Fannie is a evil machine which turns special privileges and huge socialized risks into cash and then converts the cash into political influence.
Rinse, wash, repeat.
Both the Pubbies and Dems will be implicated in this one.
YUP, it's definitely a rank bi-partisan scandal that goes way back.... but still I'd like to see Jamie Gorelick's role examined aggressively, especially in relation to this HUD report since that seems to go to the heart of some of her principal responsibilities there. Here's one (relatively rare) time when I definitely do agree with Ralph Nader and I hope he pursues this hard:
“It’s all a matter of know-who, not know-how,” complains Ralph Nader about Fannie’s higher ranks. “They’ve perfected all the techniques of lobbying and pay massive salaries for Rolodex hiring to ensure against any change.” Nader’s favorite example: Fannie Mae vice chair Jamie Gorelick, a well-connected Washington lawyer who earned almost $1 million in her first eight months on the job after serving as counsel to the Defense Department and deputy to former attorney general Janet Reno.
Besides Gorelick, Raines, and former Gingrich aide Arne Christenson, other politicos have cashed in at Fannie’s executive suites. Running political campaigns is invaluable: Raines’s predecessor Jim Johnson ran Walter Mondale’s 1984 campaign after decades as a Democratic kingpin. Coaching debates is worth something, too: Executive vice president Tom Donilon prepared Michael Dukakis and Bill Clinton for their campaign face-offs, and former general counsel Robert Zoellick prepped George W. Bush for his.
http://www.washingtonian.com/etc/business/balancingact.html