Military report: secretly ‘recruit or hire bloggers.’
Military report: secretly ‘recruit or hire bloggers.’
Noah Shachtman at Danger Room finds a 2006 report written for U.S. Special Operations Command that suggests ways the military should deal with the blogosphere. One suggestion is for the military to hire bloggers to “pass the U.S. message“:
Information strategists can consider clandestinely recruiting or hiring prominent bloggers or other persons of prominence…to pass the U.S. message. … On the other hand, such operations can have a blowback effect, as witnessed by the public reaction following revelations that the U.S. military had paid journalists to publish stories in the Iraqi press under their own names. People do not like to be deceived, and the price of being exposed is lost credibility and trust.
An alternative strategy is to “make” a blog and blogger. The process of boosting the blog to a position of influence could take some time, however, and depending on the person running the blog, may impose a significant educational burden, in terms of cultural and linguistic training before the blog could be put online to any useful effect. Still, there are people in the military today who like to blog.
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Dodd: Jackson’s resignation was ‘the right thing to do.’
Dodd: Jackson’s resignation was ‘the right thing to do.’
Over in the Wonk Room, Senate Banking Committee chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) guest-blogs and says that Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson’s resignation was the “right thing to do.” He also calls on President Bush to appoint a new Secretary “who can devote his full energy to solving our nation’s housing crisis” — without the distraction of ethics investigations:
In this time of economic crisis and instability in the housing market, it is more important than ever that we have a HUD Secretary who is fully committed to addressing the challenges facing our economy. Given that Secretary Jackson is currently the subject of ongoing investigations into alleged misconduct at HUD, it became clear to me over the past few weeks and months that these investigations have been a distraction at a time when the HUD Secretary must devote his undivided attention to helping American homeowners.
Read the full post here.
Schwarzenegger Aide: McCain’s Climate Plan Gets An ‘F’
Schwarzenegger Aide: McCain’s Climate Plan Gets An ‘F’
Last week, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) bragged about his environmental record while campaigning in California. He insisted that reigning in greenhouse gas emissions “should be a big issue for all of us,” and insinuated that he was stronger on the environment than his Democratic opponents:
“I don’t know what their position is because I haven’t seen them show any particular commitment in the U.S. Senate or elsewhere” on climate change, he told reporters. “I have proposed legislation and fought for amendments.”
Yet just today, McClatchy reports that the climate aide to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) — who endorsed McCain to much fanfare in Feburary — gave McCain a flunking grade on his environmental plans:
Terry Tamminen, an adviser on energy and environmental policy to California Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, looked at what the presidential candidates have said they’d do and graded them: He gave Clinton and Obama B’s, but McCain got an F because he hasn’t put out a specific plan.
As the Washington Post’s Juliet Eilperin noted, McCain’s statement bashing the lack of “commitment” by Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Barack Obama (D-IL) is disingenuous. He sidesteps the fact that the two Democratic senators “back climate legislation, up for a Senate vote in June, that he has yet to endorse.”
Both Clinton and Obama advocate 80 percent cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 — a standard scientists have said is necessary to “if the world is to avoid potentially dangerous impacts of human-induced climate change.” McCain has suggested only 60 percent cuts, and his campaign has wavered even on that.
Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL), who also endorsed McCain, “said he’d give McCain an ‘incomplete’ for saying that it’s ‘not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly whether they’re big banks or small borrowers.’”
Ralph Reed writes a ‘political thriller.’
Ralph Reed writes a ‘political thriller.’
The Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Political Insider writes:
So what, you ask, has Ralph Reed been doing since is unsuccessful ‘06 run for lieutenant governor? Aside from those appearances on Fox and CNN.
Apparently, he’s been at the word processor — moving in the same direction as Newt Gingrich, from large thoughts to fiction. I just got an announcement from the Atlanta Press Club, saying Reed will make a June 12 appearance there.
The communication includes this line:
“He will also sign his first novel, Dark Horse.”
The guess here is that it won’t be a bodice-ripper.
Hayden Dismisses Waterboarding As ‘Uninteresting For The CIA,’ Calls Torture ‘A Legal Term’
Hayden Dismisses Waterboarding As ‘Uninteresting For The CIA,’ Calls Torture ‘A Legal Term’
According to a November 2007 CNN poll, 69 percent of the public believes waterboarding is a form of torture. But yesterday on Meet the Press, CIA director Michael Hayden was dismissive about whether the CIA’s waterboarding constitutes torture. “We have not waterboarded anyone in now over five years,” Hayden said, concluding that it is “an uninteresting question for the Central Intelligence Agency.”
When asked about the broader issue of torture, Hayden referred to it as just a “legal term,” saying that the ongoing public discussion on “torture” per se tends to “cloud the debate”:
Well, first of all, we’re not talking about torture, all right? I mean, torture is a legal term. Now, there are some things that are illegal that are not, that are not torture. And so we cloud the debate when, when we throw the word torture out there, I think, in a far too casual way.
Watch it:
Hayden’s claim that torture is largely a “legal term” underscores the administration’s approach to detainee treatment. Instead of considering it a moral or leadership issue, the Bush administration has repeatedly narrowed the legal definition of torture to fit its aims.
Later in the interview, Hayden said he is unaware of how the Justice Department currently defines waterboarding’s legality — because he hasn’t asked:
RUSSERT: Do you believe now that the Justice Department allows the CIA to engage in waterboarding?
HAYDEN: I don’t — the real answer is — I’m going to be very candid — I have no idea. And do you know why? Because I’ve not asked. And, and I know that previous opinions may no longer be extant because there have been a series of changes in American law since those opinions were issued.
Hayden claimed that waterboarding is “uninteresting” to the CIA as they haven’t waterboarded in five years. But if this is the case, then why did CIA officials leave “open the option of reinstating” the tactic as late as this year?
Transcript: More »
Bush library loses web address to cybersquatter.
Bush library loses web address to cybersquatter.
The Dallas Morning News reports that while the Bush library has found a physical home at Southern Methodist University, it is having difficulty finding an online home. “Some of the very best addresses are gone — snapped up for a mere fistful of dollars by squatters who have no connection to the library yet hope to make fun of the president, protect him or simply cash in on his name.” The Bush Foundation has itself to blame for losing one prominent url:
At one time, the Bush Library Foundation owned the easiest Web site to remember: www.GeorgeWBushLibrary.com.
But whether on purpose or because of an oversight — foundation spokesman Taylor Griffin wasn’t sure — it lost that domain name last year. Illuminati Karate, a Web company in Raleigh, N.C., picked it up for less than $10. [...]
“We’re just holding onto it for the time being,” said lead Web developer George Huger. “To be honest, I couldn’t believe someone was letting it expire.”
Harman: women in military ‘more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire.’
Harman: women in military ‘more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire.’
In today’s LA Times, Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) sheds light on the staggering number of sexual assaults within the military, stating, “Women serving in the U.S. military are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq,” and calls on Congress and the military to do more to protect servicewomen:
At the heart of this crisis is an apparent inability or unwillingness to prosecute rapists in the ranks. According to DOD statistics, only 181 out of 2,212 subjects investigated for sexual assault in 2007, including 1,259 reports of rape, were referred to courts-martial, the equivalent of a criminal prosecution in the military. Another 218 were handled via nonpunitive administrative action or discharge, and 201 subjects were disciplined through “nonjudicial punishment,” which means they may have been confined to quarters, assigned extra duty or received a similar slap on the wrist. In nearly half of the cases investigated, the chain of command took no action; more than a third of the time, that was because of “insufficient evidence.” [...]
The absence of rigorous prosecution perpetuates a culture tolerant of sexual assault — an attitude that says “boys will be boys.”
A Department of Defense report released this month found 2,688 reports of sexual assault in the military in FY2007. According to Harman, the number of reported military rapes jumped 73 percent from 2004 to 2006.
McCain Re-Embraces Supply-Side Theories That Are ‘Beyond The Reach Of Economic Science’
McCain Re-Embraces Supply-Side Theories That Are ‘Beyond The Reach Of Economic Science’
In 2000, while he was first running for president, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) broke from conservative orthodoxy and argued against “giving tax cuts for the rich.” Explaining his change of heart, McCain told The New Republic’s Jonathan Chait that he “didn’t pay nearly the attention to those issues in the past” that he should have and that he was only “a supply-sider” because he didn’t understand the issue:
“In the interest of full disclosure, I didn’t pay nearly the attention to those issues in the past,” he recalls. “I was probably a `supply-sider’ based on the fact that I really didn’t jump into the issue.”
But now that McCain has clinched the Republican nomination, he’s helping supply-side economics make “a political comeback.” Last week, the New York Times reported that as McCain pushes for the Bush tax cuts to be made permanent, “his camp increasingly cites as justification the supply-side effect on upper-income families.”
Like his previous support for supply-side economics, McCain’s re-embrace appears to also be more faith-based than fact-based:
“What really happens is that the economy grows more vigorously when you lower tax rates,” said Kevin Hassett, an adviser to the presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain, and the director for economic policy studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “It is beyond the reach of economic science to explain precisely why that happens, but it does.”
As Brendan Nyhan noted in January, McCain has repeatedly pushed debunked supply-side theories while on the campaign trail:
“Don’t listen to this siren song about cutting taxes. Every time in history we have raised taxes it has cut revenues.” — McCain, [1/17/08]
“I would suggest that most economists agree that there was an increase in revenues… associated with the tax cuts.” — McCain, [12/5/07]
“Tax cuts—tax cuts increase revenues. The tax cuts, the revenues increased because of it. The spending outpaced the tax cuts.” — McCain, [11/27/07]
“Tax cuts, starting with Kennedy, as we all know, increase revenues. So what’s the argument for increasing taxes? If you get the opposite effect out of tax cuts?” — McCain, [3/5/07].
As the New York Times points out, tax revenues saw an “average annual increase of 6.5 percent in the eight years of the Clinton administration” while “the annual per capita revenue from income taxes fell 1 percent under President Bush.”
The Center for American Progress Action Fund’s Robert Gordon and James Kvaal recently noted that McCain’s tax cut proposals would “cost the federal government more than $2 trillion in tax revenue over 10 years.”
New Green Zone attacks.
New Green Zone attacks.
The fortified Green Zone “came under fresh attack Monday, less than 24 hours after anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr told his fighters to stand down following a week of clashes with government forces.” No serious injuries were reported today, but at least “two Americans working for the U.S. government died in attacks on the zone last week.” A U.S. soldier was also “killed by a roadside bomb in northeast Baghdad on Monday.”
K Street Project is hiring.
K Street Project is hiring.
Roll Call reports:
Democrats have been happily crowing about the death of the K Street Project since the November 2006 elections that restored their majorities in Congress. In fact, a version of the campaign, or what’s left of it, has still been kicking around, and it’s about to get some new management.
Americans for Tax Reform — the anti-tax group headed by Grover Norquist — has long maintained a Web site bearing the project’s name as a jobs bank for like-minded conservatives. Now, after three years at the helm of that effort, Sarah Smith has left for a job at a professional search firm. But Chris Butler, ATR’s chief of staff, said the group will continue its job-placement push and will announce Smith’s replacement soon. He acknowledged the political realities have changed the dynamic of the campaign.
The K Street Project’s website is currently down, with the message: “This site is currently offline for revisions. Stay tuned.”
O’Hanlon’s Griping Pays Off: CNN Calls Him ‘To Tell Us Why Voters Continue To Care About Iraq’
O’Hanlon’s Griping Pays Off: CNN Calls Him ‘To Tell Us Why Voters Continue To Care About Iraq’
According to a recent study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ), the number of news reports on Iraq have fallen dramatically since last year. In July 2007, there were an average of 15 percent of news stories devoted to the war in Iraq; that number dropped to just three percent in February 2008.
Last week, Brookings Institution analyst Michael O’Hanlon complained to the New York Times that he is a perfect example of the media’s declining interest in Iraq, as he hardly receives Iraq interview requests anymore:
“I was getting on average three to five calls a day for interviews about the war” in the first years, said Michael E. O’Hanlon, a senior fellow on national security at the Brookings Institution. “Now it’s less than one a day.“
On its “This Week in Politics” segment on Saturday, CNN took pity on poor O’Hanlon. Host Tom Foreman said they decided to call O’Hanlon not because he was the most qualified, but because they heard his cries for attention:
In Monday’s “New York Times,” Brookings scholar Michael O’Hanlon was quoted as saying that the number of journalists calling him for stories on Iraq has fallen off to zero. So, we gave Michael a call and invited him to tell us why voters continue to care about Iraq. And we called in CNN’s Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr to keep him honest.
Watch it:
While O’Hanlon blames the press for his decreasing number of interviews, there is another possibility: his authority on Iraq has declined, as he has repeatedly and inextricably linked himself to Bush’s Iraq policies.
The media refuse to abandon these discredited pundits completely though. As the National Security Network’s Ilan Goldenberg observes, O’Hanlon has had “13 pieces in four of the most influential op-ed pages in the country over the past 7 months. … Unless you are a cabinet level position or higher, nobody deserves this type of representation.”
The Center for American Progress’s Eric Alterman and George Zornick also add, “Most of the pundits asked to look back on the first six years of the war in mainstream organs like The New York Times op-ed page and the online magazine, Slate, were people who got the decision wrong in the first place.”
(HT: Heather)
Former Bush Treasury Secretary chides McCain on economy.
Former Bush Treasury Secretary chides McCain on economy.
In an interview with the Sunday New York Times Magazine, Paul O’Neill – President Bush’s former Secretary of the Treasury – sarcastically commented on McCain’s lack of preparation to lead on economic issues:
NYT: McCain recently confessed in public that his grasp of economics is limited.
O’NEILL: Yeah. That’s a great place to start from, isn’t it?
In 2004, O’Neill was reported in a book as saying that Bush lacked “credibility with his most senior officials,” while a “puppeteer” (Cheney) called the shots. Asked if he has spoken with Cheney recently, O’Neill said, “I have been to a few events where the vice president was there, but we both did our best to ignore each other.”
Bush tried to avoid boos.
Bush tried to avoid boos.
The AP reports:
President Bush had enough to worry about - like not flubbing the first pitch in front of a crowd that might not exactly be his biggest fans anyway.
So before the game, when a couple of Atlanta Braves gave him a team jersey and suggested he wear it to throw out the first pitch at Nationals Park, Bush laughed. Uh, no thanks, guys. Might as well put on a sign that says “Boo me.”
“I’m not going to give them any excuses,” Bush said of the 40,000-plus people gathered for the opening of Washington’s gleaming baseball stadium.
Unfortunately for Bush, the fact that he refused a Braves jersey wasn’t enough to erase the eight years of his presidency. Watch the boos here.
CNN Scrubs Dobbs’ Racially Charged Comment From Transcript
CNN Scrubs Dobbs’ Racially Charged Comment From Transcript
Referring to Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) recent speech on race while speaking with a group of journalists last week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the U.S. “still has trouble dealing with race because of a national ‘birth defect’ that denied black Americans the opportunities given to whites at the country’s very founding.” Rice added that this “birth defect” makes it “hard for us to talk about it, and hard for us to realize that it has continuing relevance for who we are today.”
When asked to respond to Rice’s remarks on the Situation Room last Friday, CNN host Lou Dobbs became agitated. TPM’s Josh Marshall noted that Dobbs explained “how he’s sick of ‘cotton pickin’ black leaders telling him how he can and can’t talk about race (he catches himself at the last minute — sorta).”
Watch it:
While it appears that Dobbs was about to say “cotton picking” (often used as a racially charged slur) in reference to Rice, he caught himself, only uttering the word “cotton.” Yet, the CNN transcript from Friday’s Situation Room has omitted the word “cotton” from Dobbs’ remarks:
DOBBS: We’ve got to be able to talk about it and I can guarantee you this, not a single one of these [the word "cotton" should appear here] — just ridiculous politicians should be the moderator on the issue of race. We have to have a far better discussion than that.
One could perhaps wonder then if CNN has a habit of doctoring Lou Dobbs’ statements for its official transcripts.
Elizabeth Edwards: McCain and I wouldn’t be covered under his health care plan.
Elizabeth Edwards: McCain and I wouldn’t be covered under his health care plan.
Elizabeth Edwards said this weekend that she and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who have both been treated for cancer, have one thing in common: “Neither one of us would be covered by his health policy.” Under McCain’s plan, insurance companies “wouldn’t have to cover preexisting conditions like melanoma and breast cancer,” she said, since cancer survivors are routinely denied insurance when they try to purchase it as individuals. Read more about McCain’s health care plan at the Wonk Room.
Jackson Gets Evicted: White House Officials Questioned His ‘Ability To Continue To Lead The Agency’
Jackson Gets Evicted: White House Officials Questioned His ‘Ability To Continue To Lead The Agency’
Today, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Alphonso Jackson announced his resignation, effective April 18, marking the exit of one of Bush’s few remaining holdovers from Texas. CNN’s Ed Henry reports that Jackson is departing because he has “been struggling privately” with ethics allegations. Watch it:
The Washington Post reports that officials summoned Jackson to the White House last Monday, and “discussed his ability to continue to lead the agency.” Jackson faces ongoing probes “by a federal grand jury, the Justice Department, the FBI and the HUD inspector general.” At least five lawmakers have called on Jackson to resign, including Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA), Christopher Dodd (D-CT), and Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), and Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Barney Frank (D-MA).
In May 2007, Jackson testified to Congress, “I don’t touch contracts.” In retrospect, that statement appears to have been at best a gross inaccuracy, and at worst, an outright lie. A look at Jackson’s tenure of incompetence and corruption:
Loyalty Over Merits: During a speech on April 28, 2006, Jackson recounted a conversation he had with a prospective contractor who had a “heck of a proposal.” This contractor, however, told Jackson, “I don’t like President Bush.” Jackson subsequently refused to award the man the contract. A former HUD assistant secretary confirmed that Jackson told agency employees to “consider presidential supporters when you are considering the selected candidates for discretionary contracts.”
Political Retaliation: In 2006, Jackson allegedly demanded that the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) “transfer a $2 million public property” at a “substantial discount” to Kenny Gamble, a developer, former soul-music songwriter, and friend of Jackson’s. When PHA director Carl Greene refused, Jackson and his aides called Philadelphia’s mayor and “followed up with ‘menacing’ threats about the property and other housing programs in at least a dozen letters and phone calls over an 11-month period.”
Contracts For Golfing Buddies: In October 2007, federal investigators looked into whether, after Hurricane Katrina, Jackson lined up an emergency “no-bid contract” at the HUD-controlled Housing Authority of New Orleans for “golfing buddy” and friend William Hairston. According to HUD, the emergency contract paid Hairston $392,000 over a year and a half; Hairston’s partner companies also received “direct contracts” with HUD. One of the companies which received a contract in New Orleans, Columbia Residential, had “significant financial ties to Jackson.” Jackson’s wife also had “ties to two companies that did business with the New Orleans authority.”
Awarding Corrupt Companies: Shirlington Limousine and Transportation Inc. is the firm that defense contractor Brent Wilkes used to “transport congressmen, CIA officials, and perhaps prostitutes to his Washington parties.” The firm’s president had a “lengthy history of illegal activity,” detailed in his 62-page rap-sheet, and his limo company “operates in what looks to be a deliberately murky way.” Despite all this, Jackson’s HUD awarded Shirlington a contract worth $519,823.
Lucrative Salaries For Cronies: Atlanta lawyer Michael Hollis, another Jackson friend, “appears to have been paid approximately $1 million for managing the troubled Virgin Islands Housing Authority,” despite having “no experience in running a public housing agency.” A “top Jackson aide” reportedly made it clear to officials within HUD that “Jackson wanted Hollis” for the job. Hollis received more than four times the salary of his predecessor.
The Corner comments that it’s “remarkable is that amid some sizable problems in the housing market, most Americans couldn’t name the Secretary of HUD.” But while Jackson was busy erecting giant photo homages to himself, the nation was spiraling into the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression. It’s therefore not surprising that the Bush administration hasn’t given Jackson a higher profile.
Two McCain aides lobbied for ’shady’ mortgage lender.
Two McCain aides lobbied for ’shady’ mortgage lender.
On Friday, the Politico reported that the past anti-regulatory and lobbying efforts of one of Sen. John McCain’s top economic advisers, former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, “contributed significantly to today’s economic turmoil.” Today, the New York Daily News reports “that two of his top advisers were recently lobbyists for a notorious lender in the mortgage meltdown“:
John Green, the senator’s chief liaison to Congress, and Wayne Berman, his national finance co-chairman, billed more than $720,000 in lobbying fees from 2005 through last year to Ameriquest Mortgage through their lobbying firm, disclosure forms reviewed by the Daily News show.
Ameriquest, which since has been bought out, was forced to settle suits with 49 states for $325 million. More than 13,680 New York homeowners got taken for a ride by the company, records show.
“They would be defined as the most blatant and aggressive predatory lenders out of everybody,” said Bruce Marks, head of the nonprofit Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America.
ThinkFast: March 31, 2008
ThinkFast: March 31, 2008
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson — who has come under widespread criticism for cronyism and corruption within his department — “is expected to announce his resignation Monday.” “The exact reasons for Mr. Jackson’s decision couldn’t be learned.”
Former Secretary of HUD and current Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) told CNN yesterday that he’d give John McCain an “incomplete” for saying that it’s “not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly whether they’re big banks or small borrowers.”
Today, Al Gore and the Alliance for Climate Protection launch a bipartisan, $300 million, three-year campaign to push for climate change legislation. Some of the “We” campaign’s TV ads “will team up offbeat celebrity couples” who “share a belief that it is important to address climate change,” such as Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and former Speaker Newt Gingrich. View the debut ad here.
After days of violence in oil-rich Basra, Iraqi lawmakers said that “Iranian officials helped broker a cease-fire agreement Sunday between Iraq’s government and radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.” Despite the truce, violence continued in Baghdad today as the city’s fortified Green Zone came under mortar and rocket attack.
Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell said the paper erred in not reporting the sexual orientation of fallen soldier Maj. Alan Rogers, who died in Iraq on March 14. The Post did not report Rogers was gay in its story last week. Howell said the Post’s story “would have been richer” had the paper reported Rogers’s feelings about “don’t ask, don’t tell,” which he opposed. More »
Bush booed loudly while throwing out first pitch in Nationals home opener.
Bush booed loudly while throwing out first pitch in Nationals home opener.
President Bush delivered the first pitch tonight at the new Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. to a resounding chorus of boos. After being announced, Bush was showered by boos as he strode to the mound. Even after Bush delivered the pitch, the jeering did not let up until the President disappeared from the field. Watch it:
In 2006, Vice President Cheney was also loudly booed when he threw out the first pitch for the Nationals. In a rare move for a president, Bush missed the team’s home openers in both 2006 and 2007.
Washington Nationals manager Manny Acta caught Bush’s pitch. Acta was chosen after Paul Lo Duca, the Nationals’ catcher was by-passed due to his involvement with performance-enhancing drugs.
Krugman On Bush-McCain Response To Housing Crisis: ‘It’s Like Katrina’ To Say ‘Let People Suffer’
Krugman On Bush-McCain Response To Housing Crisis: ‘It’s Like Katrina’ To Say ‘Let People Suffer’
Last week, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) spoke to the Orange County Hispanic Small Business Roundtable in California on solving the nation’s economic woes. During that speech, he stated that he does not believe the federal government should assist struggling homeowners:
I have always been committed to the principle that it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers.
McCain instead advocated a laissez faire approach, saying that he would “convene a meeting of the nation’s accounting professionals” and “top mortgage lenders” and try to persuade them to voluntarily help Americans.
Today on ABC This Week, former Labor secretary Robert Reich and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman compared McCain’s approach to Herbert Hoover. “John McCain makes Herbert Hoover look like an activist,” said Reich. Krugman then added that ignoring the housing crisis is just as bad as the administration’s response after Hurricane Katrina:
It would be a little different if the administration said housing prices are going up. If they hadn’t said there’s no bubble. It’s a national disaster in effect. It’s like Katrina. To say, oh, let people suffer, saying let those people who made the mistake of staying in New Orleans suffer.
Watch it:
On March 16, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) also said, “The President’s hands-off attitude is reminiscent of Herbert Hoover in 1929 and 1930.”
Transcript: More »
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