Obama Aide Quits Under Fire for His Business Ties

CHICAGO — James A. Johnson, the consummate Washington insider whom Senator Barack Obama tapped to head his vice-presidential search effort, resigned abruptly on Wednesday to try to silence a growing furor over his business activities.

Mr. Johnson’s departure deprives Mr. Obama of decades of experience and access to Washington’s power elite. Mr. Johnson has been a fixture in Washington political and legal circles for three decades, and he led the vice-presidential search team for Senator John Kerry, the Democrats’ presidential nominee in 2004.

His resignation, at the start of a general election contest in which the candidates have pledged to run issue-based campaigns, came after days of intense scrutiny from the news media and attacks from Senator John McCain and Republican Party officials over mortgages Mr. Johnson, a former chief executive of Fannie Mae, received on favorable terms from the Countrywide Financial Corporation, the mortgage company that was a central player in the subprime lending crisis. Mr. Johnson also faced questions about his role on compensation committees that awarded large payouts to corporate executives.

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"

John,
As much as I always enjoy your articles, I think you miss the point on this one. There’s a real scandal lurking in this story and it’s NOT Obama’s judgment. It’s the fact that “public servants” not longer serve us. They serve themselves...and very well indeed.

There’s a simple, catchy, easily understood campaign theme just waiting for McCain/Republicans to use it:

“HOW IS IT ALL THESE AVERAGE FOLKS COME TO WASHINGTON AND THEN LEAVE AS MILLIONAIRES?!”

You can start with the Clintons. Then Johnson. Then Reid. Then...well, I don’t have that much time. Johnson is a perfect foil for such a strategy...$21 million in one year!

I posted this on yesterday’s Johnson thread. Would appreciate your thoughts.

Note that Johnson made all that money and garnered his chauffeurs, servants and private office....ALL WHILE HE WAS A “PUBLIC SERVANT”. I hate to even think what his pension is going to cost us. Sheesh. $21 million compensation in ONE YEAR!

Republicans need to repeatedly inform Americans that their so-called public servants now earn considerably more, on average, than their counterparts in the private sector. No, I’m not using their more generous time off to sway the numbers. We actually pay them a lot more than we make. Add on their pensions, health care, etc. and it’s almost double.! And that’s just the pension costs the government has admitted to. They’ve beeen lying to us for years...each one just long enough to serve his time and get out before the tsunami hits.

Republicans should hammer home that these unions give MILLIONS to Democrats and provide untold man hours to their campaigns. In turn, the Dems protect all those expensive benefits packages. We can’t afford this anymore. The time isn’t far off when the very people who frittered away all our social security money are going to come to us saying we have to pony up BILLIONS for their pension plans-—at the same time they’re going to tell us SS is broke and they’re going to cut OUR benefits and we have to work longer.

I’m sick of paying for their cushy jobs. Jobs with no accountability (notice no one got fired or prosecuted for jiggering the Fannie Mae numbers). I’m sick of paying for their pensions-—sweeter than anything any private sector workers see anymore-—and tied to inflation, tax-free in many cases, granted to their spouse if they die first, and usually as early as age 50 or 55. I’m tired of giving them their health insurance for life.

And when they DO retire, they’ve usually spent years preparing the path to employment with a company who’s willing to pay them big bucks to help it get around the very rules they themselves were charged with enforcing while on the inside.

It’s revolting. And it’s just as bad at state and local levels. (If you haven’t read about the City of Vallejo’s bankruptcy, do so now). It’s all a cushy, insider game. They get their nice compensations, politicians get their palms greased, and you and I are on the outside looking in...and get to pay for all of it. I for one am sick of it. If McCain won’t do it, then we need someone to step up and push him. I guarantee you there’s fertile ground out there for this issue.

It reminds me so much of the House banking scandal in 1994. There was a quiet fury building in the public at the self-serving ways of Washington insiders. When word broke that they were kiting checks and running their own bank...well, that opened the floodgates and ushered in the GOP majority.

I think that same fury is there today. It’s like kindling, just waiting to be stoked. If the GOP would get up the courage to take on the bureaucracies, their unions and the pols who protect them they could undo a lot of the damage they’ve done to themselves recently. Compare “public servants” to those of us in the private sector in such a way that it’s clear we drew the short straw.

I’m no public relations expert. But someone should be able to put together a catchy slogan that captures the fact that the very people who squandered our social security (and lie to us about it) are the same ones who shower themselves with privileges far beyond anything we can expect in the private sector.

Once the flame is lit, then they can add outrages such as the bureaucrats who leak top secret information when they want to thwart the president’s policies. In other words, THEY — unelected bureaucrats — have taken control of the agenda that is constitutionally granted to elected officials. And they never ever get fired, demoted, or prosecuted for it. If anything, they get put on “leave with pay”. LOL! A perfect analogy for the whole self-serving mess!

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