Financial Crisis a Democrat Scandal

Hardly accurate, Mike. F&F have always been an “ecumenical” “bread” basket:

…
At the top of the list we must place Franklin D. Raines, [as Frum mentioned] chairman and chief executive officer of Fannie Mae from 1998 to 2004. Raines, who served as director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Clinton, had previously worked at Fannie Mae as vice chairman. Before that, he worked on the Clinton transition team following the 1992 election. Before that, he was a general partner at Lazard Freres & Co. Raines, as the Wall Street Journal reported, was forced to leave Fannie Mae in 2004, when regulators discovered it had broken accounting rules “in an effort to conceal fluctuations in profit and hadn’t maintained adequate risk controls.” The New York Times reported two year ago that regulators “have said that of the $90 million paid to Mr. Raines from 1998 to 2003 at least $52 million—more than half—was tied to bonus targets that were reached by manipulating accounting.” Raines agreed to a $24.7 million settlement with a federal regulator in exchange for charges being dropped, but he admitted no wrongdoing.

Next up is Jamie S. Gorelick, whose official résumé describes her as “one of the longest serving Deputy Attorneys General of the United States,” a position she held during the Clinton administration. Although Gorelick had no background in finance, she joined Fannie Mae in 1997 as vice chair and departed in 2003. For her trouble, Gorelick collected a staggering $26.4 million in total compensation, including bonuses. Federal investigators (PDF) would later say that “Fannie Mae’s management directed employees to manipulate accounting and earnings to trigger maximum bonuses for senior executives from 1998 to 2003.” The New York Times would call the manipulations an “$11 billion accounting scandal.” Gorelick, it should be noted, has never been charged with any wrongdoing.

Republicans also proved willing to serve Fannie Mae. Robert B. Zoellick, current head of the World Bank, has served President Reagan, President Bush 1, and President Bush 2 as a trade representative, deputy secretary of state, deputy secretary of the treasury, deputy chief of staff, and so on. Zoellick’s first Fannie Mae tour of duty was from 1983 to 1985, when he was a vice president. His second tour was 1993 to 1997, and his title was executive vice president in charge of lobbying, public affairs, and affordable housing. According to a July 23, 1997, report in the American Banker, Zoellick “has used his close ties to Republicans in Congress, such as Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., to defend Fannie Mae from new taxes.”

John Buckley worked at Fannie Mae for almost 10 years (1991-2001) but took a leave of absence to serve as Bob Dole’s communications director during his 1996 run for the presidency. Before Fannie Mae, he worked at the National Republican Congressional Committee, served as press secretary to Rep. Jack Kemp, R-N.Y., deputy press secretary during the Reagan-Bush 1984 campaign, and press secretary to Lewis Lehrman when he ran for governor of New York. He hails from the political Buckley family, his uncles being William F. and James.
…

Read the rest for more crooks and villains.

http://www.slate.com/id/2200160/

More here on F&F being a bipartisan “looting” industry:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/07/13/fannie_freddie_critics_say_crisis_was_building?mode=PF

doug,

good post, ……..but why leave out this little tidbit of information:

The New York Times reported this five years ago:

“The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.

Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry.

The new agency would have the authority, which now rests with Congress, to set one of the two capital-reserve requirements for the companies. It would exercise authority over any new lines of business. And it would determine whether the two are adequately managing the risks of their ballooning portfolios.

The plan is an acknowledgment by the administration that oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — which together have issued more than $1.5 trillion in outstanding debt — is broken. A report by outside investigators in July concluded that Freddie Mac manipulated its accounting to mislead investors, and critics have said Fannie Mae does not adequately hedge against rising interest rates.

The Democrats rejected this idea:

”These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis,” said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ”The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.”

As a Canadian, I have one question to DOUG:

Why do you hate so much your country? Because if you intend to vote for Obama, you definitely hate your country. Obama will kill this great country in every ways possible. And I am sure you know it, how could you not, it is so obvious that Obama is a fraud and an empty shell. So, please answer me, why do you hate son much your country? I really don’t understand the Obamarafatmaniacs.

Heh,

On one hand, I have to agree with Doug. I believe that Fannie/Freddie, thru history, is a bipartisan Congressional failure.

However I also agree with Mike’sA… and as most astutely documented by Rovin from the (perhaps ominous in the release date) Sept 11, 2003 NYTs article he quoted from… that the DNC Congressional members in the past decade are most recently responsible. They have refused to not only fix the problem, but even to acknowledge the Fannie/Freddie problem exists. This is not a bolt out of the blue event, by any standard.

However labeling the failure of the GSEs a Bush problem is a sign of a current events challenged bozo… one perpetually and desperately suffering from BDS. So I guess that will mean most every Obama supporter in the nation, right?

i.e. the ol’ commercial…. “give it to Mickie.. he’ll eat anything!” (not meaning you, Mike’sA, of course) Translated? The analogy that you can spoon feed any kind of political propaganda to the progressive gullible, and they swallow it hook, line and sinker – without a question.

It’s pretty clear from the Democrat party hacks who ran Fannie Mae and ran off with millions of dollars that it’s a Democrat problem. That and the top Fannie/Freddie contributions going to Democrats is enough for me.

It’s pretty clear that listening to Rush for a few hours is enough for you. You’re just regurgitating talking points on a complicated crisis that goes way beyond Freddie and Fannie. I’ll pay you the courtesy of assuming you’re not really this ignorant.

McCain just held a $50k a plate din-din in Miami following his own Beverly Hills fundraiser a couple weeks ago. No biggie. Just don’t throw bricks in glass houses.

Craig, worry about your own country. And stop questioning American’s patriotism because they have a different opinion. Believe it or not, it is the majority of Americans who want Obama to be president. And more importantly, an overwhelming majority of people under 45 years old (yes, the Americans of the future) that want Obama to be president. Hopefully, the popular vote wins this election.

Woohoo! I’m one of Songbird’s under 45 Americans, and no…I do not support Governor-err, Senator Obama. Many people do, but it is not clear that it’s a majority. Were it clear, then the race wouldn’t be so tight. In fact, Obama SHOULD be way ahead in the polls given the state of the nation, Bush’s low approval ratings, seven years of war, mass media crush on Obama, and so forth, but he’s not. It’s neck and neck. That’s because Senator Obama cannot make a good decision. The first Presidential decision that someone makes is their VP pick, and instead of choosing Sen Clinton-who half of his party supported-he choose Senator Gaffe-o-matic Biden who had 1% of his own party’s support, and none of America’s. Now, we can distract and talk about Governor Palin, but the point here is that Senator OBAMA cannot pick a VP. Obama’s theme of HOPE and optimism is gone now as the man, his surrogates, and his campaign can’t say 5 words without making a distracting jibe at Senator McCain or Governor Palin. His theme of CHANGE has been tossed out the window with every new attack ad ala old school politics rather than the new type that he promised. Obama’s claimed to oppose the war, but voted to keep it going, then secretly asked the Iraqis to stall it ’til he could be elected so he could use it as a campaign issue. He made DOZENS of campaign promises in his acceptance speech, promised everything for everybody, and then has no way of paying for it. He wants to tax investors more despite the investment crisis. He wants to tax small business owners (most of whom make more than $250k and employ 50% of the nation) while at the same time demanding those same small business owners hire more people and pay more. His foreign policy is the same as Bush’s, and all he’s got left is his ability to use a teleprompter and his unwavering obedience and unquestioning partisanship of his supporters. This man could very well lose the election that Democrats have no excuse for losing, and it’s because he’s just a used car salesman, a snake oil doc, a spinmeister, an actor pretending to be President; a man who is no longer inevitable.