Can the MSM Get Over Its Precious Self?

Last night, I posted the new McCain ad that exposes an Obama adviser, Franklin Raines, who reaped millions from Fannie Mae and gets a guaranteed lifetime pension of $110,000 per month after he left amidst a huge mismanagement scandal and, according to the Washington Post, “perpetrated ‘extensive financial fraud’” at Fannie Mae.

Now that’s damn serious. If Raines’ behavior isn’t criminal, it should be. The billions that U.S. taxpayers will be paying to rescue Fannie Mae are due in no small part to Obama’s adviser Raines as well as Jim Johnson, another Obama adviser who headed his vice presidential selection committee. NancyA posted today’s McCain ad on Obama’s connections to the corrupt Johnson who, like Raines, stuffed his pockets while ruining Fannie Mae.

Then there’s the whole lobbying matter: Barack Obama, who’s only been in the U.S. Senate since 2005, is the #2 recipient out of 354 lawmakers of lobbying monies from Fannie and Freddie (not to mention Lehman Bros. and AIG) — read Larry Johnson’s reports here and here. This should be a top topic at dinner tables around the country. How could someone with so little Senate service — two-plus years — be the #2 beneficiary of such huge amounts of lobbying monies?

Early today, still ruminating about Barack Obama’s predilection for questionable advisers who make their money on the backs of taxpayers, from Tony Rezko and the rest of the Chicago “machine” to Fannie Mae’s Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson, I check Memeorandum.com and am FLOORED that this is the top story, from Time’s Karen Tumulty:

McCain Plays the Race Card — When politicians interject race into a campaign, they seldom do it directly. Consider McCain’s new ad, which the campaign says it will be airing nationally: This is hardly subtle: Sinister images of two black men, followed by one of a vulnerable-looking elderly white woman. …

First, when I watched that ad last night, it never dawned on me that Raines’ color was a factor. Furthermore, I’d already seen in my Inbox this morning that McCain has a new ad out today on Jim Johnson, Obama’s other adviser who scammed taxpayers while making millions at Fannie Mae.

Tumulty, in her article, complains that McCain singles out Raines because he’s black, but that McCain doesn’t go after Johnson, who’s white. Good god! If Karen Tumulty had picked up the telephone, she’d have known that John McCain released a new ad very early this morning titled, drum roll, “Jim Johnson.”

The simple logic to me is that it is easier to concentrate on one man’s thievery at a time in a very short TV ad. Hence, the McCain ad people created two ads. Not the first ad to make black people look “sinister.” (I literally just slapped my forehead with the palm of my hand.)

The silliness of the “race card” addressed, let’s focus more on Johnson and Raines:

These are NOT good people.

These are NOT people who stay awake at night worrying about the thousands of home owners losing their homes because they were screwed by shaky mortgage deals.

These are NOT the kind of “experts” that a presidential candidate should either seek out for advice — or even be seen remotely near (!).

If I’d been instrumental in bringing down one of the largest home financing institutions — and I’d been a major reason that taxpayers will have to shell out billions of dollars for decades to come — I’d be hanging my head in shame and hiding out in my basement, calling out for Domino’s pizza and donating $100,000 of that $110,000 monthly pension check to charity. But I’m clearly a fool. Consciences are so lame, huh.

Anyway, here’s some more history on Obama’s involvements with Jim Johnson at some very audaciously incongruent moments in his candidacy, courtesy of the excellent Commentary columnist Jennifer Rubin in June 2008 — with the highly apt title, “Let Me Get This Straight.”

On a day in which he is hip-deep in James Johnson goo, Barack Obama did a forum on mortgage lending practices? Nah, it can’t be. That would be the height of hypocrisy and the evidence that Obama’s fine-tuned machine had stepped on it’s own message. Oh, wait–it’s true. It has become clear that until Wednesday Obama still didn’t realize anything was amiss. As the New York Times noted:

Mr. Obama had defended Mr. Johnson as recently as Tuesday, saying that he had only a “tangential” role in his campaign and that he was not troubled by his business activities. He said he had not inquired about his mortgages and would not hire people to, as he put it, “vet the vetters.” But Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, and Republican Party officials kept up a steady drumbeat of criticism of Mr. Johnson. The case became a test of Mr. Obama’s professed independence from Washington insiders and supposed higher ethical standards. Mr. Obama has refused to accept campaign donations from lobbyists and had made criticism of the cozy financial and political relationships in the capital a hallmark of his campaign rhetoric.

Even aside from his poor choice of topics on Wednesday, the hypocrisy watchdogs had spotted the problem. Jake Tapper observed:

A consummate Washington, D.C., insider, Johnson’s leadership role in Obama’s campaign seemed to belie the candidate’s promise to voters that “the stakes are too high and the challenges too great to play the same Washington game with the same Washington players and expect a different result.”

But beyond that contradiction and Johnson’s controversial time at Fannie Mae was the issue of what Republicans termed Johnson’s “sweetheart” loan from Countrywide. Earlier this year, Obama and his campaign had impugned Sen. Hillary Clinton for taking money from Countrywide lobbyists and for allowing a senior campaign adviser to simultaneously do work for Countrywide.”

Tapper noted that, although Obama had excoriated Countrywide in a swing through the Rust belt in March,

[w]hen Obama was asked about Johnson’s special loan from Countrywide Tuesday in St. Louis, outrage seemed the furthest emotion he could muster.

“I am not vetting my VP search committee for their mortgages,” he said after ABC News asked him about the apparent contradiction. “This is a game that can be played. Everybody you know who is tangentially related to our campaign I think Is going to have a whole host of relationships. I would have to hire the vetter to vet the vetters.”

As Gail Collins put it, “Talk about unnecessary disasters.” Unnecessary but not unexpected. In no other instance of brewing trouble–Bittergate or Rev. Wright, to name two–did Obama’s early warning signal go off that something was amiss. When you believe your own press releases and listen to your media fan club, you wind up thinking that no one will call you on it when you hire a Washington fixer and go to predatory lending events on the day you fire a recipient of discounted loans.

And here is where Jennifer Rubin hits the NAIL on the HEAD:

It is becoming easier to understand how Obama got swept into the orbit of Tony Rezko: he seems to lack basic common sense about the appearance of ethical improprieties and possesses the arrogance to believe no one will question his motives. It’s a deadly combination. …

But not these guys. They have such gall that they have no guilt about stealing millions in compensation and pensions while living the high life in the midst of Washington, D.C. society and cozying up to Barack Obama.

Get this!

This Jim Johnson character was in hock to Countrywide up to his eyeballs! At the time he was forced to resign from Barack Obama’s vice presidential selection committee, the Wall Street Journal discovered that Jim Johnson’s monthly “obligations” were nearly TWICE his “stated monthly income.”

But Countrywide considered him a “High Profile Borrower” and awarded Johnson the Exception Processing System, “which the lender used to handle loans that didn’t comply with its own regulations.”

Within Countrywide, Mr. Johnson was designated both a Friend of Angelo and a “High Profile Borrower,” according to documents and people familiar with the matter. His loans were handled by Mr. Mozilo and his lieutenants Andrew “Drew” Gissinger III and Wes Lazear.

Bank of America Corp., which is acquiring the struggling Countrywide, has chosen Mr. Gissinger, a former San Diego Chargers offensive lineman, and several other Countrywide executives to help run its mortgage business after the acquisition. Mr. Gissinger will head several groups responsible for selling mortgages to consumers.

Perhaps the most unusual of Mr. Johnson’s loans was one for more than $1.5 million last year for a real-estate project in Big Timber, Mont. At the time he got the loan, what the records indicate were Mr. Johnson’s monthly obligations were nearly twice his stated monthly income, according to documents and to people familiar with the matter.

The records say Mr. Johnson’s “total income” was $55,834 a month, while his “total obligations” were $97,708.97 a month. The result was a total debt ratio of 175%, which Countrywide’s records say was “too high.”

Countrywide handled this as a house construction loan, which meant that Mr. Johnson wasn’t required to make a down payment apart from the $240,000 investment he had already made in raw land and a payment for construction. A requirement for a second appraisal was waived by Mr. Gissinger.

The loan’s size also exceeded Countrywide rules, but that limit was overridden as well. The document indicated that the size limit was $1.5 million for a second home. In addition, Countrywide borrowers are supposed to have no more than four currently financed properties at a time. Countrywide waived that rule, too. Mr. Johnson was in the processing of selling one of his properties.

“The borrower of this loan is the former CEO of Fannie Mae,” Countrywide records state. “This is a very high-profile and visible loan that needs…immediate attention.”

Senior executive Mr. Lazear overrode Countrywide’s rule prohibiting loans to a borrower with such a high debt-to-income ratio (DTI) in an April 19, 2007 memo. “Mr. Johnson’s profile in many ways, including the existing performing loans at Countrywide, supports the exception,” Mr. Lazear wrote. “This email gives you my approval for the DTI exception.” Mr. Lazear couldn’t immediately be reached including through messages on his personal mobile-phone number. …

ALL I WANT:

(1) That Obama’s relationships with these people who ripped off major mortgage institutions are exposed!

(2) That Obama’s huge take in lobbying funds — thanks to his cozying up to these fat cats who have ripped off both their companies and the American taxpayers — is adequately revealed to all Americans!

(3) And, please lord god almighty, don’t tell me that Jim Johnson’s Countrywide loans are going to be bailed out by the U.S. taxpayers!

P.S. MSM, We know you have a vested interest in the outcome of this election, but your pathetic use of the “race card” is laughable. Knock it off.

And, Karen Tumulty, learn how to use your telephone or get an editorial assistant who has the brains to fact-check your stories for you.

If Time doesn’t have the budget, just call me, Karen. I get the press releases from both presidential candidates, and I can get you the latest info.