When Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota wanted a mortgage for his beach house, he turned to a Washington insider. James A. Johnson, former head of Fannie Mae, the government mortgage giant, who then put the senator in touch with Angelo Mozilo, chief executive of the mortgage lender Countrywide Financial.

The ensuing telephone call between Mr. Conrad and Mr. Mozilo, led to two Countrywide mortgages, including one in which the company bent its rules to give Mr. Conrad a loan.

Read more from the New York Times

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.