NEWSBUSTERS DEFECTING TO OUR SIDE IN THE CLASS WAR?

A sentence I never thought I'd type: I agree with sentiments expressed in a post at NewsBusters.

Mark Finkelstein of NewsBusters correctly chides Donald Trump for saying this (emphasis Finkelstein's) to Wolf Blitzer on CNN about Bernard Madoff's clients:

DONALD TRUMP: They put 100% of their money with this character, this sleazebag. 100% and they're wiped out. And you know, it's one thing when you grow up and you don't have money or you get to a certain age and you don't: you learn to live. [But] these people have had hundreds of millions of dollars and one phone call on a Thursday night: they're wiped out, have nothing left.

"Poor schlumps out there know how to get along with next to nothing," Finkelstein writes sarcastically. "But these were multi-millionaires that Bernard Madoff wiped out: show some sympathy!"

... I'm not in full agreement here. My feelings are pretty much the opposite of Trump's, while Finkelstein's are right down the middle -- "My sympathies go to con men's victims, including the rich ones," Finkelstein says. Me, I have some sympathy for the rich victims -- but I can't help thinking that their version of being "wiped out" is not the same as that of the typical wage slave who's been laid off this year. For instance, I'm struggling to feel a huge amount of sympathy for some of the people described in this article in today's New York Times, whose Madoff losses mean they can no longer afford $2 million Manhattan apartments. Somehow, I feel those folks still know where their next meal is coming from.

Nevertheless Finkelstein and I agree: Donald Trump is an ass.

(Video here.)