Hannity: 'What Is More Corrupt? Enron, Halliburton, Wall Street Or Washington?

By Heather — April 21, 2010

Sean Hannity responds to the new DNC ad "For Years" and asks his panel who is more corrupt, Enron, Halliburton, Wall Street or Washington. Repeating the right wing's latest attack on the President, he also asks why Obama doesn't give back the money he got from Goldman Sachs. Karoli has more on that here -- What pot is CNN trying to stir now? and how they're conflating donations from the company or its PAC and its employees. What I found particularly ironic is that Hannity is throwing his BFF's Bush and Cheney under the bus by calling Halliburton and Enron corrupt. When the hell has Fox ever done any reporting on Halliburton or talked about Bush and Ken Lay?

I've got some real concerns about the people from Wall Street in the Obama administration and whether that's interfering with them actually passing some meaningful reform before we have another market crash. I'm irritated that it's taking this long after the crash we just had to do anything about this mess and can't believe there's still push back to regulate the derivatives market. I want to see the financial systems re-regulated and the money out of our political system.

Sean Hannity and Fox News just want to get more Republicans elected and only care about scandals if they involve Democrats. And you can bet Hannity won't be carping about Wall Street or campaign donations if the Republicans are back in charge. He'll be calling anyone who dares to question their actions un-American again.

HANNITY: All right. Democrats playing the financial card against the Republicans which I find ironic. Here's the latest ad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For years, Republicans stood by while Wall Street ran wild. Risky bets, lax regulations. When the economy collapsed, Republicans looked the other way.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ALASKA: The fundamentals of our economy. The fundamentals of our economy. The fundamentals are strong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now Republicans are working with Wall Street lobbyists to block reform, reforms that would protect consumers and prevent a future bailout. Tell Republicans it's time to reform Wall Street.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Stephen, I'd like to -- why doesn't Obama give back the four million he got from Wall Street and the million he got from Goldman Sachs? Why don't we start there?

STEPHEN HAYES, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, it's an inconvenient fact that he's going to contend with as they continue to try to make this case.

But the bigger problem, if you take a step back, the bigger problem for Democrats in making this argument is that the president has not been a populist. He hasn't been a populist his first 15 months in office. And he's now trying to pivot. to use the overused Washington word. He becomes a populist.

But he went against, basically, what the country was telling him to do on health care. He's gone against the country on a variety of other domestic policy agenda items. And now he's trying to say that the Republicans are the party of Wall Street.

JULIE MENIN, "GIVE AND TAKE": Every poll shows that people want to have reform of Wall Street. Are you saying that there shouldn't be any reform of the financial sector?

HAYES: Right. So what there's -- no, no, no. Of course, nobody is actually saying that there shouldn't be any reform of the financial sector. But what -- essentially what the president is saying, New York screwed up, trust Washington. Nobody wants to trust Washington.

HANNITY: The Pew poll that came out yesterday said more people want limited government, less services. And they were very clear in saying that. So if we're going to go by the polls, why don't we cut the size and scope of government now, and let's talk about government malfeasance?

MENIN: That is a different poll. First of all, people are saying that they want to have regulation of Wall Street. We can't allow these excesses to continue.

HANNITY: And then answering that. What is more corrupt, Enron, Halliburton, Wall Street or Washington? What do you think is more corrupt?

MENIN: That's not even the logical question. I mean, Sean, that is not a logical question.

HANNITY: It's not logical to a liberal mind, but in the mind of the American people it's very logical.

MENIN: So what is the Republican plan to try to protect consumers?

HANNITY: Here's my question to you. Who mismanages people's money more? Corporate execs on Wall Street or Washington, D.C.?

MENIN: You're saying there should be no regulation of Wall Street.

HANNITY: You don't want to answer my question, and I'm not surprised. But the answer is, listen, if they did what they say -- what they're accused of, I am as angry as anybody.

[...]

HAYES: The White House hasn't invited them. The Democrats have shut them out from the beginning.

HANNITY: If there's so much anger against corporate America, corporate malfeasance, there ought to be four times the amount of anger towards government malfeasance, the mismanagement of people's money.

If this -- if Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Barack Obama, if they were a corporation, I would argue they could be brought up on charges, they so mismanaging the people's money.

We'll come back. More with our "Great American Panel," next.