Michelle Malkin » D’OH-bama’s mortgage industry mess Update: Jim Johnson thrown under the bus

D’OH-bama’s mortgage industry mess Update: Jim Johnson thrown under the bus

By Michelle Malkin • June 11, 2008 08:04 AM

Scroll for updates…2:55pm Eastern breaking…Jim Johnson off of Obama veep committee…another one under the bus…stay tuned for more…See-Dubya knew it was coming and was ready to deploy the jacked-up Obama bus photoshop…distraction! distraction!…Riddle from commenter Jim M.: “What’s the new name for an advisor to the Obama campaign? Answer: Speed bump…

My syndicated column this week looks at Barack Obama’s vetter dodgeball. More here, here, and here. Judging from the buried media mentions of this issue (update: it did make WaPo A1, but little mention on TV so far), looks like Obama’s won this Washington game. (Update: Or maybe not! Mirabile dictu.)

The WSJ weighs in on the friends of Barack and asks: “Is this what you mean by bringing change to Washington?” Round-up from NY magazine here.

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D’OH-bama’s mortgage industry mess
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate 2008

If you’re going to promise “new politics,” it would probably be wise to eschew the same old Beltway cronies and insiders who have served past presidential nominees of yore.

And if you’re going to attack political opponents for playing “textbook Washington games,” it would probably be best not to play them yourself. If you do, you’ll end up tongue-tied in front of the cameras, hung by your own holier-than-thou rhetoric, and faced once again with the decision to throw another bad choice under the bus.

Yes, Barack Obama, we’re talking about you. Again. It’s getting mighty crowded under that bus, isn’t it?

Last week, D’Oh-bama announced the appointment of D.C. denizens Jim Johnson and Eric Holder to head his veep search committee–along with a Kennedy (Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg) thrown in for glamorous good measure. John McCain supporters rightly jumped on Johnson and Holder as shady Washington operators. Holder was the Clinton Justice Department official in the middle of the sleazy pardon for fugitive financier Marc Rich.

Johnson, who has advised past failed Democrat nominees Walter Mondale and John Kerry, was CEO of the beleaguered, government-backed mortgage giant, Fannie Mae. Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported that Johnson accepted more than $7 million in below-market-rate loans from scandal-plagued subprime lender Countrywide Financial Corp. The company’s CEO, Angelo Mozilo, had set up a very special loan program for his high-powered pals. Johnson had named Mozilo to Fannie Mae’s national advisory committee more than a decade ago and they maintained a cozy friendship.

Mozilo also happens to be one of Obama’s fattest targets in his frequent broadsides against the demons of the mortgage industry. Obama likened Mozilo to a virus in March: “These are the people who are responsible for infecting the economy and helping to create a home foreclosure crisis.” Channeling Jesse Jackson, Obama further chided: “These executives crossed the line to boost their bottom line.” During the battle with Hillary, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe was dispatched to the cable TV airwaves to inveigh: “If we’re really going to crack down on the practices that caused the credit and housing crises, we’re going to need a leader who doesn’t owe these industries any favors.” And so on.

Yesterday, after a barrage of questions from McCain bloggers, Countrywide critics, and Clinton operatives, ABC News asked Obama about the stunningly obvious hypocrisy. The result was, well, painful.

Struck with an apparent case of restless mouth syndrome, Obama first indignantly rejected the notion that he should pick his veep pickers more carefully: “Well, look, the, the, I mean- first of all I am not vetting my VP search committee for their mortgages.”

Translation: I will remain willfully blind to the conflicts of interest created by own mortgage industry-bashing rhetoric.

Next, Obama leaned on his “Washington games” crutch and attempted to distance himself from the appointees that he has assigned the most important and intimate of tasks: “You’re going to have to direct – it becomes sort of a – this is a game that can be played – everybody, 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.”

“Tangential?” He appointed them to search for his second in command. “Tangential” is the cleaning lady in his Sioux Falls campaign office.

Finally, channeling Bill Clinton’s “is-is” parsing, Obama attempted to argue that his dubious veep selection committee members don’t really “work” for him: “They’re performing that job well. It’s a volunteer, unpaid position. And they’re giving me information, and I will then exercise judgment in terms of who I want to select as a vice presidential candidate. So these aren’t folks who are working for me, they’re not people who I have assigned to a particular job in a future administration.”

There are only so many gaffes, missteps, mistakes, flubs, and self-delusional statements one can make before serial naivete becomes endemic stupidity. Obama has reached the point of no return.

Posted in: Barack Obama, Subprime crisis

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Comment pages: « 1 [2]

#101

On June 11th, 2008 at 8:24 pm, emjem24 said:

lgm said:
McCain has the subprime conflict of interest problem worse than Obama. Phil Gramm has more subprime “exposure” and is a more central part of the McCain’s campaign.

You don’t seem to be interested in picking the best (or least bad) candidate, only in remaining angry at Democrats.

I think Michelle has made it a point to criticize McCain on everything from strategy, policy choices, votes, to the company he keeps. Get a grip, Math Man!

Spoken like the liberal who has no clue that the media, independents, and liberals chose the Republican candidate. Get a clue already.
#102

On June 11th, 2008 at 8:26 pm, terrig said:

Emjem, Little Girly Man can’t get a clue because he’s a fool, a sad pathetic fool.
#103

On June 11th, 2008 at 8:33 pm, On-my-soap-box said:

Well, lgm had to sink lower than SouthernBoy and started to tell Jesus jokes.

Hey, lgm. Do you know what satan said to Hitler? I am sure you will be able to ask either of them in the near future.
#104

On June 11th, 2008 at 8:35 pm, emjem24 said:

terrig said:
Wow, the circus is coming for an extended stay isn’t it?

Oh, terrig… the most ironic statement of the day!

Now, does the circus include/exclude our wonderfully, Dem lead Congress?

Will we get a Congressional investigation into Mr. Johnson’s (ahem) dealings? Isn’t he the “problem.”

As long as they’re grand, financial poobahs who finance our “wonderful” Dem leaders, of course there are no problems, right? Until the whole bean burrito of hypocritical shenanigans hits the fan!
#105

On June 11th, 2008 at 9:48 pm, Rob said:

if we didn’t reply to lgm.. we could be happy knowing he is angry being ignored…
#106

On June 11th, 2008 at 10:18 pm, JT said:

Thankfully, lgm doesn’t teach my kids. He sounds exactly like every liberal I encounter. They have no reasoning ability, are inherently pessimists, have a severe case of BDS, and think government solves all ill. We conservatives on the other hand have 100’s (1,000’s) of years of proof that socialism, marxism, dictatorships, et al don’t work.

The fact that certain kool-aid drinkers think Obama is something new, know nothing about history.
#107

On June 11th, 2008 at 11:20 pm, Dimsdale said:

On June 11th, 2008 at 5:39 pm, lgm said:

(snip)

conservativesRus said (#75):

Either dirt/smoke/mud is there or it isn’t. It doesn’t matter one iota whether or not somebody else has dirt/smoke/mud.

Maybe in some perfect world, but here on Earth we have a choice between two imperfect candidates. We have to decide who is cleaner and who is dirtier.

But, as we are continually discovering, McCain may be hip deep in BS, but Obama is in a quicksand of his own making, and it will soon swallow him up.

We know McCain isn’t perfect, but Obama is being portrayed as such, and the shine is quickly coming off his MSM constructed halo.

Obama is such an empty suit, that he is making McCain looking good by comparison.

Hillary must be laughing her ass off.
#108

On June 11th, 2008 at 11:31 pm, Dimsdale said:

On June 11th, 2008 at 9:48 pm, Rob said:

if we didn’t reply to lgm.. we could be happy knowing he is angry being ignored…

But (with all due respect to puppies) correcting his statements is like shooting puppies in a barrel! It is like watching a head roll down the highway: you don’t want to do it. You know why you shouldn’t do it, but you have to do it. It is too easy, inasmuch as his “arguments” are so vacuous and indefensible.

Society demands that someone clean up after the liberal crapbird.
#109

On June 12th, 2008 at 12:30 am, chief said:

Great column Michelle. I am sure the hate-mail has been rolling in, or is that everyday. Keep up the good work. I have got a little advice for the Obama campaign. Much like he did with the superdelegates, Obama needs to produce some patriots. Roll out one or two per week. I mean we have already seen enough of the bad seeds that Obama has attracted in his life. Let’s meet the good guys in Obama’s life. Surely he is friends with a few America-loving patriots. We have seen the blame-America first friends, let’s see a few associates that do not hate this Country. Would that be to much to ask?
#110

On June 12th, 2008 at 1:06 am, atheling said:

I said, now I’ve got my Magic Bus (Too much, the Magic Bus)
I said, now I’ve got my Magic Bus (Too much, the Magic Bus)
I drive my baby every way (Too much, the Magic Bus)
Each time I go a different way (Too much, the Magic Bus)

On June 11th, 2008 at 11:20 pm, Dimsdale said:

Hillary must be laughing her ass off.

She’s probably vetting her next ghost writer for a book because she needs to raise money in order to run again in 4 years. The Clinton machine does not stop.
#111

On June 12th, 2008 at 8:30 am, abstractmind said:

lgm,

You’re still making excuses.
I havent seen you say one thing that even comes close to actually staying on topic, or condemning the things other liberals do.

That either means you agree with them, or dont care if they are corrupt.

That’s 14 times i’ve asked you to call something wrong as being…well, wrong.

I’ll keep counting. You know, that’s something you math types actually can relate to…well, you’re *supposed to* anyway.
#112

On June 12th, 2008 at 9:19 am, Southeast Jones said:

Obamatron needs one of those cool 60’s Ernst Blofeld style buses, the kind with the trap door that drops his failed henchmen down into an alligator pit. Oops. Did I just compare the Sweet Lamb of Chicago to a James Bond villain? I must be distracted.