Paul Ryan's 'Abundance of Caution' in Accepting Lobbyists' Gifts

     Yesterday, on Meet the Press, Ann Romney spoke bitterly about how people think her and her husband lack empathy  for Americans suffering economic hardship just because they've never known any in their lives.

     She said that 'our hardship has not been economic." The only hardship that we know of is her Multiple Sclerosis. While that's a significant hardship no doubt, the fact is that it is mitigated by her having access to top line health care-of the kind that her husband has vowed to repeal on his first day in office for millions of Americans who do suffer in the way that Mrs. Romney never has.

     http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2012/09/mitt-romney-gabby-douglas-of-politics.html

     For the record, this is why many consider them lacking in empathy, not simply that they are rich per se. Like Romney, FDR was from a patrician background, but unlike Romney, FDR had a clue-his empathy gave him the common touch. It's possible to understand the pain of others you don't have firsthand experience of. However, Romney lacks the empathy to make that possible.

    Vintage Romney was when he went down to Louisiana that Friday after the Hurricane and a woman told him that she'd lost her home in the flooding. His answer to her: 'go home and call 211.'

    This says it all. You could argue that it was an honest mistake but it's not the kind a mistake say Bill Clinton would ever make. At the end of the day it tells you something about Romney's character. He was there to get votes by "beating the President" to be the first one down. As he wasn't there to help, when someone actually turned to him, he brushed her off with the first thought that came to his mind without even listening to what she was saying.

    His running mate, Paul Ryan, has his own issues, particularly with basic honesty-Damn those fact checkers! Damn all the fact checkers taht ever was!-however, he had his own Let them eat cake moment himself, Wednesday night.

    "It didn’t take long for TPM readers to identify the two likeminded conservatives with whom Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) shared two pricey $350 bottles of Pinot Noir Wednesday night."

    "The two names repeatedly flooded into TPM’s e-mail since our story on Ryan’s big spending night first ran Friday, and we spent the next 24 hours trying to reach the pair to confirm their identities and get their side of the story."

    http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/07/mystery_solved_ryans_dinner_dates_ided.php?m=1

     The two men with Ryan? John Cochrane-yes, that one, the Chicago School's very own-and Click Asness, the hedge fund manager-like Cochrane, he has a degree in economics from the Chicago School-who in 2009 was already rabidly against President Obama:

     "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 again distinguished himself on this evening:

      "The three men were spotted ordering the $700 worth of wine at Bistro Bis on Capitol Hill by an associate professor of business at Rutgers University named Susan Feinberg. After dining in the same restaurant with her husband, Feinberg confronted Ryan and his pals about the high-end wine. The exchange became contentious. Ryan professed not to know the price of the wine, and one of his buddies responded to Feinberg’s chastisement by loudly saying, “Fuck her,” Feinberg told TPM."

     "When TPM asked Ryan who he was dining with Wednesday night, he declined to identify them, saying only that they were economists, not lobbyists. But TPM has confirmed that the two other men with Ryan were Cliff Asness and John Cochrane. Both men have doctorate degrees in economics and are well-known in the conservative media world as die-hard proponents of the free market’s ability to right itself without government bailouts when the crisis hit in late 2008.

     "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."

     Gee, I wonder if Cochrane's going to vote for Obama this time-he claims he did last time because he wanted to vote for the first Black President, though I admit I'm skeptical.

     Ryan then showed his abundance of caution by actually paying for his own $700 drink:

    "As TPM reported Friday, Ryan says he decided to pay for one of the bottles of wine after being confronted by Feinberg out of an abundance of caution. Ryan’s office provided TPM with a copy of his credit card receipt. Congressional ethics rules bar congressman from receiving gifts from lobbyists and gifts of over $100 from anyone."

     With all the overblown talk from Romney about how the Obama team called him a felon, Ryan right here in the light of day may have commit a major breach of Congressional ethics.

      P.S. So Ryan's lobbyist friend telling Feinberg "fuck you" fits well with the time the Romney staff member said "Kiss my ass" to a reporter in Poland.