News
Email
Print
Burr: Flap over banking remark fueled by politics
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: April 16, 2009
At the conclusion of U.S. Sen. Richard Burr's speech Thursday at the annual United Way of Forsyth County meeting, he was handed a pen as a thank you.
Burr was told it was a writing instrument, and not the kind of PIN that would work in an automated teller machine.
It was an attempt to make light of Burr's recent comments about the financial meltdown that has spun into hot-button fodder for cable TV pundits.
What Burr has said, in speeches across the state including in Winston-Salem, is he advised his wife, Brooke, last fall to go to their bank's ATM and withdraw spending money. He said he was reacting to the escalation of the global financial crisis and the temporary freezing of the flow of money between banks.
"Tonight, I want you to go to the ATM machine, and I want you to draw out everything it will let you take. And I want you to tomorrow, and I want you to go Sunday," Burr said, according to an account in the Hendersonville Times-News. "I was convinced on Friday night that if you put a plastic card in an ATM machine the last thing you were going to get was cash."
Burr said Thursday that the anecdote was his attempt at conveying that the financial crisis had exposed weaknesses in the global banking infrastructure. It also was his attempt at explaining why Congress needed to act so quickly on the first federal bailout package.
"Most financial institutions are safer now and better capitalized than at the beginning of this crisis," Burr said.
According to the Raleigh News & Observer, the Hendersonville article got the attention of Capitol Hill newspapers, which linked the story online. Liberal bloggers criticized Burr, and Democratic strategists used the comments to as part of their initial forays into the 2010 Senate campaign.
"I was just shocked," David Young, the state's Democratic Party chairman, told the Raleigh newspaper. "It's really not much of an economic recovery plan to tell your wife to pull money from the bank."
Burr said he is well aware of the guarantee on deposits by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and that daily limits on ATM withdrawals would not have allowed the emptying of the Burrs' accounts.
David Ward, the press secretary for Burr, said that the senator's comments were "part of a much longer anecdote that he has been using for some time to convey to constituents the severity of what we were being told was happening in the financial system."
"Those in the media who continue to misconstrue this comment are being disingenuous and irresponsible, and have an obligation to the public not to misrepresent the context of the senator's statement."
Scott Bauer, the chairman and CEO of Southern Community Financial Corp., said he knows Burr has "complete confidence in the banking and regulatory system."
Burr said he believes the response to his comments is more motivated by political agendas than any concern about his opinion of the U.S. banking system.
"I know that I am among the top targets for the Democrats in 2010 and that they have chosen North Carolina as a battleground state," Burr said.
"My response is what it has been all along. If I have done what I told the state I would do when elected to represent North Carolina, I would hope voters would respond accordingly."
John Dinan, an associate professor of political science at Wake Forest University, said he doubts the reaction to the Burr comments would have much staying power.
"That's just the way these things go, with political groups trying to angle for an opening of some sort, sometimes to effect, but usually not," Dinan said.
Tony Plath, a finance professor at UNC Charlotte, said he believes the whole story "has been blown completely out of proportion."
"I think he was probably trying to make a point in dramatic fashion — rather than make a joke — and he inserted a bit too much drama in the telling of the story," Plath said.
"The Democrat's response is equally melodramatic, and designed to discredit Burr more than correct his remarks about the systemic risk in our financial system."
Richard Craver can be reached at 727-7376 or at rcraver@wsjournal.com.
Quote, Unquote
"On Friday night, I called my wife and I said, 'Brooke, I am not coming home this weekend. I will call you on Monday. Tonight, I want you to go to the ATM machine, and I want you to draw out everything it will let you take. And I want you to tomorrow, and I want you to go Sunday.' I was convinced on Friday night that if you put a plastic card in an ATM machine the last thing you were going to get was cash."
— Sen. Richard Burr
Email
Print
