Barack Obama, John McCain, and Fannie and Freddie

The recent troubles for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have raised the possibility that perhaps these quasi-public financial giants have grown too big for anybody's good. Holman Jenkins Jr., writing in the Wall Street Journal this week, suggests, "With Fannie and Freddie on the ropes politically, let's put them on a path to privatization and liquidation."

Reality check: Not gonna happen. Both presidential candidates are deep in the embrace of the two-headed lobbying machine known as Fannie and Freddie. From today's L.A. Times story about conservative pressure on John McCain (pictured) to push for a fig leaf of reform in the way Fannie and Freddie operate:

McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, was president of an organization, the Homeownership Alliance, that advocates for expansion of low-interest loans funded by the two mortgage giants. Federal records show that Arthur Culvahouse Jr., who is heading McCain's vice presidential search effort, was a lobbyist for Fannie Mae. Former U.S. Sen Warren Rudman, a McCain advisor, was hired by Fannie Mae to lead an internal review of the company's accounting policies that concluded in 2006.

On Barack Obama:

Until recently, one of Obama's advisors on vice presidential selection was James A. Johnson, who once led Fannie Mae. Obama has been one of the largest recipients of campaign contributions from donors associated with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, receiving $105,849 since he first ran for national office four years ago. That made him the third-largest recipient among the top 25 listed in a recent report by the Center for Responsive Politics, which looked at contributions dating to 1989.

Posted by Peter Viles
Note: Pieter Severynen's "Tree of the Week" will return next Saturday
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.
Photo Credit: L.A. Times

Comments

[Chris M]

$105,849?

That amount might have meant something to Obama in years gone by, but he raises that much every ninety minutes now with his internet machine. Obama is now as free of special-interests as he wants to be.

[CD]

Going back to a prior subject : Flippers in La Quinta.
Read the truth about that article and the BS involved at OCrenters who tells it really like it is : Taken for a ride all the way to Coachella Valley.(bubbletracking.blogspot.com
Bad journalism,Peter Hong, but what am I saying it's the LA Times, LA Times has different standards, it's always" Time to buy at the LA Times".

[ice weasel]

Strike three.

The times blew it on the flipper article. How sad is it that your successful flippers are really just scammers?

And then once you wade in to make some vague political point and do so in such a simplistic and shallow manner that you end up just repeating the tired old cliche, "they're all criminals" or even worse, the pathetic equivalency argument, "see obama and mccain are just the same".

See you Pete. I'm deleting the bookmark and not wasting my time with more the Times gibberish. I can twice as much from blogs such as the IHB, BMIT or Kaboom.

You get paid for this stuff, right? Talk about throwing good money after bad.

[E]

Yeah Pete...not impressed by that flipper story.

Even less impressed by their website.

[Que Se Vayan Todos!]

Nice little investigative touch for in the article.

Agree with flipper story haters -- it was icky.

Question regarding the Obama Internet Machine -- are we sure that this isn't just a very sophisticated way of funneling even greater amounts to him from special interests? "Bundling" gone wild?

[wow]

Worth mentioning
Sloppy reporting on Flippers in La Quinta Story:
Check out who Peter Hong got conned thru he's sloppy reporting.

http://bubbletracking.blogspot.com/

embrassing

[Paul Bunyon]

What, no tree of the week? I hope someone didn't take a chainsaw to a terrific part of the excellent LA Land site.

[It All Happens on the Margin]

Bad journalism isn't about what's said - it's about what's left out.

Ouch - this is a big hit, Pete.

[fd in TO]

It's very disappointing that this blog would even dignify that Hong flipper story. I am waiting, Peter, for you to acknowledge this badly researched ,if not just plain hyped pandering , to exactly the kind of dishonest real estate shady characters that have caused this mess. Question--where are the Squyres getting the financing for these flips with a foreclosure and a bankruptcy on their record??? The LA Times should have done due diligence on their backgrounds before printing that puff piece. Obviously, despite all the hand-wringing about tightening up on lending to deadbeats, the practice is alive and well with these two. A better use of print space would have been for Peter Hong to have interviewed any lenders involved in their latest "deals".