From the Washington Post:
Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager, was president of the Homeownership Alliance, which advocates the expansion of homeownership through low-interest mortgages funded by Fannie and Freddie. Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr., who is heading McCain's vice presidential vetting panel, was a lobbyist for Fannie Mae. Mark Buse, a longtime McCain aide, lobbied for Freddie Mac before returning to McCain's Senate staff.
And the list of Republican Fannie and Freddie lobbyists includes some of its most notable rogues -- including Tony Rudy, Edwin Buckham, Kevin Ring and David H. Safavian, all of whom were linked to the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal -- as well as some of its leading power brokers, from Reagan White House chief of staff Kenneth M. Duberstein to uberlobbyists Vin Weber and Tom Korologos. Alberto R. Cardenas, one of McCain's top fundraisers, has lobbied for Fannie Mae, as have former Montana governor Marc Racicot and tax-cut advocate Grover Norquist.
Obama also has ties to the firms. James A. Johnson, the former head of his vice presidential vetting panel, was a chief executive of Fannie Mae, as was Franklin D. Raines, who said this week that he has been consulting with the campaign on housing issues. Maria Echaveste, a top Clinton White House official whose husband, Christopher Edley Jr., is a close Obama friend and adviser, has lobbied for Freddie Mac, and former commerce secretary William M. Daley, a top Obama backer, was an in-house lobbyist.
Other Democratic luminaries who have advocated for the mortgage giants include strategist Steven Elmendorf, Rep. Doris Matsui (Calif.), former Al Gore aide Ronald A. Klain, former Clinton aide Steve Ricchetti and former congressman Harold E. Ford Jr. (Tenn.), now the head of the Democratic Leadership Council. Jamie Gorelick, a deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration, was also vice chairman of Fannie Mae.
That payroll has cost Fannie and Freddie nearly $200 million in lobbying and campaign contributions over the past decade, according to lobbying reports and Federal Election Commission disclosures. It has also won them plenty of protection from calls for greater regulation, less federal protection, and even nationalization.
From Robert Novak's column:
As financial storm signals appeared the past 18 months, some Bush officials urged drastic reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But, according to internal government sources, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson objected because it would look "too political." The Republican administration kept its hands off the government-backed mortgage companies that are closely connected to the Democratic establishment.
Paulson is a Republican, but as head of the Goldman Sachs investment bank he had close ties with Democratic-dominated Fannie Mae.
After prominent Democrat James A. Johnson's departure from Fannie following eight years as chairman and chief executive, and after Johnson joined the ZymoGenetics biopharmaceutical firm, he was named head of Goldman Sachs's compensation committee, helping to set Paulson's abundant salary there.
My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer
...If they weren't, what would they be doing in a whorehouse like D.C.?
ReplyDeleteWhat, me worry?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.city-journal.org/2008/eon0716ng.html
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Fannie and Freddie are just too big. The financial disaster that their failure would create, however, would mean near-certain depression, and the government’s alternative, a federal takeover that would mean increasing the national debt by half, is only slightly more attractive.
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This particular scandal points towards more Democrats Steve.
ReplyDeleteIt's because Dems control cities and big counties, NYC excepted, and thus the various graft-organizations that take advantage of Freddie and Fannie's $$$$.
Take, for example, the LA Redevelopment schemes pushed since, well Bradley. All that ties in to people like Ron Burkle and other connected guys leveraging the money from the Feds.
Steve,
ReplyDeleteIn your efforts to expose Obama for the fraud he is, I'm surprised you haven't mentioned that his chief economic advisor is Robert Rubin.
As Clinton's Treasury Secretary, he led the effort to have the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act overturned, which has allowed commercial banks to get involved in high-risk investment banking activities - a major cause of the current mortgage-backed securities and related derivatives fiasco. And as Chairman of Citi Group in recent years, he oversaw one of the biggest players - and losers - in the MBS/derivatives disaster. In short, Rubin is the comsummate Wall Street hustler.
His leading role in the Obama campaign certainly puts the lie to Obama's promises of meaningful "change".
From an article by PrudentBear.com writer Martin Hutchison in the Asia Times entitled Financial collapse edges closer
ReplyDelete:
There can be no economic justification for the government guaranteeing the great majority of the nation's home mortgages, and the spurious "government-sponsored enterprise" structure of Fannie and Freddie merely hid the likely consequences of their default. Their senior employees have been paid as if they were counterparts of Wall Street high-flyers for performing a function that was economically entirely unnecessary, and they have survived for more than 50 years simply through their ability to offer lucrative consulting contracts to ex-congressmen and other politically well-connected people.
Steve - at this point, may I assume that I'm not allowed to call Grover Norquist a t*w*lh**d?
ReplyDelete[BTW, you guys at AmConMag and/or VDare aren't taking any money from him & his t*w*lh**d brothers, are you?]