Obama Wants To Know, “What’s Wrong With This Picture?”
Posted by Rick Barton on October 2, 2008
And, so do the American people.
Ed Morrissey breaks down the highlights
Here is the roster presented by the video, in brief:
Ebbers, Worldcom: 25 years in prison
Ken Lay, Enron: Convicted on 10 counts, died before serving sentence
Jeff Skilling, Enron: 24 years in prison
Andrew Fastow, Enron: 10 years in prison
Dennis Koslowski, Tyco: 8 years in prison
Mark Schwartz, Tyco: 8 years in prisonSo how about the officers of Fannie Mae, who conducted similar kinds of fraud in their financial statements in order to pad bonuses and keep regulators from discovering their precarious position until it was too late? Franklin Raines never faced criminal charges, and instead settled a civil suit with a $2 million payoff – which came from Fannie Mae’s insurance company. Jim Johnson didn’t even have to do that much.
And where are they now? The Washington Post reported twice that Raines was advising the Barack Obama campaign, although they denied it. Jim Johnson still advises the Obama campaign and had briefly led the search for a running mate. Supposedly the FBI has begun a criminal probe into the actions of Fannie Mae management over the years, but we’ll see if that proceeds.
The damage done by the people connected to the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac crisis is exponential, compared to the Enron/Worlcom/Tyco scandals. The punishment should likewise be given exponentially.
This entry was posted on October 2, 2008 at 16:11 and is filed under Economy, Politics, Taxes. Tagged: Barack Obama, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Corruption, Election 2008, Fannie Mae, Financial Bailout, Financial Crisis, Franklin Raines, Freddie Mac, Jim Johnson, Joe Biden, John McCain, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
averageuscitizen said
I agree completely that these guys should be in prison, and not just any old prison…they should be in San Quentin with the rapists and murderers. There is no verifiable connection to the Obama campaign by Raines, Jim Johnson is connected to his campaign. In this election, nobody has clean hands. McCain also still has people in his campaign who have received hundreds of thousands of dollars as lobbyists for Fannie and Freddie.
It’s the system that’s broken and rife with corruption. Not only should the executives who gamed the system be in prison, but the politicians who helped them do it, Republican and Democrat should join them.