WaPo Grants Op-ed Space to Disgraced Former Obama Car Czar Banned From Wall Street Trading

January 31st, 2011 5:04 PM

As I've noted previously, the Washington Post has repeatedly buried stories about Steven Rattner's late legal woes with the SEC and then-N.Y. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

The former Obama's "car czar," was accused last year of bribing "a political consultant to win business from New York's pension fund for his former investment firm." The liberal Democratic financier subsequently worked out settlements with the SEC and the state of New York in November and December of last year respectively. In the SEC settlement, Rattner agreed to "a two-year ban from associating with investment advisors or broker dealers" although Rattner "admit[ted] no wrong doing." The agreement with the state of New York came with a similar "a five-year ban from working with any New York public pension fund."

Well, today Rattner got some ink in the Washington Post in a much more favorable form: an op-ed he penned wherein he defended Obama's 2009 stimulus package.

Of course, Rattner's recent legal scrapes with the SEC and the state of New York were of left out of the bio blurb that editors published below the text of his column:

Steven Rattner, a co-founder of the investment firm Quadrangle Group, served as counselor to the Treasury secretary and lead auto adviser in the Obama administration. He is the author of "Overhaul: An Insider's Account of the Obama Administration's Emergency Rescue of the Auto Industry."