Sheila Bair Says Press Reports Are Misleading AKA I Didn’t Say What I Said

President Obama didn’t understand what the health care providers were really promising, Nancy Pelosi says no one told her anything about torture but none of her colleagues seem willing to back her up on that one and now Sheila Bair says that she didn’t really say that some bank executives will be replaced. These Washington types need to get spin under control.

If you missed it, splashed all over the blogosphere this morning was a story on Bloomberg in which claimed that Bair told Al Hunt in a TV spot to be released this weekend that some bank CEO’s would have to go.

Here’s Bloomberg’s report:

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bairsaid some bank chief executive officers will be replaced within the next several months after the U.S. scrutinizes lenders subjected to tests of their financial strength.

“Management needs to be evaluated,” Bair said today on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” to be broadcast this weekend. “Have they been doing a good job? Are there people who can do a better job?”

Now the FDIC is out with a statement that Ms. Bair didn’t really say what she said, that the Bloomberg article is misleading.

Here’s what Reuters reports:

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp disputed on Friday a report that said Chairman Sheila Bair believes some U.S. bank chief executives will be replaced in the next couple of months as regulators assess lenders’ financial strength.

The FDIC said the Bloomberg News report, which cited a television interview to be broadcast this weekend, was “misleading.”

“Chairman Bair said that management changes could happen based on the capital plans that an institution must submit to the government,” the FDIC said in a statement. “She did not refer to CEOs specifically and the comment was in the context of capital plans submitted by the institutions. Chairman Bair also did not suggest the federal government will remove the bank CEOs.” 

I suppose we’ll all have to tune in to Hunt’s program this weekend and draw our own conclusions. In the meantime though, don’t you wish that some politician would stand up and stand behind what they say — just once in awhile, no spin.

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