Politically Incorrect (The Gorelick "Wall")

The uproar over 9/11 Commissioner Jamie Gorelick's very simple and very blatant conflict of interest appears, predictably, to be quelling. The New York Times, quoting an anonymous commission member, reliably concluded not that her 1995 memorandum was a smoking gun of intelligence lapse, but rather that John Ashcroft had "politicized" the proceedings by bringing it up. This after commission Republicans curiously leapt to Gorelick's defense, first warning us to stay out of their business (Chairman Kean), and then slandering as "baloney" (John Lehman) and "garbage" (Slade Gorton) good-faith criticism of a delegitimizing process in which a key witness is also a commissioner actively steering the direction of the panel's public hearings and final report.

Meanwhile, Gorelick's allies from the old Clinton war room mobilized as they always so skillfully do. With the help of compliant media friends, they've managed to dissect the obvious into a maze of miniature, obscure, and disingenuous legalisms that take so much airtime to untangle any hope for clarity is lost. The talking points are out: "So, you must also be saying that Justice Scalia should recuse himself from the case involving Vice President Cheney?" "Wasn't this 'wall' really in effect since the 1970s?" "Didn't the 1995 Gorelick memo simply codify existing law?" "Don't many of the commissioners have some involvement in facts the commission is examining?"

The people who ask these questions know full well that they are misleading. Gorelick's conflict has nothing remotely to do with having a social relationship with litigant in a matter in which she is otherwise uninvolved. What was in effect since the 1970s was FISA (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act), not the wall Gorelick and others placed between criminal and intelligence investigators in 1995.

Where There's Corruption...
Follow the money Clinton staffers. Fannie Mae, as you may have heard, is having some financial problems. It would seem they have been cooking the books, Enron-style.

The Securities and Exchange Commission recently agreed with Fannie Mae's financial regulator, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, that the company misused accounting standards.
Earnings will be restated for 3-1/2 years, resulting in multibillion shortfalls. The company, now below its minimum capital requirement, had already agreed to boost its capital to 30 percent above the minimum by the middle of 2005 because of the accounting controversy.

Fannie Mae Chief Executive Franklin Raines and Chief Financial Officer Timothy Howard stepped down on Dec. 21 after regulators exposed the accounting errors that will force the massive earnings restatement.

I find it odd that this isn't splashed everywhere like Enron was. Then again, Enron was an energy company in Houston, Fannie Mae is not. And it might surprise you to know that Fannie Mae has a Vice Chairman who's name you might recognize. Jamie Gorelick. Yes, the same Jamie Gorelick who had no business being on the 9/11 Commission, and the same Jamie Gorelick, who as a deputy attorney general under Clinton, penned the famous memo segregating the FBI and the CIA. The same Jamie Gorelick who's law firm, Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale & Dorr, did a substantial amount of legal work for Fannie Mae.

And the same Jamie Gorelick who stepped down from her post as Vice-Chairman not that long ago. I'm very interested to see what part she might have played in this mess.

posted on Wednesday, December 29, 2004 3:58 PM

Thanks, I appreciate that.

I was feeling a bit cynical last night. Especially regarding the prospects of the truth about the Clintons ever reaching the masses. I've been hanging around this great Site (or "blog" to the MSM) since shortly after it's inception back around '98, and soooo many times there've been posts optimistic about "this being the time" that the it will be clear the Clintons are the emperors with no clothes and the MSM has been complicit in destroying this nation, and although progress has been made, i.e. despite the MSM's best effort President Bush WAS reelected, justice is far from being served.

I do realize that throwing water on the fire in the name of "facing reality" is a downer, though, and I apologize, too.

"and her sh**y grin every time you saw her on TV. Laughing at the stupid American people, and the families sitting in the audience. Knowing full well SHE was part of the reason their family members were dead"

That really ticked me off too. That and the snotty way she asked the questions of the Bush administration, like she was the big accuser, pointing her finger at everyone- When the truth is, her a$$ should have been in the hot seat answering questions .

I sincerely hope these questions are now going to be answered, and the truth brought out. The American people have a right to know what happened PERIOD. NO EXCUSES, AND REGARDLESS OF POLITICAL PARTY. THE PEOPLE HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW.

Jamie Gorelick was Vice-Chairman and General Counsel of Fannie Mae during the period that is now under federal investigation, when Fannie Mae massively cooked its books in order to hit an earnings target that guaranteed maximum bonuses to its executives. Gorelick received a bonus of nearly a million dollars in 1999 (on top of a salary that was probably in the $500,000 - $750,000 range). Fannie Mae is currently undergoing a massive restatement of earnings back to 1999 as a result, and the restatement may wipe out as much as $20 billion in earnings that were illegally booked. So this is not a small deal. And Jamie Gorelick was the company's chief legal officer and political enforcer when it all happened.

Frank Raines, Fannie Mae CEO and Friend of Bill Clinton, who most people thought was the most bulletproof person in Washington, was eventually fired by Fannie Mae's board when the SEC ruled that Fannie's accounting during this period was bogus, just days after Raines tearfully testified before Congress that Fannie Mae and he had done nothing wrong and suggesting that it was all a partisan witch hunt against him. The CFO was also fired. Gorelick certainly would have been as well, had she still been with the company.

So I think it's close to a lead-pipe cinch she will be indicted on Enron-type charges. And it will then be asked, how did Gorelick get this job in the first place? She knew nothing about mortgage finance or housing, yet was hired as the #2 executive at the biggest housing finance company in the world. (Frank Raines held the #2 job before he was promoted when James Johnson retired.) Many eyebrows were raised in the mortgage industry when she was hired. But she did earn a plum job after carrying the Clintons' water at Defense and Justice, and there were no plummier jobs in Washington in the 90s than at Fannie Mae. Obviously she was good at covering up wrongdoing and managing heavy-duty political operations, so she was tailor-made for Frank Raines.

Fannie Mae was a notorious Democratic political machine in the 80s and 90s, beginning with former CEO James Johnson (Walter Mondale's campaign manager in 1984, also knew nothing about mortgage finance or housing when he arrived at Fannie) and then under Frank Raines. It took an aggressive Bush Administration to uncover the accounting shenanigans. I'm anxious to see if the federal investigation turns up any illegalities involving Fannie with Clinton's reelection or other campaigns.

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