Teabagger Peter G. Peterson buys ad on Plunderbund

Joe wrote about our new advertiser, with more to come.  So did Anastasia about their new advertiser.  So who is the Peter G. Peterson foundation?  Peterson himself is a former Nixon administration commerce secretary, who immediately went all Lehman Brothers.  Great start for a budding protozoan early Pleistocean era teabagger.

According to his Forbes profile, Peterson has a net worth of $1.7 billion after serving as chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers in the 1970s and 1980s, and then co-founding the private equity firm The Blackstone Group. He previously served as secretary of commerce under President Nixon. Peterson is president and co-founder of the Concord Coalition, whose website states the organization “is dedicated to educating the public about the causes and consequences of federal budget deficits, the long-term challenges facing America’s unsustainable entitlement programs, and how to build a sound economy for future generations.” He is also founder and chairman of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, whosemission is “to increase public awareness of the nature and urgency of key economic challenges threatening America’s future and accelerate action on them.”

Peterson has been barking up this tree for a very long time, misrepresenting every key fact along his personal jihad against social security. Billionaire, check.  Republican pedigree, check.  Falsely concerned about debt that isn’t his.  CHECK.  The ad’s timing is no coincidence – Republicans only care about debt after they’ve racked up trillions of it for a Democratic president to pay off right before said Democratic president tries to get re-elected.  But in addition, the Bowles-Simpson deficit commission presents its big findings earlier this month, and as Anastasia points out…

By the way, the staff of that deficit commission is stacked with representatives from … the Peter G. Peterson Foundation!

So why would we take Peter G. Peterson’s ad?  (which by the way was purchased by this guy, (no the spelling of his name is NOT a joke) whose video work for clients is a teabagger’s YouTube wet dream.) Well, we like taking people’s money and subsequently proving our editorial independence from advertisers.  Perfect opportunity.

I can’t wait for Joe’s next post on our new advertiser.