Jan 8th - Political Commentary - Crooks are OK

Have you wondered what some of the crooks who helped create the mortgage crisis have been doing?

James A. Johnson, who was a chief of staff to former Vice President Mondale, was CEO of Fannie Mae from 1991 to 1998. After Johnson left Fannie Mae regulators discovered that he had cooked the books. He did it so that he and other executives could receive bonuses for their great performance. Johnson got $1.9 million.

Franklin Raines, who headed Clinton’s budget office, became the CEO after Raines. He earned $20 million in salary and bonuses from Fannie Mae in 2003. He resigned in 2004 after regulators determined the he had cooked the books so that he would get outlandish bonuses. Raines has since cut a deal with the feds. He gave back $24.7 million and the feds dropped the charges.

Since Obama took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac the feds have borrowed, further indebting all future generations of American taxpayers, $160 million to defend them and their former top executives in civil lawsuits. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/24/business/24fees.html?pagewanted=all

No private enterprise would have ever paid the legal fees to protect people who had cooked their books. Has everyone seen the old video of Barney Frank stating that neither Fannie nor Freddie need more oversight? After the stink increased to the point where even the feds could not keep it hidden, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight published a report stating that because of the cooked books $115 million in bonuses were paid out.

Do you wonder who these crooks have been advising since they were outed?  

In 2008 Obama selected Jim Johnson to run his vice presidential search committed. Johnson ended up "resigning" after more voters became aware of the fact that he not only cooked Fannies books but that he had received more than $2 million in home loans, at below market rates, from Countrywide Financial, a partner of Fannie Mae.

More recently, Obama’s campaign people have called Franklin Raines for advice on housing and economic issues. Perhaps they hope that he has learned how to be a better crook and that he will pass the knowledge along to them.

I guess having people like these "advise" is a common for Obama.

Tax cheat Tim Geithner is Secretary of the Treasury.

Tax cheat Ron Kirk is one of Obama's United States Trade Representatives

Obama wanted tax cheat Tom Daschle to help with health care.

Nancy Killefer, whose performance as would-be chief performance officer was also self-terminated when she turned out to have had a past tax problem.
Bill Richardson pulled out of Commerce not because of taxes but because of a federal pay-to-play probe.
Rep. Hilda Solis's husband had some tax liens going back 16 years, until the day before her committee vote as Labor secretary.