Disingenuous Karl Rove Ad Smears Elizabeth Warren, Implies She Facilitated Bank Bailouts

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Disingenuous Karl Rove Ad Smears Elizabeth Warren, Implies She Facilitated Bank Bailouts And Corporate Bonuses
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/12/08/385124/karl-rove-crossroads-elizabeth-warren/

Karl Rove’s independent group Crossroads GPS is up with a new advertisement today, smearing Massachusetts senate candidate Elizabeth Warren (D) by insinuating that she was responsible for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the bank bailout that took place at the height of the financial crisis.

The ad blames Warren for “bailing out the same banks that caused the financial meltdown, bailouts that helped pay big bonuses to bank executives while middle class Americans lost out.” It closes by imploring the viewer to “tell Professor Warren we need jobs, not more bailouts and bigger government.”

The accusation that Warren is responsible for TARP, bank bailouts, or huge executive bonuses is beyond absurd. TARP and the bank bailouts were Republican ideas that began under President Bush. As Simon Johnson notes, Warren “has also been a strong supporter of all efforts to rein in Too Big To Fail banks, including by breaking them up.”

In fact, her work creating and heading up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau involved advocating directly on consumers’ behalf, a key check on the power of big banks. She also ran the Congressional Oversight Panel for TARP, where her role was to track the money that was given to the banks. She was extremely critical of both the banks’ and Washington’s inability to accurately account for TARP money.


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By Simon Johnson
I count at least five misrepresentations in the ad, and I suggest the following corrections:
http://baselinescenario.com/2011/12/08/karl-roves-latest-attack-on-elizabeth-warren/