[UPDATE]: Welcome, Instapundit readers.
Funny how this sort of thing takes forever to make the papers. From Dick Morris and Eileen McGann:
RAHM’S ‘RENT’ IS JUST THE TIP OF ETHICS ICEBERG
[snip]
Consider: Emanuel served on the Freddie Mac board of directors during the time that the government-backed lender lied about its earnings, a leading contributor to the current economic meltdown.
The Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight Agency later singled out the Freddie Mac board as contributing to the fraud in 2000 and 2001 for “failing in its duty to follow up on matters brought to its attention.” In other words, board members ignored the red flags waving in their faces.
The SEC later fined Freddie $50 million for its deliberate fraud in 2000, 2001 and 2002.
Meanwhile, Emanuel was paid more than $260,000 for his Freddie “service.” Plus, after he resigned from the board to run for Congress in 2002, the troubled agency’s PAC gave his campaign $25,000 – its largest single gift to a House candidate.
That’s what friends are for, isn’t it?
Well, during Democratic administrations, that is. During Republican ones the equivalent revelation would have probably shown up in the analogue’s first Congressional bid.
What complicates the issue is that it’s probably impossible to prove that Obama Chief of Staff Emanuel was actively involved in anything actually illegal. Nonetheless… he does have a certain willingness to push the envelope, doesn’t he? The NYP article notes the free rent, notes the fact that it was never disclosed – and even notes that the guy giving Emanuel the free rent made over six hundred thousand dollars in contracts that Emanuel oversaw. The authors end by asking:
The president’s chief of staff isn’t subject to Senate confirmation, but his ethics still matter. Is this the change that we can depend on?
The answer is: No, this isn’t change at all. This is John Edwards’ Two Americas, and Rahm Emanuel is merely living his life by the rules of the America that isn’t yours or mine. Wasn’t that obvious already?
Moe Lane
Crossposted at RedState.
If you missed that, you must have missed the 16.2 mil the Chicago investment bank paid the Sarah Lawrence speech and communications major prior to his running for Blago’s congressional seat (while running Blago’s governor’s campaign)no? I mean, it was in all the papers, wasn’t it?
I was surprised Morris didn’t mention Emanuel’s windfall earnings in his time between the Clinton White House and his seat in Congress. According to the NY Times, he left the WH and went to work for a big Democrat donor….and he was paid EIGHTEEN MILLION DOLLARS in 2 1/2 years!
Read the whole thing:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/us/politics/04emanuel.html
Like Daschle, it’s not just their taxes. It’s the gross way they cash in on their “contacts” between government jobs.
I’m trying to imagine what our newspapers would look like if they thought to mention this stuff when it’d actually do us some good, and I’m failing. It’s just too alien a concept. 🙂
What? Barack Obama, a product of the Chicago machine has corrupt associates? Stop the presses!
In a related story, President Obama announced the creation of a cabinet-level Department of Henhouses, together with the nomination of a committee of foxes to administer the department.
This is why the idea that the MSM can go out of business because of failure to tell the truth to their customers is a fantasy. They know so much that our elected officials MUST not let them down.
Remember this the next time you hear a talking head bloviating about your sacred right to know: the media is bought and paid for by international socialist billionairs, and the Democratic party is bought and paid for by the media.
And Jamie Gorelick…?
Rahm Emanuel was paid at least $262,000 for his 13 months on the Freddie Mac board, from April 2000 through May 2001, exactly when that mortgage lending institution was deceiving the public about its earnings and setting into motion today’s financial crisis.
It must be wonderful to be paid $262,000 for doing no good. President Clinton appointed Emanuel to that Freddie Mac seat.
Emanuel’s role in Freddie Mac did come up before Obama took office, but like all news coverage of Democrats who turned Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into a multitrillion-dollar Democratic slush fund for high-risk home loans, it really wasn’t news coverage at all.
“I’m trying to imagine what our newspapers would look like if they thought to mention this stuff when it’d actually do us some good”
Solvent.
Does anyone know if shareholders/bondholders can sue the Freddie board via derivative suit?
Both Emanuel and Asst AG Jamie Gorelick were on the Fannie or Freddie BOD at the same time as I recall. They oversaw in the cooked books that resulted in payments of huge bonuses to Raines and other top executives.
Currently, I would like to know if the salaries and bonuses of the top executives of Fannie and Freddie have been capped like those of banks that receive TARP relief. What about the Executives of Amtrak and the US Postal Service? It is only fair for all of them to be treated the same.
One commentator asked if the former board members could be sued by shareholders for damages due to the fraud and mismanagement. The answer is maybe, but there is a short statute of limitations period. Three years as I recall. That type of suit may be time barred already.