http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/05/12/geithner-says-in-book-tried-to-put-words-in-his/
"The president and I would make brief remarks about executive compensation, responding to a report that Wall Street firms had paid their executives big bonuses while piling up record losses in 2008. 'Here's what you're going to say,' Cutter said."
Geithner wrote that Cutter handed him the text, and he "skimmed the outrage I was expected to express."
Stephanie Cutter? Wasn't she the White House aide (now on "Cross Fire") who orchestrated that guy in Missouri blaming Mitt Romney for his wife dying of cancer then claimed she didn't know anything about the guy-except she was on tape setting up the story? That Stephanie Cutter?
That's her.
Cheer up, Tim. You could have been the US ambassador to the UN during Benghazi.
3 comments:
That how corporate business handles things. An illustration (as distinct from evidence, I know the difference):
On "Grey's Anatomy" the medical director of the hospital was handed "the script" by an attorney from the legal department for EXACTLY what he would say in terminating an employee. People who speak off the cuff provide the grist for lawsuits.
I tend to think the jobs of "speech writer" and "spokesperson" should be eliminated, across the board, in business and government. People in positions of responsibility should speak for themselves, openly.
But its crass and unimpressive to blame a particular functionary for doing what hundreds of thousands of paid employees do in business and government and every political party except the Rent Is Too Damn High Party, just because you can pull an episode out of a book and highlight business as usual.
I don't know why anyone would read a book by Tim Geithner anyway. Only his fans and a few of the more hostile chattering classes would take the time.
It is the extent of the lie they create and then deny that makes the difference.
The "everybody does it" excuse usually doesn't fit because the times and conditions are always different.
Lie? Geithner didn't say they told him to lie. They told him what to say.
"Everyone does it" doesn't excuse a CRIME. Or as Joe Biden said circa 1993, "Everybody doesn't do it," referring to employing undocumented immigrants as nannies and failing to withhold taxes or issue a W-2.
Everyone does it attenuates the poignancy of a criticism of a specific instance of a standard business practice, unless we're mounting an across the board campaign to end the practice. Haven't heard anyone demand that.
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