NEW: Republicans Hammer Warren for Misleading Response

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Ashley Klann, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

Republicans are slamming Elizabeth Warren for her lack of response to records requests about her heritage and her oversight that they say led to less transparency.

Mass state representative, Dan Winslow (R) spoke during the call, saying that Warren’s responses on issues of openness lately have been “disturbing” and deliberately misleading.

As Chairwoman

“When she served as the chairwoman of Congressional Oversight Panel (COP), overseeing billions of tax dollars in TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program), even as she was doing this, she refused to say how the panel was using it,” Rep. Winslow said, adding that Warren is now trying to cloud her record.

Winslow said that when Warren was asked to release that information from when she was chair, their campaign claimed two conflicting things.

“She claimed that the panel had been transparent,” he said. “She was also saying that since September, their campaign has been requesting that the panel should disclose that information – those are conflicting statements. Both can’t be true.”

Winslow continued, “Warren was the deciding vote against drafting the minutes and transcripts of their meetings as the chairwoman. There is a difference in what she says and does. She chose secrecy over transparency when in Washington.”

Campaign Figures

The Mass representative is also asking how the candidate “spent $10.5 million on meals, travel, and consultants.”

Heritage Records

Winslow also brought his statement to the topic of Warren’s background, saying that questions and accusations surrounding her heritage have also gone unaddressed.

“Democrats requested 32 years of National Guard personal records from Scott Brown. When Republicans made identical request, suddenly background wasn’t an issue,” he said. “We’ve also seen conflicting messages in law school hiring. She is correct in saying that there was no application for her to get the job, but there is a process in place to be considered for law school.”

Winslow said that one way the decision is made is through directors. He said that David Bernstein, law professor at George Mason University, has substantiated that the AALS (The Association of American Law Schools) directory is used for hiring.

“We know she advertised herself as a minority,” he said. “There is also a formal practice in place – the faculty appointments register – used explicitly by professors to be hired. They subscribe explicitly for law school faculty jobs. The list is not public, but is at the University of Illinois of Champaign.

Call for Disclosure

Winslow is calling on Warren to disclose her AALS information, saying, “She could authorize that, and I call on her to do so, as well as those at Harvard. All she has to do is sign the release and the Brown campaign will do all the work. All she has to do is sign the forms for the truth to come out.”

He added that Brown voluntarily released all information from the guard.

“This is the level of transparency mass deserves, she’s unwilling. She needs to stop bucking questions and take responsibility as the deciding vote for blocking records and say why she wanted to block those records in the first place,” he said. “She needs to say whether or not she duped those schools and all of us that she sought to use a fake minority position.”