If you didn’t see the new Poizner ad about Whitman and Goldman Sachs, go check it out right below this post. You’ll know why Whitman is trying anything to get the glare off of her. So much so that she will happily make up meaningless charges.
Her latest attack? That Jerry Brown got Oakland into a bad interest rate deal with Goldman Sachs. Except…the deal happened a year BEFORE Brown was in office:
The deal between Oakland and Goldman Sachs – a so-called “interest rate swap” intended to create stability in repaying some of its debts that’s now costing the city $5 million a year – occurred a year before Brown was in office and was a common practice for municipalities around the country to finance bond debts. …
Whitman said Brown showed a “failure of leadership” for failing to pull Oakland out of the deal, though Sterling Clifford, his spokesman, said that Brown had no vote on the issue and no veto power over a decision made by the City Council. Brown also served as president of the Joint Power Financing Authority, which negotiated the restructuring of the interest rate swap, though he had no voting power there, either.
Joe Yew, treasurer for Oakland, said canceling the deal would have cost the city $15 million to $20 million in termination fees.(MediaNews)
Now, I’ve heard once, or a million times, that Meg Whitman is a “business woman with common sense.” So, Ms. Whitman, let’s see if all that fancy business training says about this deal: would you have paid $15 million to cancel a deal that may (or may not) cost the city about $5 million? A cheat sheet for you, that’s a $10 million loss right there.
But never you mind about that, because there’s a “failure of leadership” there. Not one that Jerry Brown had anything whatsoever to do with, but Whitman has to find something to deflect the glare from her dismal record with Goldman. Basically what she’s alleging is that he made a bad business deal. Of course, it wasn’t Brown at all, but I’m not sure if Whitman really wants to talk about bad business deals. Tough luck for her, because she’s made many of them. Take Skype:
Don’t call it a bust just yet, but it’s fair to say eBay executives aren’t thrilled with what they’re getting out of Skype, which the auction king bought for $2.6 billion two years ago.
On Monday, eBay said it would take a $900 million so-called impairment write-down against the value of Skype. This means that eBay has been forced to reassess the value of the Internet telephony company relative to its overall business today. By recording a charge, the company is essentially saying that it has taken a loss on its original investment.(Cnet)
Yeah, that’s right. Whitman was the one who made the ultimate decision to buy Skype for $2.6 Billion. So, if they are going to point to a standard operating procedure deal with the City of Oakland for $5 million, what are they going to say about a deal that cost her company almost a billion dollars? Does that maker her 200 times more dangerous as the governor?
But this is all about throwing stuff up at the wall and seeing what will stick.
So far no evidence of conflict has arisen between Brown and his sister. But Whitman continued to assert that because Brown hadn’t addressed the issue himself, there were unanswered questions over his relationship with Goldman Sachs.
“At least you have to explain what happened. As far as I know, he has been completely mum on this subject,” she told The Associated Press. (MediaNews)
Whenever you see that whole “it must be true because he hasn’t denied it” bull you know a candidate is desperate. So, why doesn’t she address the rumors that I heard about her:
Except, wait, those last two really happened, so it probably would be nice for Whitman to try to explain that to the California electorate. Asking Brown to explain the Goldman charge is no better than asking Whitman why she eats the puppies.
So, let’s have more talk of Goldman Sachs, please. It’s getting to Team Whitman.