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Taibbi To AIG-er DeSantis: "Be A Man And Deal With It"
Some Friday afternoon catharsis ...
In one of those perfect matches of writer and subject, Matt Taibbi responds to that op-ed writing AIG-er Jake DeSantis -- and says all the things you'd probably forget to say if you ever ran into deSantis, but then would think of in the shower when it was too late.
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Josh
Zachary
Just one self-absorbed and self-righteous jerk talking to another.
The only mildly interesting thing in his rant is its enormous length and amount of profanity.
March 27, 2009 4:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Negative. I was cheering him on.
March 27, 2009 5:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
On the contrary, those were the comments of a man who knows AIG very well, is mad as hell like the rest of us, but whereas we know something was really wrong but don't know how to articulate, he articulated it. There are times when a well-placed swear word gets the point across, and this is one such time.
March 27, 2009 5:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Those were the words of a man that doesn't even know AIGFP had offices in Paris and Tokyo. And despite a week's worth of nonstop coverage doesn't even know AIGFP's office is in Wilton, Conn. not Greenwich.
It's a bag-lady rant based on blogfact and shoddy logic. Don't get me wrong ... it's a great rant. But for anyone who likes fact-based debate it was more satire than anything. I take some solace in the fact that there was at least a grain of worth in contrasting the rantyness of the two missives.
But fuck man - "Knows AIG"??? Some other guy down thread called the piece investigative journalism. We're getting into Limbaugh-dumb territory here.
March 29, 2009 10:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Whether or not DeSantis had 377 staffers or more, he was in charge. He failed. AIG will go under, sooner or later. Thanks to him and the other kleptocrats who kept tripling down on bad bets, year after year.
Your little 'excuse' here, your little 'correction' and pointing out Taibbi's 'mistake' are what actually deserve to be called Limbaugh territory. One mistake, and Taibbi's entire premise is suspect?
Jake would be proud.
March 30, 2009 11:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
So Taibbi takes DeSantis apart, point by point. But rather than address Taibbi's response, you merely sniff that he's a 'self-absorbed and self-righteous jerk'. Got it.
March 28, 2009 12:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
You might approve of these greedy a$$holes getting 'retainer bonuses' after driving their company off a cliff, but I don't. Somebody needed to bitch slap him and the rest of them. I'm cheering him on. One thing Matt, thanks for restraining your self not calling these MF'rs MF'ers Keep it up Matt!
March 28, 2009 7:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just one self-absorbed and self-righteous jerk talking to another.
Sure. Right. Two peas in a pod, DeSantis and Taibbi. Whatsamatta? You no like-a the shrill tone?
Nobody, besides the world-class war criminals in the former Bush administration, deserves a shrill tone more than Jake DeSantis. Of course, said world-class war criminals provided cover AND encouragement to Jake DeSantis and his ilk, so...nobody knows what your actual point might be, Lalo.
I do like your picture/sig, though.
March 30, 2009 11:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
I LOVE Matt Taibbi!~ He is somewhat profane, but he certainly gets his point across. He just finished an article for the Rolling Stone on the financial mess, and he obviously is still seething. So, Lalo, lay off!
March 27, 2009 5:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you TPM and Mr. Roth - for pointing me to this Excellent response to whiny Jake who quit AIGFP - perfect reading for a friday afternoon.
Thank you Matt Taibbi - you wrote exactly what many of us said - but you said it even better! Love your writing.
March 27, 2009 6:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Taibbi is one hell of a writer and he does do his research--unlike the villagers in Washington who rely on Drudge and that pansy, Mike Allen at Politico to throw out the gossip of the day and see what sticks.
Taibbi has done incredible investigative journalism--granted he can be profane but he is damned good.
He was funny on Matthews tonight when he heard Bachmann's rant about "being a foreign correspondent"--his snark was funny.
March 27, 2009 7:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good reality check. I approve.
March 27, 2009 7:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Taibbi is on fire lately. The Rude Pundit had a good response as well, albeit with a few more swear words.
March 27, 2009 10:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Taibbi's response is Right Fucking On. He is always excellent but his recent long AIG article is Right Fucking On. Sometimes profanity comes off as pathetic and undermines an argument. This is not one of those times. If the parasites of Wall Street get off with only hearing a few naughty words, they have done very well for themselves indeed.
March 27, 2009 10:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Taibbi's reportage got be back to reading Rolling Stone again during the campaigns last year. Pardon me if I don't get the vapors over his vocabulary.
March 28, 2009 6:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Taibbi is what we need more of these days -- good fuckin' investigative reporting with attitude. Go Matt!
March 28, 2009 9:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Taibbi is a "self-righteous and self-absorbed jerk"? Could be, I guess. I don't know him. But, his post contains nothing that would lead to that judgment, at least if you've been paying attention to what's happened in the world in the last few years.
It's time to drop the deference to the likes of DeSantis and the rest of the oligarchs. They've screwed the pooch like no one else. It's time to pop their bubble of entitlement. If it takes some verbal contempt and a few profanities, so be it. Taibbi's argument was well-constructed, well-informed and difficult to refute.
March 29, 2009 1:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
I like Matt, but I wouldn't want to find myself on his bad side.
March 29, 2009 2:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
The poisoned well from which all these finance industry big-wigs still drink intoxicates them with a shared and unquestioned divorce from end consequences, which are sometimes years in coming, of their schemes. The definition of fiduciary is one trusted with other peoples money.
If DeSantis can now say that the fault in AIG lay with a small handful of bad actors, he is still guilty of fiduciary irresponsibility for not saying so back when it would have protected the investors in his firm...or is he claiming that in spite of being a very well paid and connected AIG executive he knew nothing of what was going on? Such ignorance would have to be deliberately cultivated with a eye toward plausible deniability. This too would be culpable irresponsibility
March 29, 2009 8:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Matt hit most of the nails on the head. His comments are correct whether or not he is an expert in all things AIG.
One aspect that he misses, is that the DeSantis/AIG contract was void and unenforceable, since it was made for the purpose of tax fraud. If it wasn't clear before DeSantis wrote his piece it certainly was afterwards. DeSantis accepted a $1 a year "salary" only because he was guaranteed a lot of money at the back end. No matter what words were used in the contract, it's all salary and all taxable at ordinary income rates.
So in addition to everything else, DeSantis is a fraudulator.
BDL
March 30, 2009 1:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
Taibbi is this century's Hunter S. Thompson, without the drugs. Well, at least most of them.
Anyone who can't handle his writing style shouldn't read it. But I don't read Rolling Stone for tips on my Emily Post. Wheedling about Taibbi's choice of curse words...you'd think that critic would never have logged on to the Internets...
As Bartcop likes to say, it's the way MOST AMERICANS TALK. Period. Stuff it in your big black hat, would-be Puritans.
March 30, 2009 11:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly.
Last fall Taibbi wrote an amazing piece on the Repug convention-absolutely hysterical as well as powerfully written. I've been a fan ever since.
March 30, 2009 7:31 PM | Reply | Permalink