Two McCain Campaign "Big Wigs" Involved in Mortgage Melt Down Scam!

[KoKo]

Two McCain aides lobbied for ’shady’ mortgage lender.

On Friday, the Politico reported that the past anti-regulatory and lobbying efforts of one of Sen. John McCain’s top economic advisers, former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, “contributed significantly to today’s economic turmoil.” Today, the New York Daily News reports “that two of his top advisers were recently lobbyists for a notorious lender in the mortgage meltdown“:

John Green, the senator’s chief liaison to Congress, and Wayne Berman, his national finance co-chairman, billed more than $720,000 in lobbying fees from 2005 through last year to Ameriquest Mortgage through their lobbying firm, disclosure forms reviewed by the Daily News show.

Ameriquest, which since has been bought out, was forced to settle suits with 49 states for $325 million. More than 13,680 New York homeowners got taken for a ride by the company, records show.

“They would be defined as the most blatant and aggressive predatory lenders out of everybody,” said Bruce Marks, head of the nonprofit Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/31/two-mccain-aides-lo... /

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. Is the media covering this?

[KoKo]

3. I scanned between MSNBC and CNN...and didn't see ANY COVERAGE...but

maybe they are waiting until tomorrow night since there's always a "lag time" for PROGRESSIVE NEWS with the McCorporate Media.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

4. perhaps we should send this to the New York Times and the Washington Post?

[KoKo]

7. lol's....they are holding this one...Spiked It! n/t

[LTR]

5. The current top election stories

Via the websites, since watching cable news kills brain cells. Here are some headlines:

CNN:

Plan to seat Michigan delegates
Obama colleague pledges to him
Obama takes it slow in Pennsylvania
Chelsea Clinton confronts another Lewinsky question
50 Cent no longer supports Clinton

MSNBC:

Obama walks fine line on race
Newsweek: Does Obama take oil money?
Newsweek: Rove's convention tips for Dems
Michigan delegate compromise offered
Video: Chelsea gets another Lewinsky question
Newsweek: Why Gravel is still running

FAUX:

Obama Wins Overall Delegate Race in Texas
Michigan Rep. Proposes Plan to Count Democratic Delegates
Clinton, Obama Appeal to Voters With Birthday Message Honoring Cesar Chavez
At 84, Lautenberg Announces Another Run for Senate
Obama Questionnaires Show Evolution in Political Philosophy
Obama’s Story About Dad’s Kennedy Link is ‘Confused,’ Fact Checker Writes

ABC:

Clinton's Threats, Will There be a Backlash?
Clinton Says She's in Race Till Bitter End
McCain Haunted by '100 Year' Remark
Clinton Vows to Fight On
World leaders calculate if they should commit to a lame duck president.
Obama Attracts 20K in Clinton Stronghold
Stay or Go? Partisans Mull Clinton Choice
Philly Mayor Would Quit Obama Church
Sneak Peek: Obama: Beach Bound? (Obama skips Easter services at Wright's church in Chicago.)
Obama and Clinton Lead McCain
Latinos, Lunch Bucket Voters Fuel Clinton

So essentially, not a thing on this McCain fiasco (of course), but plenty on dead-horse beating like Rev. Wright and Monica Lewinsky. All while people are losing their homes and paying $3.50 a gallon for gas.

Gee, some 'news' media we have. At least we know who 50 Cent supports for president.

[KoKo]

11. Seems "McSame/Bush" is the "Golden Boy" of the media for now...

[Rosa Luxemburg]

17. making hay while the sunshines

[KoKo]

2. John McCain....the "Flip Flopper" who has lived off hsi Second Wife and

is just "waiting" for that NEXT Bush/Cheney engineered "Terra Attack" to claim his RIGHT to the Presidency.

While Dems on Progressive Sites go at each other on Race/Gender....McCain seems to be out there heading off the NEXT ENGINEERED TERRORIST ATTACK.

Neither one of our Dems will be able to deal with this.......It takes a REAL CANDIDATE to go at John McCain.. Who is the "REAL ONE" who has a history.....who knows the deal and when he was TRASHED by DEM PARTY AND REPUG PARTY...went off and did "his OWN THING?" Who is that person.

[KoKo]

8. He is truly the "Stealth Bush Candidate" but the "Media Darling" just like Chimp!

[DrFunkenstein]

6. Clinton's Frickin' Campaign Manager Was On The Board of One of The Worst Subprime Lenders

Clinton Campaign Manager’s Role in Collapsed Lender


Although Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) has emerged as a strong critic of subprime lending practices, her campaign manager played a major role as a director on the board of now-collapsed subprime lender Delta Financial Corp.



In recent months, Clinton has come out strongly against subprime practices as she contends for the Democratic nomination.

Clinton wrote a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson last December, calling for a 90-day moratorium on subprime foreclosures and a five-year freeze on the current rates on for subprime adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs).

“After all, it is indisputable that brokers and mortgage companies lured families into mortgages which were designed to end in foreclosure,” wrote Clinton on asking to extend the rate freeze and possible loan modifications to borrowers who have fallen behind on their payments.

Among a series of proposals Clinton unveiled last week, the Senator pushed to end the practice of charging prepayment penalties.

Clinton's campaign manager, Maggie Williams, served as a director on the board of the Woodbury, New York-based subprime lender that charged such fees before it collapsed into bankruptcy the same month as Clinton’s letter was sent.

Williams earned approximately $200,000 for her advisory and oversight role at the company, which spanned from April 2000 until Delta filed for Chapter 11 protection last year.

When Williams joined Delta, the firm had already been the subject of numerous lawsuits charging the subprime lender with predatory lending practices.

A series of state and federal predatory investigations resulted in roughly $12 million in settlements to borrowers, although Delta maintains no wrongdoing on its part.

After serving as the former first lady’s chief of staff from 1993 to 1997, Williams was recruited to establish a new code of "best practices" and improve Delta's crisis management operation following the predatory lending charges.

For her services on the board, Williams received about $30,000 per year plus expenses and at least 25,000 stock options, according to Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) filings.

As of September 2007, Williams owned 12,500 shares of Delta’s common stock and had earned at least $175,000, according to the filings.

September marked the end of Delta’s final period of quarterly reporting before the company collapsed during the fourth quarter.

Delta reported a $39.6 million net loss for the third quarter as loan loss provisions more than tripled to $21.5 million, up from $6.9 million a year earlier

As of September 30, Delta said loans delinquent more than 90 days constituted 9.1% of the outstanding loan balance on its portfolio.

With the collapse of a deal with a major shareholder to buy up more than two-thirds of the company last December, Delta was notified by its warehouse lenders of defaults on its loans and soon began winding down through bankruptcy proceedings.

Williams took over as the campaign manager for Clinton in February, after the campaign withstood a disappointing Super Tuesday contest with little in the way of preparations – or cash on hand – for the extended primary battle to come.

Despite growing pressure to bow out as the likelihood of winning the nomination dwindles, Clinton has vowed to soldier on with the race for the Democratic nomination.




Note: This article won't be on the internet until tomorrow morning.

[KoKo]

13. I just posted another version of that...but Maggie got "stiffed" on that one..

if you read the article. She didn't make what Michelle Obama makes on the Board of U of Chicago Hospitals. So...it kind of evens out. I think McCain's "slicksters" made out like Bandits on THEIR DEAL!

[eleny]

9. Sure hope you send this to Keith!

K&R

[BeyondGeography]

10. B-b-b-b-but John McCain is a war hero

(with $40 million in the bank.)

[KoKo]

12. And...will his "war hero Prisoner of War Records ever be released?

From what I remember he "sung like a bird" when he was tortured. Not what the Macho TV CHANNEL SPORTS SURFER in AMERICA wants to hear about the "Saint McCain."

[KoKo]

14. CIA doesn't want his "Torture Cave" testimony and photo's released....

would remind folks of what TORTURE IS BAD... McCain could be the "Manchurian Candidate!"

[samsingh]

15. of course - repug criminals

[cuadrangular]

16. Don't expect the media to cover this

Thinkprogress is as far as this will go.