With the financial sector in turmoil today, the media and the
politicians have started throwing around blame with the same
recklessness as lenders threw around credit to create the problem.
Politically, the pertinent question is this: Which candidate foresaw
the credit crisis and tried to do something about it? As it turns
out, John McCain did — and partnered with three other Senate
Republicans to reform the government’s involvement in lending three
years ago, after an attempt by the Bush administration died in
Congress two years earlier. McCain spoke forcefully on May 25, 2006,
on behalf of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of
2005

Quote:

Mr. President, this week Fannie Mae’s regulator reported that the
company’s quarterly reports of profit growth over the past few years
were “illusions deliberately and systematically created” by the
company’s senior management, which resulted in a $10.6 billion
accounting scandal.

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight’s report goes on to
say that Fannie Mae employees deliberately and intentionally
manipulated financial reports to hit earnings targets in order to
trigger bonuses for senior executives. In the case of Franklin Raines,
Fannie Mae’s former chief executive officer, OFHEO’s report shows that
over half of Mr. Raines’ compensation for the 6 years through 2003 was
directly tied to meeting earnings targets. The report of financial
misconduct at Fannie Mae echoes the deeply troubling $5 billion profit
restatement at Freddie Mac.

The OFHEO report also states that Fannie Mae used its political power
to lobby Congress in an effort to interfere with the regulator’s
examination of the company’s accounting problems. This report comes
some weeks after Freddie Mac paid a record $3.8 million fine in a
settlement with the Federal Election Commission and restated lobbying
disclosure reports from 2004 to 2005. These are entities that have
demonstrated over and over again that they are deeply in need of
reform.

For years I have been concerned about the regulatory structure that
governs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac–known as Government-sponsored
entities or GSEs–and the sheer magnitude of these companies and the
role they play in the housing market. OFHEO’s report this week does
nothing to ease these concerns. In fact, the report does quite the
contrary. OFHEO’s report solidifies my view that the GSEs need to be
reformed without delay.

I join as a cosponsor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory
Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, to underscore my support for quick passage
of GSE regulatory reform legislation. If Congress does not act,
American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk
that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the
overall financial system, and the economy as a whole.

I urge my colleagues to support swift action on this GSE reform
legislation.

End of Quote.

In this speech, McCain managed to predict the entire collapse that has
forced the government to eat Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with
Bear Stearns and AIG. He hammers the falsification of financial
records to benefit executives, including Franklin Raines and Jim
Johnson, both of whom have worked as advisers to Barack Obama this
year. McCain also noted the power of their lobbying efforts to
forestall oversight over their business practices. He finishes with
the warning that proved all too prescient over the past few days and
weeks.

It never made it out of committee. Chris Dodd, then the ranking
member of the Banking Committee and now its chair, was in the middle
of receiving preferential loan treatment from Countrywide Mortgage,
one of the companies gaming the system in the credit crisis.
Meanwhile, Barack Obama took hundreds of thousands of dollars from the
lobbyists

Here's Obamessiah's comment on the AIG crisis:

~~ Note that he can't even get the name of AIG correct - moron ~~

Quote:

The fact that we have reached a point where the Federal Reserve felt
it had to take this unprecedented step with the American Insurance
Group is the final verdict on the failed economic philosophy of the
last eight years. While we do not know all the details of this
arrangement, the Fed must ensure that the plan protects the families
that count on insurance. It should bolster our economy’s ability to
create good-paying jobs and help working Americans pay their bills and
save their money. It must not bail out the shareholders or management
of AIG.

“This crisis serves as a stark reminder of the failures of crony
capitalism and an economic philosophy that sees any regulation at all
as unwise and unnecessary. It’s a philosophy that lets Washington
lobbyists shred consumer protections and distort our economy so it
works for the special interests instead of working people; a
philosophy that says we should give more and more to those with the
most and hope that prosperity trickles down to the rest.

“Instead, the pain has trickled up – from the struggles of Main Street
all the way up to the crises on Wall Street.

“Despite his eleventh hour conversion to the language of reform,
Senator McCain has subscribed to this philosophy for twenty-six years
in Washington and the events of this week have rendered it a colossal
failure. It is time for a new economic strategy, guided by the
principle that America prospers when all Americans prosper, where
common-sense rules of the road ensure that competition is fair, open,
and honest. That is the strategy I will pursue as President, and I
will bring the change we need to restore confidence in our financial
markets and strength to our economy,” said Barack Obama."

End of Quote.

Uh huh - well, ain't that special.

A group called the Center for Responsive Politics keeps track of which
politicians get Fannie and Freddie political contributions. The top
three U.S. Senators getting big Fannie and Freddie political bucks
were democrats and number two is Senator Barack Obama.

Now, remember, he has only been in the Senate four years but still
managed to grab the number two spot ahead of John Kerry, decades in
the senate, and Chris Dodd who is chairman of the senate banking
committee.

Fannie and Freddie have been creations of the congressional democrats
and the Clinton white house, designed to make mortgages available to
more people, and as it turned out, some people who couldn’t afford
them. Fannie and Freddie have also been places for big Washington
democrats to go to work in the semi-private sector and pocket
millions. The Clinton administration’s white house budget director
Franklin Raines ran Fannie and collected 50 million dollars. Jamie
Gurilli, Clinton Justice Apartment Official, worked for Fannie and
took home 26 million dollars. Big Democrat Jim Johnson, recently on
Obama’s VP search committee has hauled in millions from his Fannie Mae
C.E.O. job.

Now remember, Obama’s ads and stump speeches attack McCain and
republican policies for the current financial turmoil. It is
demonstrably not Republican policy and worse, it appears the man
attacking McCain, Senator Obama, was at the head of the line when the
piggy’s lined up at the Fannie and Freddie trough for campaign bucks.

Senator Barack Obama, number two on the Fannie/Freddie list of favored
politicians after just four short years in the senate.

The record shows that McCain saw the problem coming and tried to get
Congress to act. In 2005, both McCain and Obama served together in
the Senate. Did Obama attempt to pass this reform, sign on as a
co-sponsor, or even speak out in its favor? The record is tellingly
blank - meaning no.

As we have seen, McCain has been talking reform for three years, with
no assist from Barack Obama. And McCain at least knows the correct
name of the company that got its bailout last night from the federal
government. Is Team Obama so incompetent that they couldn’t check the
name before issuing the statement?