Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Bevin Was For TARP Before He Was Against It


 Ronnie Ellis has an excellent summary of Matt Bevin's latest truthiness problem. For those who have been unable to pry themselves away from the Olympics, we now learn that in 2008 Bevin personally signed an investor report that spoke glowingly about TARP. That would be the same TARP he blasts McConnell about daily.

Politico broke the story, quoting the investor document Bevin signed:

 "Most of the positive developments have been government led, such as the effective nationalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the passage of the $700 billion TARP (don’t call it a bailout) and the Federal Reserve’s intention to invest in commercial paper,” wrote Bevin and Daniel Bandi, chief investment officer and vice president of the fund. “These moves should help to stabilize asset prices and help to ease liquidity constraints in the financial system.”

I am just tired of Bevin and I wish he'd go away.  He has become more tedious than ice and below-freezing temperatures.  Like the bad weather, he too will pass.  Not fast enough to suit me, though.

Oh, the shape-shifting excuses proffered by Bevin and his supporters.  Channeling Nancy Pelosi:  he had to sign the SEC document to find out what's in it?  Please.  Or this:  he didn't really believe what he was signing.  That's not making me feel any better about him.  Or, the SEC made him do it?  Duress, right.  Or, he didn't draft it?  Blaming it on the staff is not classy; so much for personal responsibility.

The whole sorry episode brought to mind one of Bevin's other whoppers that has always struck me as particularly brazen.

This is the same guy that listed MIT on his LinkedIn profile under education and then complains that we, the great unwashed, were dumb for thinking that the listing implied he that he actually attended  MIT, as in matriculated and took real classes there. No, we the unenlightened should have realized it was just a continuing ed. class, so the argument goes. 

 Kentucky requires lawyers licensed here to attend continuing legal education classes ("CLE"), 12 hours annually.  I have never, ever listed my attendance at a CLE on my LinkedIn profile.  I would be embarrassed to do so.  Nor have I ever seen another lawyer list attending a CLE in  a LinkedIn profile -- even when the lawyer was so lucky as to get a boondoggle junket to take the CLE some place interesting, say Harvard Law School.  It's just not done. 

The oddest thing about Bevin's latest issue with the truth is the name of the fund for which he signed the SEC form:  Veracity.  Orwell would be impressed.



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