I like Don Rumsfeld too, but … Well, a few folks have fallen for this press release from the Sec Def’s office calling out a bunch of big media outlets for getting it wrong about whether or not he owned Enron stock.
He doesn’t mention Talking Points (sniffle, sniffle), but the list would have included us too since we reported that Rummy owned a bit of the ‘Ron back on January 2nd.
First let’s stipulate that whether Rumsfeld owns a few shares of Enron really doesn’t matter to this whole scandal. But let’s look at the dispute, which doesn’t take much more than some elementary logic to unpack and see that Rumsfeld — or more likely his flack — is full of it.
Rumsfeld’s press release starts off by saying …
Mr. Rumsfeld does not own any shares in Enron.
Contrary to the Associated Press, Washington Times, USA Today and New York Times stories, to the best of his knowledge he has never owned shares in Enron, and definitely has not since he divested most of his holdings on reentering government in January 2001. Prior to joining the government, Mr. Rumsfeld had funds managed by professional money managers, including index funds, so it is conceivable that one of those funds may have owned shares in Enron, but not to his knowledge. At present, he has a blind trust and is not aware of the investments in the trust.
Wow! Sounds pretty good. Rumsfeld didn’t own any Enron stock.
But wait. There’s another paragraph.
Mr. Rumsfeld’s accountant advises that for a period of time, until immediately after Mr. Rumsfeld was sworn in as Secretary of Defense, Mrs. Rumsfeld had an investment with an organization that designed a fund to replicate the S&P 500 index, and that for a period Enron was a component of that fund, along with several hundred other securities. As an investor in that fund, Mrs. Rumsfeld owned 100 shares of Enron stock before Mr. Rumsfeld came into the government.
Okay, so wait.
Apparently Rummy’s accountant chimed in between the writing of the first and second grafs. Disclosure statements sometimes don’t make clear (in fact, theirs did not) whether a husband or a wife owns stock. And the general theory underlying the laws assumes, rightly, that it doesn’t matter whether it’s you or your spouse, etc.
The next paragraph goes on to say that soon after Rummy became Sec Def, he and his wife divested themselves of various holdings including the Enron stock. Then there’s this kicker.
The Associated Press, Washington Times and the New York Times stories all cited the Center for Public Integrity as a source. USA Today cited its own research. All were inaccurate. To the best of our knowledge, none of the news organizations contacted Mr. or Mrs. Rumsfeld to determine the accuracy of their stories.
Actually the news outlets were relying on the facts generated by the Center for Public Integrity and they did try to check, but to no avail, as their response to Rumsfeld makes clear.
TPM on Rumsfeld: love the talk, love the camp, hate the crap (and the flack).
