Liberals are Going Nuts Over the Chrysler Threat Allegations (Perella Weinberg)
The left-wing blogosphere is all a-twitter, no pun intended, regarding the allegations brought forth by Tom Lauria, the lawyer for Perella Weinberg. The allegations stated that several bondholders of Chrysler were threatened by members of the Obama administration and more specifically the car czar, Rattner. I reported earlier on what was said at the meeting, in Tom’s words, to his client.
Progressives are now making this into a “trumped up” charge put on by conservative political activists. In the hypocritical realm of the liberals, they now believe the fat-cats and greedy corporations over regular investors of a fund. The issue with liberals is: “If they didn’t have double standards, they wouldn’t have standards at all.”
It boggles the mind to see progressives deciding that because the White House and a corporation deny a charge, that the charge must be false. Imagine, for instance, these folks accepting a version of events simply because it had been put forth by the Bush White House and Halliburton. But this is exactly what Think Progress and Media Matters are doing. It’s as if their cognitive critical apparatus had simply stopped functioning sometime in January.
We think this is an important story, one that deserves further investigation. Critical questions raised by a credible professional about the conduct of those in high offices of the US government remain unresolved. Excoriating reporters who follow up on these questions doesn’t strike us as very progressive or thoughtful. It seems, rather, evidence of a kind of political mania that we’d all be better off putting aside.
Here’s the full statement by Perella Weinberg:
Suggestions have been made that the Perella Weinberg Partners Xerion Fund changed its stance on the Chrysler restructuring due to pressure from White House officials. This is incorrect. The decision to accept and support the proposed deal was made by the Xerion Fund after reflecting carefully on the statement of the President when announcing Chrysler’s bankruptcy filing. In considering the President’s words and exercising our best investment judgment, we concluded that the risks of potentially severe capital loss that could arise from fighting this in bankruptcy court far outweighed any realistic potential upside.
We have a very specific mandate from our investors, and that is to carefully weigh investment risks and rewards. It is not our investment mandate to pursue political or risky legal campaigns with our investors’ money. This was our assessment of investment risk and reward, nothing else.
While we did and still do believe that the lenders would be justified in pressing their objections under conventional bankruptcy law principles, we believe a settlement would now be in the best interests of all parties in the context of avoiding a drawn out contested bankruptcy litigation proceeding, and we encourage our colleagues in the loan syndicate to pursue this immediately.
This is just another example of favoritism, pay-to-play politics, and sheer cronyism. The UAW is one of the favored groups of the democrats and especially Obama, due to the donations he received from the UAW and other union groups for last year’s election.
Think carefully about what’s happening here. The White House, presumably car czar Steven Rattner and deputy Ron Bloom, is seeking to transfer the property of one group of people to another group that is politically favored. In the process, it is setting aside basic property rights in favor of rewarding the United Auto Workers for the support the union has given the Democratic Party. The only possible limit on the White House’s power is the bankruptcy judge, who might not go along.
Michigan politicians of both parties joined Obama in denouncing the holdout bondholders. They point to the sad plight of UAW retirees not getting full payment of the health care benefits the union negotiated with Chrysler. But the plight of the beneficiaries of the pension funds represented by the bondholders is sad too. Ordinarily you would expect these claims to be weighed and determined by the rule of law. But not apparently in this administration.
Obama’s attitude toward the rule of law is apparent in the words he used to describe what he is looking for in a nominee to replace Justice David Souter. He wants “someone who understands justice is not just about some abstract legal theory,” he said, but someone who has “empathy.” In other words, judges should decide cases so that the right people win, not according to the rule of law.
The Chrysler negotiations will not be the last occasion for this administration to engage in bailout favoritism and crony capitalism. There’s a May 31 deadline to come up with a settlement for General Motors. And there will be others. In the meantime, who is going to buy bonds from unionized companies if the government is going to take their money away and give it to the union? We have just seen an episode of Gangster Government. It is likely to be part of a continuing series.
Charles Grodin On Gun Control
Mr Grodin appeared on the Mike Huckabee Show today, and the first thing out of his mouth, is “I think we need to make it difficult for people to buy guns” he goes on to say “they release people out of a mental hospital and can buy a gun,….people get out of prison and they do not know where they are”.
Well Mr Grodin, it would seem that once again, knee jerking, anti 2nd amendment reactionaries are once again going to infringe upon the rights of the hard working, law abiding citizen. Every time gun laws are enacted, crime rates do not change very much. Criminals, and those who will endeavor to make money off of arms trafficking, will continue to do so.
It is the anniversary this week, of Columbine. Mr Grodin was asked if the boys had lived, what would be the proper adjudication. He goes on to say that, they were mentally ill, and that would be the place to start. Lets put them in a mental hospital, give them a nice room, and draw pretty pictures. This is a pretty delusional point of view. Columbine was a premeditated, well thought out, well planned attack, just as 9/11 was.
Further, Mr Grodin, is pushing NY State AG to push the Supreme Court to rule on why the Felony Murder Rule, which states that any person that partakes in certain felony crimes to include, Murder, Rape, Kidnapping, Burglary or Robbery, that results in death, weather intended or unintended during the commissioning of the crime, can be held culpable for the death and thus be sentenced up to life without parole.
….early on the morning of March 10, 2003, a hung over 20-year-old named Ryan Holle lent his car to his roommate, who then went out with others and committed a robbery and murder. At the time of the crime Ryan Holle was asleep in his bed. He is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole at the Wakulla Correctional Institution near Tallahassee, Fla. The prosecutor explained to the jury in 2004 “No car, no crime.” Mr. Holle had no criminal record. He had lent his car to his roommate countless times before….
Though I do not agree with the sentencing in this case, just think of all the cases where people knowingly assisted in a crime where death or rape resulted. I am sorry, but if you are there participating, you are just as guilty.
Many of these liberals will say this is a gross miscarriage of justice. I beg to differ, but if that is the case then the prison guards at the concentration camps are absolved. What is the difference? They were there but did not actually participate. Or the guards at prison camps where American servicemen in WWII, Korea, or Vietnam were treated brutally, cannot be held culpable because they did not actually partake in a crime against these American Service Members.
Where does the insanity stop? I hope we take logical steps instead of making liberal knee jerk reactions.
Far Left Spokesman Criticizes Obama’s Economic Plan, in Particular Troubled Assets
It must be tough for some of these people on the far left to wake up and realize what they just elected and how many of us were right all along. I obviously disagree with this guy on pretty much everything, but at least he is speaking out against some similar things and seeing the groupthink in the media and elsewhere.
Below is a video clip of far left spokesman, Cenk, of The Young Turks. By all accounts, I have seen him before, he’s an egotistical, pompous fool, he thinks he knows more than most – typical elitist rubbish – yet he is just figuring out that Obama was backed by Wall Street and is using our money to bailout the “fat-cats.” His guy was never about the “little” people but about himself and his cronies. He can’t even put a competent person into the Treasury.
Feminists, Hypocrites Be Thy Name
Waiting for feminist outrage in 3…2…1 - Cue Birds Chirping…
