[Lorianne]

I've heard that Clinton, Dodd, Kerry and Obama received the largest of these campaign 'contributions' from Fannie and Freddie. Can anyone help coroborate that?

I'm sure there were Republicans on the goodie bag list as well.

Can anyone help me find this info?

[cincinnati65]

According to OpenSecrets.org, from 1989-2008 the top 4 recipients of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac campaign contributions were 1. Christopher Dodd, 2. John Kerry, 3. Barack Obama, and 4. Hillary Clinton.

[realdifferent1]

...these efforts were resisted by Democrats, primarily Sen. Charles Schumer of New York and Sen. Chris Dodd...

Add Barney Frank of Massachusetts to this list.

[ken21]

the la times says obamao got the most—$112,000.00:

http://www.ntu.org/main/press_release.php?PressID=564&org_name=NTU

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-trailmoney9-2008sep09,0,1969729.story

[ckilmer]

I heard on Rush today that HUD back in the 90’s under Andrew Cuomo mandated that freddie and fannie had to make loans to low income households–ie high risk households. And this on top of the loans to low income neighborhoods (ie high risk loans) fostered by the Community Reinvestment Act 1979.

The CDO concept was developed by (convicted) Michael Milken of (now-defunct) Drexel Burnham Lambert. After the securities scandal, the vehicle lay dormant until picked up by the mortgage industry around 1999/2000. CSPAN aired an interview with a journalist who looked into the subject; took more than a few calls from some articulate folks who objected to placing the blame on Fannie/Freddie for exactly the reason I stated. The CDO package - courtesy of Mikey Milken - is flawed.