Crooks Shouldn’t Lecture Whistleblowers
Franklin Raines, a liberal power-broker, mismanaged government-backed mortgage giant Fannie Mae so badly that a federal bailout of it is now planned. He received multimillion dollar bonuses at Fannie Mae, using massive accounting fraud to inflate his earnings — fraud for which he later paid a (grossly inadequate) financial penalty.
But instead of taking responsibility for his actions, he recently had the gall to attack banking experts in the Bush Administration who warned about Fannie Mae’s risky and improper practices. In a July 16 editorial in the Washington Post, he accused them of being “ideologues.”
In today’s Post, I have a letter to the editor that rebukes Raines for his gall in attacking those whistleblowers and lecturing the public about the condition of our banking system, given his own financial irresponsibility and role in spawning the mortgage crisis. For Raines to offer advice on how to improve our financial system is like David Duke and James Earl Ray giving advice on how to improve race relations.
We earlier discussed the perverse, costly and wasteful mortgage bailout bills passed by Congress in response to the mortgage crisis, which would actually increase Fannie Mae’s lending authority. The liberal Congressional leaders behind those bills, such as Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, and Charles Schumer, have long blocked vital reforms of Fannie Mae, which helped spawn the mortgage crisis, even as Fannie Mae and the liberal power-brokers who run it were contributing large sums of money to lawmakers and spending millions on high-priced lobbyists. Senator Dodd claimed just days ago that Fannie Mae was in good financial shape, even as its deteriorating financial condition resulted in a bailout plan. By contrast, Senator Schumer triggered a massive bank failure at private mortgage lender IndyMac, which did not have high-priced lobbyists or pay off lawmakers, through publicity that resulted in a run on the bank by panic-stricken depositors.
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8 Responses to “Crooks Shouldn’t Lecture Whistleblowers”
Posted by: Surelock Homes - 07/20/2008
Fire them all and hire temps!
Posted by: $25 Billion for Fannie Mae Bailout | OpenMarket.org - 07/22/2008
[...] mortgage giants being bailed out, helped spawned the mortgage crisis, and how its managers, like Franklin D. Raines, used Enron-style accounting fraud to inflate their multimillion dollar bonuses. Ideological [...]
Posted by: Bobby - 07/24/2008
It’s amazing they are managing to pin this fiasco on Bush, when it was Schumer, Frank, and Dodd who were really asleep at the helm on this. And even more amazingly, Obama supporters are spinning this to make McCain look guilty, when in fact a lot of Obama’s ideas about things like health care seem like the same setup as Fannie Mae, just applied to other industries.
Posted by: Ross Calloway - 07/24/2008
And what purpose was served by Fanny & Freddie donating $1,250,000 to Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition?
Posted by: Sergio - 07/24/2008
You Republicans are truly works of art ! Ya know art is subjective….
When the good Lord (thats GOD to you heathens) an unconverted member of a people or nation that does not acknowledge the God of the Bible; an uncivilized or irreligious person asks what good have you done for this earth, you be able to say ,”we gave you George Bush” to run the good ol USA.
God will then say, wasn’t this George Bush the same one who started his own personal war and killed thousands of people for his own benefit and profited from blood of his own countrymen? Yep Thats the Guy….
We won’t be able to hear your response because you will be burning in hell for all your greed.
I would rather be poor in this world, and rich in Gods eye, then to be any one of you Anne Coulters follower of George Bush. Shame on all of you!
But have fun spending your ill gotten gains from the blood of soldiers,sailors & airmen.
Posted by: Mary Gilmer - 07/24/2008
The God I know loves everyone equal. Not a hating God like the one you describe.
I remain hopeful that your God will help heal this hate and anger of those with different view points.
Toshay
Posted by: Mortgage Bailout Bill “Structurally Unsound,” $25 billion Tab Is “Wild Guess” | OpenMarket.org - 07/25/2008
[...] a striking admission, given that the Post has provided a soapbox for Fannie Mae backers like Franklin D. Raines, the crooked former Fannie Mae executive who used accounting fraud to award himself multimillion [...]
Posted by: bpjam - 07/26/2008
Sergio,
Buddy, you’ve just taken the Lords name in vain. By assuming to speak for the Lord and condemning others to hell you are taking the Lords name in vain and pretending to be Divinely Inspired.
Considering your politics and the factual nature of your statement, you were probably unaware of what ‘Name in vain’ even meant. So just don’t do it again, m’kay?
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