Ken Berwitz

Steve Rattner is a highly accomplished financier and journalist, with a resume that most people (me among them) would kill for.  I congratulate him 100 times over for his remarkable career.

Unfortunately, Mr. Rattner is also a hardline Democrat whose vast knowledge base and analytical talents, when applied to political situations, seem, in the immortal words of Irving Berlin, "to vanish like a gambler's lucky streak". 

Naturally, therefore, he is a regular on MSNBC.  But he also can sometimes be found on ABC's "This Week".

Nowhere was Mr. Rattner's bias - and selective memory - more evident than on Today's edition of ABC's "This Week" -- a show formerly hosted by Clinton operative George Stephanopoulos which currently features hard-leftist Christiane Amanpour.  A controversy arose, you see, over whether Rattner ever referred to the Tea Party as a bunch of terrorists, strapping dynamite to themselves and threatening to blow up Times Square along with everything else.

Here is how Mr. Rattner tried to prevaricate (that's a big word for "lie") his way around the statements he had made about the Tea Party, and how George Will took him apart for it.  The transcript comes from Noel Sheppard's blog at newsbusters.org.  I have also included a bit of Mr. Sheppard's narrative:

GEORGE WILL: All of the people comparing the Tea Party to suicide bombers, one of whom is Steve here…

 

AMANPOUR: I don't think he said that, did he?

 

WILL: Yes.

 

RATTNER: No.

 

ROBERTS: Terrorists are suicide bombers.

 

WILL: I can read you the transcript from the morning show.

 

RATTNER: I was there. I was there.

 

WILL: I understand, I was watching. 

And so were we. As NewsBusters reported, here's what Rattner said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on July 29: 

RATTNER: You know, the problem with this is it's like a form of economic terrorism. I imagine these Tea Party guys are like strapped with dynamite, standing in the middle of Times Square at rush hour and saying, 'either you do it my way, or we're going to blow you up, ourselves up, and the whole country up with us.' So you tell me how those kinds of standoffs end. 

Sounds like Will has a better grasp of what Rattner said that morning, dontcha think?: 

WILL: Anyway, what you, you do know that 95 House Democrats voted against raising the debt ceiling as compared to only 66 House Republicans. You do know that 26 Democratic Senators voted against raising the debt ceiling? 

Indeed.

 

What liberals like Rattner have totally ignored was that if interfering with an agreement to raise the debt ceiling was an act of terrorism, Democrats in both chambers of Congress were far more guilty than Republicans.

 

Alas, one would have to be an impartial journalist to figure that out, and such a thing really doesn't exist anymore - certainly not on MSNBC where Rattner contributes.

I have a few questions: 

-Will Rattner apologize for making his, frankly, stupid over-the-top statements? 

 

-Will Rattner even acknowledge that George Will was 100% correct and he did make the statements? 

 

-Will Christiane Amanpour or any of the rest of the gang at ABC News - or MSNBC - so much as comment on Rattner's overt dishonesty? 

 

-Will any of them say a word or two about the fact that more Democrats voted against raising the debt ceiling than Republicans?

Hey, I'm giving odds.....