I still think winegate is a bunch of nothing, but it is kind of depressing to know the quality of wingnuts our congresscritters are hanging out with:
Asness, who ordered the wine and who, according to Feinberg was the one who said “Fuck her,” is better known as a high-profile hedge fund manager. Asness founded and runs AQR Capital, which manages an estimated $26 billion in a variety of traditional products and hedge funds, and his life story has been the subject of numerous books and articles about the rise and fall of Wall Street. He’s also grabbed headlines for being one of the most voluble opponents of President Obama’s economic policies.
ABC’s Jake Tapper ran an illuminating piece on Asness in May of 2009, describing him as having “a name and occupation straight out of Dickens” after he wrote an angry open letter to Obama — “Unafraid in Greenwich, Connecticut” — in which he blasted the President’s attacks on hedge fund owners refusing to go along with his administration’s plans for Chrysler.
“Who came up with the title for the letter?” Tapper asked parenthetically in his piece. “Axelrod? Perhaps ‘Bold and on My Yacht’ was too subtle.”
Cochrane, the other, more tempered dinner companion, is the AQR Capital Management Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago, an apparent tip of the hat to the contributions Asness’ AQR Capital Management has made to the Booth School of Business there.
Asness is the jackass who wrote this whiny letter. I’m still choosing the skunk.
Martin
That remains the best picture of all time. You should work it into the masthead somehow.
DonkeyKong
You think “Winegate” is nothing, but get all ass hurt over Axelrod being cock blocked by Chris Hayes on twitter.
Really?
Isn’t it a little late in the day to be wairing your ass for a hat Cole?
jl
Curious, do they have that guy’s name spelled right?
j
COUNTERTOPS!! NOW!!
And then somebody should publicize his home address, and where his kids go to school and.
OOPS, sorry, I thought this was Michelle Malkins or Ace o Spade’s site.
Never mind.
Martin
If I could afford to live in Greenwich, I’d be unafraid as well. Rough life, that. There used to be a phrase, nobless oblige, but I’m afraid it no longer has a meaning.
DonkeyKong
Drinking $350 bottles of wine while planning to use grandma as kindling for a hedgefund s’mores roast.
People..get..that!
Evolved Deep Southerner
You know, part of me rues the fact that I was born when I was, that I feel misplaced in the march of history. Too early, too late, I don’t know.
But part of me really rises to the idea of “class warfare,” and it amuses me when some fucker points to something I say as “advocating class warfare” in the same tone and timbre he’d say “Well that’s advocating communofascist nihilism. You’re talking Hitler and Stalin and Mao shit all rolled up in one.”
These fuckers haven’t SEEN class warfare. And there’s another, increasingly active part of me that makes me GLAD I was born exactly when I was so that they and I can truly see class warfare unfold together.
kdaug
This will get worse before it gets better.
Wouldn’t recommend a gated-community security guard position to any unemployed at this point.
Warren Terra
What does this mean?
—
RE whether “Winegate” was really a scandal, I dunno. It could have been, had Ryan (inevitably) not reported the wine, or paid using campaign funds. I think the photographer should have faked bonhomie, kept careful records, waited, and then made a stink when he didn’t report the $700 in wine that his uber-rich friend was undoubtedly planning to treat him to, in contravention of House ethics rules.
Although, seeing as how no action resulted, at least she managed to cost him $350 out of his own pocket.
The ethics rules are kinda dumb, mind you: $100 and up must be reported, and if you and your spouse go out with another couple frequently and alternate picking up the tab you’d soon be out of compliance.
Still, just for the optics, it’s nice to see Ryan’s lifestyle and his friends revealed to be what they are, even as he schemes to stiff the poor.
beltane
May the day soon come when they are indeed afraid in Greenwich. Thing like this and the Murdoch story remind us that our overlord class is so much scummier than most of the poor slobs languishing in our prisons. There needs to be some sort of reverse Powerball for these people.
NonyNony
@Evolved Deep Southerner
Don’t kid yourself – these guys have seen class warfare all of their lives.
The only thing is – they’ve only ever been on the giving end of it rather than the receiving end of it.
Lolis
I am not surprised by the type of guy Ryan hangs out with in his free time.
OT: Collins and Snowe have come out against any cuts to Medicare and Social Security in the debt ceiling vote. Think Progress has the quotes. Nobody needs to panic about benefits. I think we may end up with a clean bill after all.
Martin
Yeah, guillotines are too French. We need Freedom Razor’s!
beltane
@kdaug
I read a story yesterday about how India’s new rich are fast becoming the kidnapping targets. When you live in a society where there are a few rich people and a multitude of destitute people, the rich start looking like nothing more than a tasty, juicy dinner.
NonyNony
@Lolis
Collins and Snowe have just placed themselves to the left of our Democratic-sochialmalist President when it comes to the debt ceiling negotiations.
I’m not sure what this means, but it means something.
It may mean that one or both of them are planning on jumping ship and becoming Democrats/Independents. Because I’m not sure how they prevent from being primaried by their crazy-ass Tea Party controlled Maine Republican party.
Cat Lady
There’s so much wrong in that article it’s hard to know where to begin to pick it apart. Those few paragraphs sum up in all its ugly glory where this country is – from the NYT’s Joe Nocera being a personal friend of Asness, to the whiny ass titty baby hedge fund assholes shining their newest trophy congresscritter, to the contempt for women and the disregard for any pretense to propriety, and the MBA preening amorality that brought us all here. It’s time to eat the rich. With a nice bottle of chianti and some fava beans.
Mnemosyne
It always amazes me that these “masters of the universe” get so pissy when it dawns on them that, no, most of us don’t particularly envy them and don’t think their jobs are all that important. Is it the narcissism that makes them get all pouty-faced when they realize that money can’t buy them the love of the masses (or even the respect of the masses)?
sukabi
@ WArren Terra read the post he links to (whiny letter) and all will be explained…
@ John… make sure your car has studded tires prior to not missing the hedgey guy…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Ordinarily, I’s say that’s wishful thinking, but considering how the Tea Party has been salivating to go after Ollie, who knows?
On topic: It’s mathematically impossible for Asness to have been anything but the second biggest asshole at that table. Improbable that he was third, but I don’t know who the third guy was.
stuckinred
In 1968 it is said that Zhou Enlai was asked ‘What do you think of the French Revolution?’ Answer: ‘It is too early to tell.'”
I’ve spent years listening to people tell me the revolution is right around the corner.
srv
Sorry to repeat, but 94% of Galts are afraid.
I think John’s tirade last year, with graphs, where he showed we’ve had a class war going on for 30 years and the rich are winning by miles was one of his best posts ever. Too bad I didn’t bookmark it.
Another favorite blogger marveled recently how FDR didn’t lurv the poor people, he looked at Russia and Europe and decided he better do something before it was too late for the Hamptons crowd. It’s like 1931 all over again.
BGinCHI
Perfect crowd for Ryan.
Great assholes think alike.
Mnemosyne
FDR was able to point to places like Italy and Russia as examples of what could happen to the Hamptons crowd if they didn’t listen to him.
Unfortunately for us, now that the threat of violent communist or fascist revolution is gone, there’s no brake on the rich because there’s no credible threat from a mass movement. They’ll just keep increasing their private security and bitching about how mean everyone is to them.
(Edited ’cause the first version was confusing)
DonkeyKong
“There’s so much wrong in that article it’s hard to know where to begin to pick it apart. Those few paragraphs sum up in all its ugly glory where this country is – from the NYT’s Joe Nocera being a personal friend of Asness, to the whiny ass titty baby hedge fund assholes shining their newest trophy congresscritter, to the contempt for women and the disregard for any pretense to propriety, and the MBA preening amorality that brought us all here. It’s time to eat the rich. With a nice bottle of chianti and some fava beans.”
Ding..Ding…Ding!!!CatLady I could kiss you!
Roger Moore
@Warren Terra:
So Congresscritters have to ask for separate checks instead of alternating who picks up the tab. BFD. There need to be limits on gift giving to public officials or you’ll wind up with bribery even more rampant than what we have today. And I’d rather those limits be set too low than too high.
Zifnab
It’s only a bunch of nothing if you let it be a bunch of nothing, John. The goal is to get so irrationally irate and frothing mad, and the fling this on TV in as many convoluted ways as possible, and then to demand hundreds of hours of investigation and lead with headlines like “WHAT ARE THEY HIDING?!” after all the cards were put on the table, and to accuse them of a thousand tertiary crimes and…
Wait a second, Paul Ryan isn’t a Democrat. Sorry, nevermind then. It’s probably nothing.
The Spy Who Loved Me
What a shame that Ryan’s dinner companions didn’t turn out to be lobbyists. I was hoping TPM could flog this for a few more days. Oh well, maybe the next faux scandal will pan out.
Dennis SGMM
@stuckinred
According to some of my acquaintances at Berkeley it was right around the corner – in the Sixties. Must be a long block.
The Spy Who Loved Me
@Roger Moore:
Yeah, everyone knows that you can buy a Congressman’s vote with a dinner or drinks, but campaign contributions don’t have any influence on them at all.
sukabi
John, an off topic request and comment… I was just trying to poke around the archives to find the post that srv was referring to…and while your post tags are appropriate and amusing it would take a miracle to find the exact entry srv was referring to… “Fuck the middle class” brings up hundreds of entries from this year alone… and there isn’t an entry for “Class Warfare”… “Assholes” seems to include almost every post made…
is there an easier way to search out your old, relevant posts?
stuckinred
Dennis SGMM
That’s what I’m talkin bout!
Lolis
@NonyNony
Yep, the Maine Twins have placed themselves to the left of Obama. We’ll see how it plays with the teabaggers in Maine. Although Dems are doing a serious case of talking out of both sides of their mouth so I don’t know what to believe.
For example, there are reports that the Dem Senate caucus has agreed to no cuts to SS and Medicare but then Conrad makes a statement about how the Dem caucus would vote for a big deal. Are Dems actually working together to call the Republicans bluff or are they just disorganized and inconsistent?
sukabi
Dennis SGMM same block that’s being used for Iraq turnaround, economic recovery and withdrawal from Afghanistan…
Roger Moore
@Martin:
FTFY.
Dennis SGMM
@sukabi
True, but that block has a light at the end of the tunnel. Never mind that the light has to travel the equivalent of the distance to Proxima Centauri.
MikeJ
@Roger Moore:
You mean like these?
ETA: the statute. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/5/usc_sec_05_00007353—-000-.html
Dee Loralei
@Mnemosyne: Just had a similar conversation with my folks over dinner. Debt ceiling, joblessness rate etc. And my mom made a snide comment about how she just couldn’t feel sorry for the pro football and basketball players, because they were millionaires and so many other folks were suffering. (they are flaming liberals, though my dads is a little less recent than our own John Cole’s.) Anyway I mentioned they were fighting billionaires, so I was rooting for the players, especially knowing what I know about how horrible their bodies treat them as they age.
And then I said that hell if the proles don’t get their football this fall, they may notice how bad life really is for many of them and maybe we’d get that class warfare/revolution.
Slightly OT, but I did bring up football, after reading about that 16 lb, 2 foot long newborn baby boy in Texas I sent a carrier pigeon to Norman, OK to make sure that Bob Stoops starts recruiting that child TODAY, before Mack Brown or anyone else gets around to it, LOL!
RossInDetroit
Kidnapping rich people for ransom used to be common. All you had to do was get them across state lines & the FBI couldn’t touch you. The rules were changed in the ’20s and the Feds pretty much shut that game down.
Martin
…and the wedge gets hammered in a bit deeper.
Dems no longer need to block entitlement cuts, the GOP is doing it for them. The GOP just lost even more negotiating power, and the Dems can now claim that even the GOP doesn’t support cutting the safety net, which is why we need to focus on increasing revenues.
Martin
Calling their bluff. The GOP has overpromised their base to a very large degree, and has been gambling that the Dems will cave on the debt ceiling. Doesn’t appear to be working at all. If anything, the Dems are the ones raising the stakes, not the GOP who are now asking for smaller and smaller deals.
D-Chance.
I still think winegate is a bunch of nothing,
You mean whinegate…
Linda Featheringill
lolis #32
Do we know how much Conrad’s “big deal” actually threatens Medicare and Social Security? I haven’t read his blueprint, so I’m not sure.
Suffern ACE
@Linda Featheringill: If what we were discussing this weekend is true, Conrad’s plan was very much laden with defense cuts.
Corner Stone
After all the footballs, all of us here are now going to start taking the Queens of Maine at their word when it comes to legislation?
Arclite
A Hedge Fund Manager whose name reads like “Assness”. At least there’s that, although he’s laughing all the way to the bank.
fordpowers
i have a family member who is a lowly staffer for rep ryan
and we were battling on this very point over the weekend. its not so much the dollar bills they’re droppin on wine ($10 is plenty for a regular jane like myself) – but the fact that he’s snuggling up with the very people who have anal fucked this country + the middle class to holy hell.
I was like.. how many bottles of wine do i have to buy to get a one on one with paul ryan?? I’d love to give him the old what for… anyway needless to say – my campaign/super pac contribution limit wasn’t gonna swing it. but its straight up terrifying to think of the access and legal/political cover these assholes are given to continue their rape and pillage..
and im sure the press will be sneaking into this professor chicks house trying to figure out what kind of counter tops she has. that’ll be a story.
ugh.
gene108
The reason “winegate” isn’t bigger is because there is very little left-wing media presence.
If Nancy Pelosi or Clyburn or Hoyer or whoever in the Democratic leadership had been caught taking potentially illegal gifts from billionaires, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, et. al. would have a quick conference call, work out the talking points and bombard the airwaves for a week or two until their faithful fans were in a lather about how “Winegate” is the worst thing EVAH.
Shit, those clowns have people bitching about why the two guys from the New Black Panther Party, outside a Philadelphia polling place in 2008, aren’t in jail.
Sigh…if only there were liberal billionaires, who wanted to fund money losing media ventures to further their ideology…
Martin
They’re pretty reliable when they say no. Its when they say yes that you have to wonder how many shades of yes you’re going to have to deal with before it’s all over.
Keith G
@Corner Stone
Nice back door movie reference (luv me some Micheal Caine), but under no circumstances are you to mention “football” again.
Got it?
RalfW
Semi-OT (but the picture of the NYSE makes me think of the Murdoch rag the WSJ, so there!)
Murdoch is in deeper do-do. Two more Murdoch-owned papers may have hacked, including spying on PM Gordon Brown’s ill son.
News ticker says the BskyB sale is now on hold.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
In the long term, it’s more important that the Maine Tea Party will take them at their word, even if they back down. They hate Snowe like progressives hate Lieberman, with far less justificiation.
Corner Stone
@Keith G:
Sure thing amigo. I’ve been planning on vacating that line of thought for a while now.