Brendan Nyhan

Granholm smears auto bailout opponents

Jennifer Granholm, the Democratic governor of Michigan, is smearing opponents of the auto bailout as “un-American”:

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) said it was “un-American” for senators to have voted against approving a bailout of troubled automakers last night, saying their vote may cause a recession to become a depression.

“It is unacceptable for this un-American, frankly, behavior of these U.S. senators to cause this country to go from a recession into a depression,” Granholm said during a radio interview Friday morning.

Update 12/14 9:22 AM: Back in September, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi similarly called House Republicans “unpatriotic” for not attending meetings on the bailout:

PELOSI: I thought it was very unpatriotic of them not to show up, not to show up, in some ways, boycott the meetings earlier in the week.