Ayotte Turns Blind Eye to Goldman Sachs’ Misdeeds

New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte has raised $1.3 million in campaign contributions from the finance, insurance, and real estate industries. That might explain her curious response to the New York Times op-ed in which Goldman Sachs director Greg Smith announced his resignation condemning the firm’s “toxic and destructive” environment.

MSNBC’s Chuck Todd asked Ayotte if the op-ed made her angry.

Well, I get angry when I think about bailouts. Bailouts not only for the private sector but also, obviously, for the car companies. I don’t think that’s the right direction for us. And that highlights it, I think that’s what part of the anger was from the Tea Party movement, but also just anger about what’s happening here in Washington with the fiscal state of this country.

ThinkProgress notes Ayotte said the Goldman Sachs whistleblower proves we should have let Detroit go bankrupt. Huh?

For starters, does Ayotte think that the American auto companies were not part of the private sector when they received government aid? But more importantly, does she not recognize the difference between rescuing a vital American manufacturing industry and bailing out banks in order to save the financial system, only to see them go back to the same practices that caused the mess in the first place?