In a recent issue of NR I wrote about the left-wing attack on former senator and current McCain adviser Phil Gramm. Almost every attack on Gramm has featured a quote or two from University of Maryland law professor Michael Greenberger. He has also been in the news as a prominent exponent of the view that speculators are driving up the price of oil. So it’s worth mentioning that in a recent report for a Senate subcommittee, Republican and Democratic staffers joined forces to question Greenberger’s credibility.
The report, a joint analysis by the majority and minority staff of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs’s subcommittee on investigations, dissects previous Senate testimony given by Greenberger, testimony that touches on many of the matters over which he has criticized Gramm. It examines 19 statements that Greenberger made. Again and again, the bipartisan report calls Greenberger out for making inaccurate or misleading claims. The most common phrases in the report’s analysis? ”This statement is incorrect” (5) and “these statements are incorrect” (4). Unfortunately, the report is not yet online.
Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who chairs the subcommittee, is no pushover. Reporters covering Gramm, oil markets, or regulation should consider themselves warned not to rely on Greenberger–by both parties.