Crossroads: Elizabeth Warren responsible for bank bailouts

Just last month, Crossroads GPS released an ad targeting Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren as a champion of the "extreme left" and friend of the Occupy Wall Street movement - which, according to the ad, supports the "radical redistribution of wealth, and violence."

Now, the Karl Rove-linked organization is taking a different tack: In a new ad, which aired in Massachusetts starting Thursday, Crossroads GPS targets Warren for allegedly being beholden to Wall Street.

The 30-second spot, which was part of a $1.1 million dollar ad buy for four ads (concerning various candidates) that will be featured in Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana and Nebraska, features a brief clip of Warren pledging to "be a voice in the room on behalf of middle-class families."

"Really?" asks a narrator following the clip of Warren's remarks. "Congress had Warren oversee how your tax dollars were spent bailing out the same banks that helped cause the financial meltdown. Bailouts that helped pay big bonuses to bank executives while middle-class Americans lost out."

The ad goes on to accuse Warren of going on a "charm offensive" with some of the banks that got bailed out.

The Oklahoma native, who is running against incumbent Republican Senator Scott Brown in what is expected to be a tight and costly race, has become a hero of liberals for her advocacy on behalf of consumers against the big banks.

But just as a new Boston Herald poll shows Warren leading Brown by a seven point margin, her detractors are accusing her of being on the other side of the issue.

"Tell Professor Warren: We need more jobs, not more bailouts and bigger government," the narrator intones in the spot.

In 2008, Warren was indeed asked to head the congressional panel overseeing the billion $700 billion Trouble Asset Relief Program (TARP), which bailed out hundreds of banks and as well as insurers and automakers. But her appointment to that role was largely a product of her reputation as a tough critic of banks - and the conception that she would hold banks, as well as Treasury officials, accountable for the money that TARP had allocated.

In a 2009 interview with the Daily Beast, Warren emphasized her opposition to allowing banks to get "too big to fail."

"There are a lot of ways to regulate 'too big to fail' financial institutions: break them up, regulate them more closely, tax them more aggressively, insure them, and so on. And I'm totally in favor of increased regulatory scrutiny of these banks," she began. "But those are all regulatory tools. Regulations, over time, fail. I want to see Congress focus more on a credible system for liquidating the banks that are considered too big to fail."

Of the "charm offensive," the Crossroads GPS ad points to a March 2011 Politico article describing Warren's efforts to find "common ground" with the Chamber of Commerce and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a consumer watchdog agency created with the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform bill. Warren, who conceived of the CFPB and had at one point hoped to head it, reached out to a number of CFPB critics in an attempt to win over the opposition.

Still, she did not apologize for her pro-regulatory stance.

"Let's not pretend that a billion-dollar Ponzi scheme is attributable to too much regulation," Warren said in remarks at the Chamber of Commerce event referenced in the Politico story.

In a statement to Hotsheet, Warren spokesperson Kyle Sullivan called the Crossroads ad "ridiculous" and "desperate."

"Elizabeth was an outspoken critic of the bank bailout and its blank check to Wall Street. And that's just one fact that makes these ads ridiculous," Sullivan said. "The Wall Street bankers financing these attacks are desperate to stop Elizabeth Warren because she's worked so hard to stop Wall Street from ripping off middle class families."

He added: "Elizabeth's worked to keep both the banks and the government accountable. Those are the facts. The people of Massachusetts don't need more fast talk from Wall Street, they need a fighter like Elizabeth taking on Wall Street."

[Eric_Jaffa]

This is a right-wing attempt to mislead the public.

Elizabeth Warrent was hired to INVESTIGATE bank bailouts.

The ad says she was hired to "oversee" bank bailouts as if she decided who got the money.

[MAreader]

Don't worry about Massachusetts voters. Few would fall for this, so it's fine for Karl Rove's PAC to waste its money on the ads. (Sssh, don't tell him.) The few who do either don't vote and don't ever vote Dem anyway. Brown isn't a bad guy, but he's probably toast. Moderate blog from the heart of a blue state: http://moderatepoli.blogspot.com/2011/12/my-political-empathy-fail.html

[bobnjersey]

[Just last month, Crossroads GPS released an ad targeting Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren as a champion of the "extreme left" and friend of the Occupy Wall Street movement - which, according to the ad, supports the "radical redistribution of wealth, and violence."]
-----------------------------------------
depending on where you stand ... one could argue that this 'radical redistribution of wealth' ... and 'violence' is actually a republican philosophy.

the low tax & deficit spending mantra they have championed for decades now (aka: starve the beast) ... which has led to an ever expanding gap between the haves and the have nots ... and their penchant for military actions for mitigating a variety of issues (the violence part) ... seems to fit mr. roves advertisement characterization accurately.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast

[LawyersGuns-n-Money001]

by jims1961 December 9, 2011 4:24 AM EST
Let me get this straight. Wall Street is so a afraid of Elizabeth Warren that they're trying to defeat her by accusing her of supporting them?
==============================

And they can get people to believe them. Rove is aware how gullible his sheep are. He can acutually convince them down is up, day is night and no is yes.

[TomBeauchampArnold]

That is why Karl Rove has no lack of walking around money.

[DCCorruption]

I don't know why slander or libel charges haven't been brought up against Karl Rove. People talk about his genius. The only thing I see is short, fat, bald, compulsive liar.

[bobnjersey]

[People talk about his genius. The only thing I see is short, fat, bald, compulsive liar.]
--------------------------------------
his genius is in what he's done w/ being a short fat bald compulsive liar. most of these things he probably couldn't have done anything about (short, fat, bald) ... but he has 'overcome' and enjoys success leading others who are straddled with their own cognitive issues in being able to separate fiction from reality.

[nancy_naive]

Apparently, truth in advertising is a myth.

[jims1961]

Let me get this straight. Wall Street is so a afraid of Elizabeth Warren that they're trying to defeat her by accusing her of supporting them? Wow, that's diabolically deceptive and it shows how desperate they are. I'll bet there are even some Republicans who look at this tactic and think to themselves, "Wow, that's effed up!"

[nancy_naive]

The ad was paid for by Karl Rove. Rethink?

[nearl451]

I'm thinking that this is a psychology test to see how stupid people actually are and how much they will just believe what they are told.

TARP started before Obama, of course.

Next, Rove will be saying it's my fault that banks abused the system too.

[nearl451]

Bombastic dum-dum,

Where do you live? Russia? China?

Because here in the good Ol' USA no matter how stupid you are, you can still vote, troll.

Nobody is electing you the voting police anytime soon.

BTW, you wouldn't recognize aocialism if it bit your rearend.

[Ben37221]

Karl must be smoking some ganger. He is traped in a spin and can't make up his mind. Was she in bed with wall street or was she the dragon wall street have been fighting for the last two years with the financial reform?
We all know the answer. This woman have been a champion for the common man. For Karl to try to pull one over the voters of MA is a shame, but not surprising. After all that is what this man does. How he sleeps at night, I don't know-no conciense, out right lier, and no shame. I hope come November 4th, we will be talking of senetor Warren.
For those who stand for truth, and for the common man, middle class, poor, give whatever you can to help Elizabeth Warren because we know that Karl Rove and his republican friends are going to try to distroy this champion of the common man. It is important that we all stand behind her.

[nancy_naive]

Ganja. It's ganja, mon.

[democracy8]

So Rove's group admits by their own words that "banks...helped cause the financial meltdown", but they're against OWS. Really...

[rationall7]

The lack of regulations allowed the banks to risk the depositor's money and not the bank's money and when they lost it (re-dristributed it) the banks had to be backed-up or tell the public your money is gone like back in the 1920

The GOP is good at handing over their failures and problems over to the following parties(tax cut on top of two wars, what would an independent or democrat to do but raise taxes to pay on the debt) McCain & Palin are grateful I'm sure that they lost and look at Scott Brown, what has be done lately?