September Surprise: Fannie Mae & Barack Obama

Cooked books, funny money and US Senators taking big bucks. Barack Obama is one of the biggest buck receiver of all. Jamie Gorelick and others took tens of millions of dollars in bonuses. You will hear a a lot more about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the failure thereof in the days and weeks to come. McCain and Obama will both talk about it. Neither of them are experts on the subject. Oh, wait. Barack Obama just might be an expert because of all the money he's taken money from Fannie and Freddie. In fact, he's the Number Two recipient of money from them. There is a chart titled "All Recipients of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Campaign Contributions, 1989-2008," which shows Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT) as receiving a grand total of $165,400 over those 20 years. Dodd ranks Number One. Number Three rank goes to John Kerry (D-MA), who took $111,000 in the same period. Both he and Dodd have been in the Senate for many years. Number Two rank is Barack Obama (D-IL), who took $126,349. Keep in mind that His Highness has been in the Senate for a fraction of the time of Dodd or Kerry. Both the Republican and Democrat parties can accept blame for this mess, but..... According to OpenSecrets.org, "These totals are based on data released electronically from the FEC on Sept. 2 and include contributions to lawmakers' leadership PACs and candidate committees from the floundering companies' PACs and employees. Current members of Congress have received a total of $4.8 million from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, with Democrats collecting 57 percent of that. This week we also wrote about how much money lawmakers had invested of their own money in the companies last year--a total of up to $1.7 million." [Source with Table: OpenSecrets.org] Byron York notes that Franklin Delano Raines, Jamie Gorelick (of 9/11 Commission infamy) and others helped to cook the books. Yes, Hillary's involved in this too... and other big names as well. From 1998 to 2004, the years covered by the OFHEO investigation, it was headed by former Clinton budget director Franklin Raines, whose top management team included former Clinton Justice Department official Jamie Gorelick, sometimes mentioned as a future attorney general in a Democratic administration. During that period, the report says, Raines and his team grossly overstated Fannie Mae’s earnings — to the tune of $10.6 billion — for the purpose of paying themselves big bonuses. “By deliberately and intentionally manipulating accounting to hit earnings targets,” the report says, “senior management maximized the bonuses and other executive compensation they received, at the expense of shareholders.” Full Article at National Review Online... The money taken by members of the US Congress (both Senators and Representatives) pales, however, in comparison to the tens of millions doled out as bonuses to the likes of Jamie Gorelick and Franklin Raines. Eric O'Keefe writes that "This is a stunning financial development, and it should become a stunning political development. Of course Fannie paid the politically powerful from both parties, but they put their biggest dollars and biggest hires on the side of the biggest spenders," then shows us "how much some of the winners profited from this scandalous operation, according to an insightful Wall Street Journal editorial:" Franklin Raines, CEO: $90,128,761 (1998-2003) Jamie Gorelick, vice-chair: $26,466,834 (1998-2003) Jim Johnson, CEO: $21,000,000 (1998 alone) Raines, Gorelikc and Johnson are Democrats. If they were Republicans, would we have seen this screamed from CBS, NBC, CNN and all the rest by now? Well, yah, duh. RELATED: The Real Culprits In This Meltdown - Investor's Business Daily Biden and Dodd play hooky while DC burns The Democrats, Obama, and the Fannie Mae scandal Morning Bell: The Left’s Crony Capitalism Exposed $30000 Per Year for Sen. Obama from Fannie and Freddie Obama tapped Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson YouTube - Fannie Mae, Jamie Gorelick and The 911 Comission