Leftists, especially big name leftists, the ones who are always blabbering about how other people are too rich, use too many of "our precious natural resources", are too selfish, etc in the self righteous, finger waving manner we have all become accustomed to have been dealt an icepick into their ballon-like egos by the publication of Peter Schweitzer's book "Do As I Say, Not As I Do. Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy." Herewith, a snippet from the "Carlson Tucker Show" detailing some of the hypocrasies of Barbara Striesand, Michael Moore, Al Franken, Ted Kennedy, and the Kennedy family.
| You have these -- have amazing examples of hypocrisy. Barbra Streisand, you point out, and did I misread this? Could this really be true? This environmentalist, Barbra Streisand, spends 20 grand a year watering her lawn? How do you know that? SCHWEITZER: Yes, it`s public record; $22,000 a year is her water Bill. And she lives in a compound, just her and her husband, James Brolin, that has five homes, and a 12,000-square-foot air conditioned barn, if you can believe it. CARLSON: That`s -- that`s a major violation of the principles of ecology, it sounds like. Has she ever responded to this? SCHWEITZER: She hasn`t. And what is so funny about it, Tucker, is that, you know, she`s constantly lecturing the American people on what she calls excessive consumption and says that, you know, the American people need to give up their SUVs, and they need to hang their clothes out to dry instead of using the dryer. So it`s ridiculous, you know. The gap between what she claims she believes and what she actually does is huge. CARLSON: Yes, I`d suggest that she be quiet, but it`s so amusing when she talks, I hope she keeps yapping. Michael Moore, a hypocrite according to you. Give me examples. SCHWEITZER: Well, you know, Michael Moore has said at least half a dozen times in his books, on C-SPAN, and in interviews with newspapers and magazines, that he doesn`t own a single share of stock, because he considers Wall Street money to be dirty. Well, he may be technically correct, Tucker. He doesn`t own a single share; he owns tens of thousands of shares of stock. And a lot of people that listen to him would probably be interested to know that among the companies he`s owned shares in include pharmaceutical companies, off-shore oil drilling companies, defense contractors, and believe it or not, in recent years, he`s also been a shareholder in Halliburton. CARLSON: But he must have lost money on Halliburton. SCHWEITZER: No, actually he took a 15 percent capital gain on some of the stock in Halliburton that he sold. CARLSON: That is just amazing. You`ve got a portion of your book where you quote Michael Moore calling other people racist for not having diverse enough staffs. And according to Michael Moore in one of his books as saying he`s never going to hire anybody but black employees from now on. Has he lived up to that pledge? SCHWEITZER: No, he hasn`t. I mean, he and Al Franken both have abysmal records. They criticize conservatives and corporate America for a lack of diversity and say that they`re racists and bigots because they don`t embrace affirmative action. But if you look at the credited people that Michael Moore has hired since 1990, he`s hired 134 people. A grand total of three were actually black. For Al Franken, he`s hired 112 people during that time period. A grand total of one was actually black. So they both have abysmal records when it comes to what they profess they believe in. CARLSON: Ouch. Now, to be fair, I`m not personally all that against hypocrisy, because I think that everybody falls short of his own ideals. And if you live up to your ideas, you probably have pretty low standards. We`re all hypocrites? Are you making the case that liberals are more hypocritical than conservatives? SCHWEITZER: Well, I really -- I think there`s two differences. Yes, we are all hypocritical. That`s very true. But I think, first of all, you never hear about liberal hypocrisy. I mean, you hear about it with conservatives all the time. Liberals get a free pass. You know, they advocate taxes, but then they work to avoid paying the very same taxes. You never hear about that. But the second distinction I think is even more important, Tucker. When conservatives abandon the principles and are hypocrites, what ends up happening? They get hurt; they damage their families; they damage their lives. With liberals, you find something very interesting. I would argue their ideas are so bad that when they become hypocrites and abandon their principles, they actually improve their lives. CARLSON: Interesting. Now, Ted Kennedy, I mean, I was a little bit surprised to hear you call him a hypocrite. Sum that up for us, that case. SCHWEITZER: Well, in Ted Kennedy`s case, I mean, for 40 years, he`s been advocating higher taxes. His pet cause now is the inheritance tax. He says it`s socially just and fair for the American people to pay 49 percent when they die to the IRS. The irony is that Ted Kennedy and his family have been massively successful at avoiding paying that very same tax. According to the Kennedy family`s own numbers, they have transferred between $300 million and $500 million from one generation to the other. On that money, they`ve paid a grand total of $134,000 in taxes. Tucker, that`s less than 1 percent. So he`s not in any position to lecture anybody on the need to pay taxes until he starts doing it himself. CARLSON: Who is his accountant, do you know? Might be interested in signing up with that program. SCHWEITZER: Yes, he`s got a whole team of them. What they`ve done is they`ve set up trusts in estates all across the United States. In fact, Merchandise Mart, you know, the large real estate holding that they used to own, that was actually domiciled in a trust that was set up on the island nation of Fiji, if you can believe it. Yes, so very creative accounting, to say the least. CARLSON: So he`s one of those corporate Benedict Arnolds Kerry was always lecturing us about. Peter Schweitzer, author of "Do as I Say." Excellent book. Thanks a lot for joining us. SCHWEITZER: Thanks for having me, Tucker. |
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