Batchelor: Obama Mae

John Batchelor writes September 18, 2008:

Franklin Raines is the Poster Adult for Fannie Mae Shenanigans

The McCains have up a new webad, “Advice,” (see below) that stabs at the Obama nonsense about cleaning up the problems in Washington, because it turns out the junior senator from Illinois, Mr. Doom and Gloom, has been chatting with Franklin Raines (left) about mortgages. Frank Raines. An admitted buffoon and skimmer who cooked Fannie Mae’s books for years, bought off his pals on Capitol Hill, hired cronies like Jamie Gorelick and Jim Johnson, and then, when caught, cried and cried all the way to the bank.

Now the McCains have caught him again making phone calls to Barack Obama. And the McCains used research from the Obama blog, WaPo. The Obamas are crying foul. (And late tonight the Obamas have answered with a cut and paste webad about Fiorina, Gramm and Bush as McCain advisers.) But the record is too obvious. Raines has been boasting.

“…taken calls from Barack Obama’s presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters.” (Anita Huslin, “On The Outside Now, Watching Fannie Falter,” The Washington Post, 7/16/08)

“Two Members Of Mr. Obama’s Political Circle, James A. Johnson And Franklin D. Raines, Are Former Chief Executives Of Fannie Mae.” (Editorial, “Tough Decision Coming,” The Washington Post, 8/28/08)

Fannie Mae is a Capitol Hill Frankenstein Monster

The Congressional Black Caucus feted the man who replaced the corrupt and humiliated Frank Raines, Daniel Mudd (right), in a video-recorded 2005 ceremony to swear in the CBC.

Barack Obama was featured. In case you missed it, you can see Michelle Obama on camera (right).

Mudd is obeisant, saccharine, whiney, apologetic, prideful, greasey, weird and laughable. And this was the man who was put in to clean up Raines’s schemes.

How bad was it? OFHEO sued Raines and two other paper profits artists for $110 million of ill-gotten bonuses from false records. The SEC made a “paltry” settlement in June ‘08 for less than $10 million from Raines and maybe his larcenous pension of $1.3 million. Later it was revealed that Raines took $3 million in sweetheart loans from Countrywide’s Angelo Mozilo, who also gave cute loans to Friends of Angelo such as Chris Dodd of Banking and Jim Johnson, former Fannie CEO who also served on Obama Campaign VP search. In sum, Frank Raines is the poster adult.

The Best Stuff is Coming

Because the Obama campaign is whining about this means that it bites. And McCain’s move today (right, Cedar Rapids, Ia) to call for Chris Cox to be fired is tactical smarts (and Cox has to bite the bullet like a manager when the team goes cold).

“The primary regulator of Wall Street, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) kept in place trading rules that let speculators and hedge funds turn our markets into a casino,” he said. “The chairman of the SEC serves at the appointment of the president and has betrayed the public’s trust. If I were president today, I would fire him.”

Now McCain will follow it up with calls for other exciting rhetoric (how about arresting Citi’s Sandy Weil?).

And the Obama Team is way behind on AIG (Obama might still be thinking about it) and is on record unsure of the RTC 2.0 that the athletic Hank Paulson introduced today that rallied the markets. The Obama Team is sloooooow at this. Why? Because the candidate is cautious and gun shy. More economic talk tomorrow.

McCain is getting better at this. Just keep firing. Reform. Cleanup. Maverick. New day. Transparency. Change. Sarah. It all works. What goes down, also goes up, and if you are talking a better day when it happens, then you get to smile on camera.