The host of MSNBC's weekday afternoon program The Ed Show has often hammered the donations to GOP candidates and projects made by wealthy conservative brothers David and Charles Koch, but does he feel the same when rich Democrats enter the political fray?
We got our answer on Monday, when Schultz happily interviewed Tom Steyer, a prolific Democratic donor who has pledged $50 million of his own money -- which will be matched by other members of “the party of the little guy” -- to support candidates who oppose the Keystone XL Pipeline and attack Democrats who support the project, which has interestingly been delayed by the Obama administration until after this November's midterm elections.
Instead of discussing the use of big money in politics, Schultz avoided the fact that the Open Secrets website lists Steyer and his wife Kathryn as the top-ranked individual political contributors in the country, bypassing even former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.
In this cycle alone, Steyer has already donated $1.9 million toward Democratic or liberal candidates, the site notes.
Regardless of the fact that the green energy entrepreneur stands to benefit from blocking the pipeline, Schultz and Steyer spent the entire interview slamming claims by pipeline supporters that the project will not add to carbon pollution as “sheer baloney” and “completely false.”
Schultz introduced his guest as the founder of NextGen Climate, which according to its website, “is a non-partisan organization focused on bringing climate change to the forefront of America’s political dialogue.”
“You have been given the dubious distinction of being the godfather of green right now," the liberal anchor told Steyer. “God bless you for that.”
When asked how the attempt to shut down the pipeline is proceeding, Steyer responded that the legal process “has to be completed before the president can make a decision.”
“I think that the president has given very straightforward criteria for approving or disapproving it, but until he's in a position where there's a clear playing field, I think he correctly has decided that he has to let all the information come in before he makes a decision,” Steyer noted.
Schultz then stated that “some Republicans claim the delay is purely political” before showing a clip of GOP strategist Karl Rove, who “even used your name.”
Rove stated during a Fox News interview:
One guy in California, Tom Steyer -- a venture capitalist who's made a lot of money off of green energy projects -- vowed to spend $100 million to either elect Democrats who support cancellation of the Keystone Pipeline or denial of it, or to defeat Democrats who support it.
What they want to do is they want to keep Steyer's money being spent to elect Democrats, not to defeat Democrats who have come out against the project. This is all about politics.
“Starting with the fact that he mispronounced my name twice,” Steyer asserted, “I think it's fair to say that Karl Rove doesn't know me very well, and in fact, almost every single word that he uttered was inaccurate and false.”
“The fact of the matter is we've been involved in this strictly as private citizens, strictly because we feel as if it's absolutely important for the United States to have the right energy policies, so his implication that we have some hidden agenda is completely false,” the Democratic donor stated.
Schultz then stated some people are asserting that the pipeline will not add to carbon pollution, a claim his guest called “baloney. That is sheer baloney.”
Steyer added:
The fact of the matter is this is very dirty oil, and the other claims that the proponents of the pipeline have made over the last years have one by one been disproved.
The pipeline goes through the United States but not to the United States. It ends up in the Gulf of Mexico, where it can be shipped all over the world. From the beginning, the proponents of the pipeline have tried to bully us and hurry us into a quick decision based on arguments that were inaccurate and flimsy.
Not surprisingly, the liberal anchor didn't challenge the idea of a pipeline that would run from the northern to southern borders of the U.S. yet not provide any oil to a country that would benefit greatly regarding “energy independence.”
That concept is ludicrous, but when promoted by a wealthy liberal, Schultz readily agreed.
It would be interesting if the MSNBC anchor's next tirade against the Koch brothers would spend equal time discussing the negative effect Tom Steyer and George Soros have on American politics. I'd pay real money to see a fair discussion on that topic.
