Intellectual Garbage Collection (Yet Another Kevin Hassett Edition: "Dishonest and Purposefully Misleading")
Ah. I see that Kevin Hassett continues to be full of s--- that is politically convenient for the Republican Party.
Larry Tate deals with the manure pile so the rest of us don't have to:
I Hate What You Just Said: Kevin Hassett... entitled “How the Democrats Created the Financial Crisis.”... The title tells you all you need to know.... When something goes wrong, don’t think — just point your finger at the appropriate evildoer, be he terrorist or Democrat... in Kevin’s own words:
Now that the collapse has occurred, the roadblock built by Senate Democrats in 2005 is unforgivable. Many who opposed the bill doubtlessly did so for honorable reasons. Fannie and Freddie provided mounds of materials defending their practices. Perhaps some found their propaganda convincing. But we now know that many of the senators who protected Fannie and Freddie, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Christopher Dodd, have received mind-boggling levels of financial support from them over the years. Throughout his political career, Obama has gotten more than $125,000 in campaign contributions from employees and political action committees of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, second only to Dodd, the Senate Banking Committee chairman, who received more than $165,000.... There has been a lot of talk about who is to blame for this crisis. A look back at the story of 2005 makes the answer pretty clear.
Yes, pretty clear to the manichean brain.
I. Step One: Consider the source.... AEI... Dow 36,000.... Hassett works on the McCain campaign with people like Aquiles Suarez... director... lobbyist for Fannie Mae? Or Charlie Black... lobbyist for Freddy Mac between 1999 and 2004?... McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, a “former” Freddie Mac lobbyist who was yesterday revealed to still be on the payroll for Freddie Mac to the tune of $15,000 a month?... 19 people who are former lobbyists for Fannie or Freddie now working for the McCain campaign.... Either he’s a scruple-free mercenary or he’s trying to manipulate us. Or maybe both...
II. Step two: Examine the evidence.... I found the data table that Hassett used for his argument.
And, as you might guess, Hassett does not seem to be a fair dealer....
A PAC... is a group specifically organized by a corporation or private group.... The Individual category denotes political donations made by private individuals who just happen to have jobs... employees of Fannie and Freddie... the PAC only gave Obama $6,000, Clinton $8,000, and Dodd $48,500 over a nineteen year period spanning the years 1989-2008. Not very impressive figures [compared to the amounts for Republicans: $79K for Blunt, $71K for Bennett, $70K for Bachus, $64K for Bond, $61K for Boehner, and here we get our first Democrat--$61K for Reid]....
While Hassett doesn’t say anything that is an outright lie, he is dishonest and purposefully misleading....
Hassett also claims that in 2005, John McCain co-sponsored a bill... intends us to understand that the campaign donation monies from Fannie and Freddie were used to influence these key Democrats to “kill the fix” (i.e. McCain’s bill)....
[T]he McCain-sponsored bill mentioned in the article didn’t make it out of the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs committee.... Hassett’s claim about Democrats “killing” the bill by a vote is false.... Obama and Clinton aren’t even on that committee.... [I]n 2005, the Republicans... did whatever they wanted within the committees.... Why didn’t the Republicans just force it through? They could have given this issue the Terry Schiavo treatment.... Hassett’s basis for claiming that the Democrats are at fault because they blocked this bill is utterly false...
