House Republicans want the House Ethics Committee to investigate whether House members and aides received sweetheart deals on their home mortgages.

According to The Hill, Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Mark Souder, R-Ind., told the Committee in a letter that the “serious and broad allegation that members of Congress, congressional staff, and other officials were given preferential treatment . . . needs to be investigated.” Read the rest of this entry »

Sweetheart mortgages given by Countrywide Financial, the nation’s biggest mortgage lender, to elected officials and government bureaucrats seem tailor-made for an ethics inquiry by Congress, especially as the country is seeing a rising tide of voter anger in this presidential election year due to the massive $300 bn bailout of the housing industry at taxpayers’ expense.

The mortgages at issue were allegedly given to Congressional members and staffers championing this record bailout, a bailout that now surpasses the taxpayer cost of the S&L crisis in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Read the rest of this entry »

USA Today:

Update at 4:50 p.m. ET: Doug Holtz-Eakin, a domestic policy adviser to McCain, had this to say on a conference call about Obama’s economic speech today in Raleigh: “It was remarkable that Senator Obama could talk about housing, talk about ethics, and fail to mention that he entrusted the single most important decision in his campaign, the choice of the vice presidential running mate, to a gentlemen, Mr. Johnson, who benefitted from preferential lending at Countrywide and state financial payouts from that company and is thoroughly entangled in the sub-prime housing mess …”

And, finally, we’ve just received a statement from Obama spokesman Bill Burton. “It’s the height of hypocrisy for the McCain campaign to try and make this an issue when John Green, one of John McCain’s top advisors, lobbied for Ameriquest, which was one of the nation’s largest subprime lenders and a key player in the mortgage crisis,” Burton said. “As president, Senator Obama will crack down on fraudulent lenders and bring real relief to Americans struggling in the grip of the housing crisis—the kind of change that works for the American people.”

Update at 5:20 p.m. ET: Time’s Mark Halperin has posted surrogate talking points from the Obama campaign (they say story is “overblown” and the transactions “above-board”). And McCain himself to criticizes Obama in an interview with Fox News, calling Johnson’s presence “a bit of a contradiction.”

Fox News:

Barack Obama defended one of the men vetting his running-mate prospects Tuesday after the adviser came under fire for receiving favorable loan terms from a sub-prime lending company Obama has criticized.

The Illinois senator kept the adviser — former Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson — at an arm’s length, but heartily rejected the suggestion that he should do background checks for unpaid members of a search committee, no matter how influential their task may be.

“I mean this is a game that can be played — everybody, you know, who is anybody who is tangentially related to our campaign I think is going to have a whole host of relationships,” he said in St. Louis, Mo. “I would have to hire the vetter to vet the vetters. I mean at some point, you know, we just asked people to do their assignments.”

Chicago Tribune:

Chicago Tribune:McCain also questioned Obama’s appointment of Jim Johnson to his vice presidential search team, citing the executive’s ties to subprime lender Countrywide Financial Corp.

“I think it suggests a bit of a contradiction talking about how his campaign is going to be not associated with people like that,” the Arizona senator said in a Fox News interview. “Clearly he is very much associated with that.”

LA Times Land:

About James Johnson: He’s part of the permanent government of this country, a long-time Democratic fixer (Mondale and Kerry campaigns), former CEO of Fannie Mae, and as such a big buyer of Countrywide loans. He’s a guy who sits on a bunch of corporate boards, etc.

Outrage: “That reeks most high,” said Bonnie Russell, a public relations specialist and vocal critic of Mr. Mozilo, according to the Sun. “Where’s the ‘change to believe in’ if they’re playing the same old game using the same old players?”

Countrywide just can’t seem to get a PR break. Some of my readers think it is my personal vendetta to think, write, and live on this blog to make their life a living PR hell.

The funny part is that they don’t need any help in that area. They created their own rules, in their own world, and now Angelo and the Countrywide gang are under the media microscope that will only end when this mortgage and foreclosure crisis ends.

Meaning, not any time soon……..

Every week it is something new with Angelo Mozilo and Countrywide. I can’t seem to make a blog post or come across a home or loan that they are not somehow involved in, or connected to this lending “gang”. Whether it be a disgusting email to a homeowner trying to save his home, a pissed off Senator Schumer letter asking Angelo how they made so many crappy loans, or special mortgages made to “Friends of Angelo.”

Wall Street Journal:

Countrywide Financial Corp. makes mortgage loans through a vast network of offices, brokers and call centers. But a few customers have gotten their loans a special way: through Countrywide Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo.

These borrowers, known internally as “friends of Angelo” or FoA, include two former CEOs of Fannie Mae, the biggest buyer of Countrywide’s mortgages, say people familiar with the matter.

One was James Johnson, a longtime Democratic Party power and an adviser to Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign, who this past week was named to a panel that is vetting running-mate possibilities for the presumed nominee. Another was Franklin Raines, a onetime Clinton administration budget director, who left Fannie Mae amid an accounting scandal in 2004.

New York Sun 

Long-standing ties between a member of Senator Obama’s new vice presidential search team and a prominent mortgage executive the senator has pilloried could become a political liability that hampers the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee’s ability to tap into public ire over the subprime mortgage crisis.

Republican National Committee:

“Barack Obama routinely rails against lobbyists and corporate insiders, yet his campaign is stocked with both. Now it turns out that the man leading his vice presidential selection team is receiving highly questionable loans. With millions of Americans struggling to pay their mortgages, it raises serious questions about Obama’s judgment when we learn members of his campaign leadership are receiving favors that the average American would never get. With Obama discussing the economy today, he needs to stand up and address the mortgage scandals within his campaign.”

During His Presidential Campaign, Barack Obama Has Criticized CEO Compensation And Countrywide Financial:

Obama: “[I]f you’re a Wall Street CEO today, it doesn’t seem to matter whether you’re doing a good job or a bad job for your shareholders and workers: You’ll be rewarded either way.” (Sen. Barack Obama, Press Conference, 4/11/08)

Obama: “And so these are the folks who are responsible for infecting the economy and helping to create a home foreclosure crisis. Two million people may end up losing their homes. … Here’s the thing, though: When Countrywide Financial engineered a sale of its company, the two CEOs, the two people in charge of the company got $19 million bonuses. So they get a $19 million bonus while people are at risk of losing their home. What’s wrong with this picture?” (Sen. Barack Obama, Remarks At A Campaign Event, Lancaster, PA, 3/31/08)

WSJ:

One former Countrywide executive said the mortgage lender, the nation’s largest, sometimes granted “moderate” concessions on rates for customers whose loans were handled by Mr. Mozilo or other top officers.These loans were reviewed by others at the company, the former executive said, and occasionally Mr. Mozilo had to be told the terms he had promised someone couldn’t be granted.

Countrywide, which is based in Calabasas, CA, declined to comment. Neither would Bank of America Corp., which has agreed to buy the default-battered mortgage lender for a fraction of its value a year ago, in a deal to be voted on by Countrywide shareholders June 25. Countrywide also is under federal investigation for possible securities fraud, according to law-enforcement officials and banking industry executives.