Leader of Obama's VP Search Team Quits

Washington Post ^ | Thursday, June 12, 2008 | By Jonathan Weisman

[JohnHuang2]

James A. Johnson, a consummate Washington insider and former Fannie Mae chief executive, resigned yesterday from Sen. Barack Obama's vice presidential search committee, just four days after he was caught up in controversy over low-interest home loans and lucrative business deals.

Obama announced that Johnson would head the selection team shortly after the senator from Illinois claimed the delegates needed to secure the Democratic nomination, but he had spent much of the week since then defending Johnson's role as leader of the vetting of potential running mates. Yesterday, Johnson became a casualty in the back-and-forth over ties to special interests in the presidential campaign as Obama cut him loose.

[JohnHuang2]

Getting a little crowded here under the Bus

Jim Johnson's gone -- and the hits just keep on coming! Campaign Staff Changes You Can Believe In! Obama is Dan Quayle without the benefit of a brain. Obama drags around a teleprompter with him everywhere he goes to avoid making a fool of himself, but now little Obama is finding that teleprompters aren't much use for half-term senators pretending to be presidential material in search of a running mate who isn't Hillary Clinton.

But, before the media (or, Democrats with press passes) flush Johnsongate down the memory hole, keep in mind that just a few weeks ago Obama acted all upset that Countrywide Financial was foreclosing on troubled borrowers while the company gave hefty payouts to company bigshots. At a town hall meeting in March, Obama screamed that "these are the (insiders) who are responsible for infecting the economy and helping to create a home foreclosure crisis!" (And for the first time in recorded history Obama formed a full sentence without a teleprompter.)

One of these insiders was former Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson, who got mega-sweetheart loans from Countrywide via 'Friends of Angelo', i.e, Angelo Mozilo, Countrywide's CEO, even as Fannie Mae was the biggest buyer of Countrywide's mortgages. As part of Johnson's commitment to openness, Fannie Mae sought to hide Johnson's true compensation from the public.

Johnson was such a sleaze, he was made head of Obama's VP search team. On Wednesday, Johnson was still insisting he'd done nothing wrong (and all prisoners say they're innocent, so this is 'Innocence You Can Believe In'). And to show there was nothing to all these "blatantly false statements and misrepresentations," he swiftly resigned.

Obama on Tuesday was still defending Johnson, clarifying matters up by noting that "well, lel, look, the, the, uh, uh, I mean, the, uh -- first of all, you know, I, I am not vetting my VP search committee for their mortgages, so you're going to have to de . . . direct -- it, it becomes sort of a, um, I mean, 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, to vet the vetters. I mean, at some point, you know, we just ask people to do their assignments." And 'this is not the Jim Johnson I knew' . . . 'this is not the Jeremiah Wright I knew' . . . 'this is not the William Ayers I knew' . . . 'this is not the Tony Rezko I knew' . . . 'this is not the [insert sleazebag's name here]'.

On a roll, Obama then claimed he just realized Johnson and the rest of his VP search committee aren't working for him because he's not paying them. "So this -- you know, these aren't folks [Johnson, Eric Holder, et al] who are working for me . . . and, you know, ultimately my assumption is that, you know (WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE FIND THE TELEPROMPTER???) this is a discrete task that they are going to be performing for me over the next two months" and "they are performing that job well . . ."

Or, to clarify this further: These chaps aren't performing any work for me but they are performing their jobs for me very well, plus it all depends on how the meaning of the word "work," works, plus the flawed vetters are just vetting possible VPs for flaws but they're just tangentially related to our campaign, plus fumbling my first major task isn't my inexperience shining again because it's a great idea to be getting advice from a guy linked to the most crooked financial institution in America that I called out by name, plus I could no more disown this man Jim Johnson than I could Eric Holder than I could . . .

Obama says he's running against the Washington system, so the Washington System lands on his VP-vetting team and even his whole campaign team because when you're a marionette puppet in a nice empty suit just dipping into the Washington power game, getting rolled is what happens. And being easier to get rolled by the party bigshots is why the party bigshots appointed Obama as nominee, flipping primary voters the bird. Chances are Obama's choice of Jim Johnson wasn't Obama's choice, but George Soros's choice, since -- in one of those staggering coincidences --Johnson's a business partner with Soros, whose nut Moveon.org cutout bragged as how the Democrat Party is now "our party: We bought it, we own it." And then there's VP search team "tangentialist" Eric Holder, who made possible the Marc Rich pardon. Johnson's gone tangentially into that good night but Holder's holding on.

Then again, when you're running around as judgment impaired as Obama, it's possible he thought the Marc Rich debacle guy and the Johnson guy whose resume said, 'Played Major Role in Sinking Mondale Campaign and Kerry Campaign' were the way to go. And Obama's superior judgment led him into crooked real estate deals with Rezko, into paling around with Ayers and getting pastorized for 20 years by nutjob Jeremiah Wright.

If Obama's handlers decide to replace Johnson, may I suggest one possible candidate -- Sandy Berger!

Anyway, that's...
My Two Cents...
"JohnHuang2"

[JRochelle]

Great commentary!