S. ban on short-selling, and Nasdaq, the big stock market, was advocating the use of circuit breakers to help rein in traders said to be feeding off rotting financial firms. (Circuit breakers could be used to halt short selling after a stock drops by a specified amount.

The uptick rule, on the other hand, was used by the SEC for decades to force shorters to sell at a higher price than the previous trade.) Greifeld, also not shy of tongue-in-cheek, was arguing that the uptick rule was more or less useless, when he took a break to say:

“I just have a personal feeling when I see Jim Cramer advocating for it on Mad Money, and then Senator McCain advocating that Chairman Cox be fired, and also advocating for the adaptation of the uptick rule, I get concerned that it’s just kind of a rush to judgment not based upon any particular study.”

Checkmate. But for the record, McCain made the recommendations amid a flurry of others as Wall Street crumbled and Washington desperately needed a fix. Cramer made the recommendation amid flying chairs, rolled-up sleeves and the sound of toppling bowling pins.