Alan Greenspan's Autobiography, and His Decision to Switch Political Parties

Findlaw.com ^ | 10/4/07 | John W. Dean

[imd102]

As readers may well know, I am a former Republican, turned Independent because he saw for himself that the GOP was not very good at government. It is nice to have such eminent company as former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank Alan Greenspan. When Greenspan speaks, people truly listen.

Greenspan describes himself as "a lifelong libertarian Republican." But conservative columnist Robert Novak thinks that Greenspan is, in fact, "a Democrat" because he "loves Bill Clinton … he's dismissive of Ronald Reagan as an amiable putz, [and] he detests the Bushes." Others who have read Greenspan's new work think he is a "Goldwater Republican." Labels are always confusing, if not increasingly meaningless; I call myself a "Goldwater conservative," yet am no longer a Republican.

Greenspan bluntly writes that under the Republicans, "[g]overnance has become dangerously dysfunctional." This is the way a central banker says it is broken. (They have their own language, of course - one that Greenspan only occasionally employs, usually to be diplomatic.)

As for the legislative branch under Republican control, Greenspan says succinctly and memorably, "Republicans in Congress lost their way. They swapped principle for power. They ended up with neither.

[nmh]

Greenspan is a major SOCIAL LIBERAL who tries to be a fiscal conservative. Of late, he needs to shut his stupid mouth. Much of the problems were STARTED under his watch.

[Thebaddog]

Hes married to Andrea Mitchell who is a major liberal correspondent for some MSM outlet. And Andrea is majorly in the tank for Hillary. Who on earth do you think Greenspan is really pulling for?

[caisson71]

Ditto.

[Badeye]

The best descripton I’ve read of Alan Greenspan is ‘social climber’. When you look at his life, and how he floated from one cocktail party theory to another, as time passed, it all falls into place.

[Right_Rev]

Once he married her...the cat was out of the bag! :)

[stevio]

Well sure. He got his, screw the rest of us.

[mbraynard]

All kind of a non-issue. Who cares what he thinks of politics anymore than what Gwen Stefani does? He was the nation's chief banker. He's never been elected anything. Nothing he says here is particularly inciteful or unique.

Some of his best writing may have been in his real Objectivist days - his piece on anti-trust is brilliant.

Otherwise, his value as a political commentator here is only to the left in the media who want to use him as yet another tool to discredit W/Republicans.

[goodnesswins]

I’ve been wondering lately about senility.....for ole Greenspan....

[EyeGuy]

Would that be cowardly weasel, disloyal smegma THE John Dean?

Or some other lying, condescending fomer-Rino who shares the same defiled name?

[WOSG]

Sigh. Same thing happens to Goldwater in his dotage. Younger lib wife syndrome.

You know, I’d understand Greenspan’s shift if Andrea Mitchell wasn’t so ... shopworn looking.

[weegee]

THE Dean of Watergate.

[antiRepublicrat]

Hes married to Andrea Mitchell who is a major liberal correspondent for some MSM outlet. And Andrea is majorly in the tank for Hillary. Who on earth do you think Greenspan is really pulling for?

Mary Matalin is married to James Carville.

[kabar]

John Dean of all people. LOL

[Reeses]

The big payoff for being chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank is not the paycheck, it’s all the worshiping and butt kissing they get. It leads to narcissism developing which can cause any conservative to develop this primarily Democrat mental disorder. Narcissism is a disease that can strike at any age. Look at Arnold Schwarzenegger for another example of a conservative that’s gone over to the dark side out of sheer vanity.

[nmh]

Absolutely!

Now that he’s out of position, he full of criticism. Worse yet, some of the problems we have today were started under HIS REIGN.

[Muleteam1]

The only thing interesting about Greenspan is how he was able to fool so many Americans into thinking he was a conservative.

[colorado tanker]

Greenspan never said he was becoming a Democrat, at least not that I've heard of.

And I think most here share his opinion of the last Republican Congress.

"Libertarian" conservative is usually code for pro-abortion, so that's probably where most of his differences with mainstream Republicans comes from.

[rb22982]

"Libertarian" conservative is usually code for pro-abortion, so that's probably where most of his differences with mainstream Republicans comes from.

I've always taken libertarian conservative to mean economic issues are placed on much higher importance than social issues and not necessarily pro abortion. I consider myself a libertarian conservative. I am 100% against Roe vs Wade. The Republican party gets a D- for Fiscal Conservative (only reason its not an F is because of tax cuts--although they aren't permanent) the last 8 years. If a strong economic conservative is not nominated, I will not be voting Republican again next year. Hunter will get my vote in the primary.

[colorado tanker]

IMHO, one of Dubya’s biggest blunders was never using his veto to force some fiscal responsibility on the Republican Congress. Had he done so, they might not have lost their majority.