The Freddie and Fannie Slug Trail

[Conan71]

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/09/update-fannie-mae-and-freddie.html

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac spent about $400 mm spreading influence in Washington, from 1989 through 2008, ostensibly to ward off tighter government oversight.

Leading the list of benefactors are: Chris Dodd, Barack Obama, John Kerry, Robert Bennett, Spencer Bachus, and Roy Blunt.

According to Open Secrets, 354 Senators and Representatives took contributions from the mortgage giants.  Contributions favor Democrats at 57% into their coffers.  

There's no breakdown of what years contributions were made, considering the current Democrat majority in the Senate and HOR and that the top three benefactors have all run Presidential campaigns, it appears the money was spread pretty equally in D.C. even though Republicans held majorities in the HOR and Senate for 12 out of the 19 years this represents.

The only one which really gave me pause was Obama, considering he first ran for Senate in 2004.  It seems he racked up a lot of contributions in a short amount of time.  Either I glossed over McCain or he's much further down the list.  Clinton, Pelosi, and Reid are all in the top 25.

Lest you think this a complete hit job on Democrats, the McCain and Obama campaigns both employ former employees or lobbyists for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11781.html

(Yes, I cited "The Politico"!)

This is big.  How much of this bail-out is the result of years of influence peddling and how much is simply trying to protect the mortgage market?  

It sounds as if these two mortgage giants bought off government regs which might have helped avert this whole fiasco in the first place.  It would appear about 2/3 of our Congress has stains on their hands with this mess.

The most troubling of all is that Chris Dodd, our Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs was the leading recipient of this influence peddling.  Dodd also got a "preferred" loan through Countrywide.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/13/chris-dodd-kent-conrad-ti_n_106925.html

(Yes, I really quoted "huffpo")

I don't think there is any doubt that in the wake of all this Dodd should be removed from his post in the Senate Banking, Housing, and UA Committee.  I believe this fits the very definition of corruption.

The same article also mentions that Alphonso Jackson recieved one of these sweetheart loans while serving as a deputy director of HUD in 2003.

This is some nasty, dark stuff going on here.  This is your corrupt government at work, enjoying the perks of office, while sticking the rest of us with the tab when it all goes to ****.

[RecycleMichael]

Money is the route of all evil.

For more information, send $9.95 to my account.

[iplaw]

But but but but but but....

How does this information prove that it was Bush's fault or the Republican's?  If it doesn't then you MUST be lying.