Emanuel Received $250K From Freddie Mac in Board Salary and Campaign Cash During Scan

[PapaG]

Bush's fault!

http://businessandmedia.org/articles/2008/20081106133228.aspx

He’s President-elect Barack Obama’s new chief of staff, according to various Nov. 6 media reports, but Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., also has some baggage pertaining to the financial crisis. Will anyone in the media take note?



Emanuel, who was a senior adviser for former President Bill Clinton throughout the 1990s, was appointed to the board of Freddie Mac upon his departure from the Clinton administration.



“Clinton’s going-away gift to Emanuel was a seat on the quasi-governmental Freddie Mac board, which paid him $231,655 in director’s fees in 2001 and $31,060 in 2000,” Lynn Sweet wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times on Jan. 3, 2002.



During the time Emanuel spent on the board, Freddie Mac was plagued with scandal involving campaign contributions and accounting irregularities. Freddie Mac and its sister organization Fannie Mae were taken over by the federal government in September 2008 after years of mismanagement and scandal. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson put the two beleaguered GSEs into a conservatorship, stripping common stock shareholders of their rights to govern the companies.



In 2006, Freddie Mac was forced to pay a $3.8 million fine to the Federal Election Commission to settle allegations it illegally contributed to congressional candidates between 2000 and 2003 – while Emanuel was on the board and running for and serving in Congress.



“Freddie Mac was accused of illegally using corporate resources between 2000 and 2003 for 85 fundraisers that collected about $1.7 million for federal candidates,” an Associated Press story from April 18, 2006 said. “Much of the fundraising benefited members of the House Financial Services Committee, a panel whose decisions can affect Freddie Mac.”



And, since his successful run for the House of Representatives in 2002, Emanuel has been the beneficiary of campaign cash from Freddie Mac and its sister organization Fannie Mae – $51,750 according to the Center for Responsive Politics Web site OpenSecrets.org.



Emanuel received $25,000 in contributions from Freddie Mac during his first run in 2002, right at the end of his tenure at the government-sponsored enterprise. Freddie Mac was his third largest overall contributor that year.



However, there was an even larger conflict of interest that Sweet pointed out in an editorial column published in the Chicago Sun-Times on Aug. 14, 2003.



“Emanuel’s trust is supposed to be blind, not stupid,” Sweet wrote. “Freshman Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), a former Freddie Mac board member, sits on the very House subcommittee that has oversight of the federal government-sponsored enterprise at the same time that he has outstanding options for 2,500 shares of the company.”



Emanuel told Sweet there was no conflict of interest because he put his financial stake in Freddie Mac into a blind trust and would recuse himself from any votes relating to Freddie Mac.



However, while Emanuel’s was on the Freddie Mac payroll in an overseer capacity, the government-sponsored enterprise was cooking the books. According to a Forbes magazine article from Dec. 11, 2003, the GSE was fined $125 million for understating its earnings by a whopping $5 billion.



“Handed down by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, the regulator of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the fine was in response to the company’s admission of almost $5 billion in understated earnings over the past several years,” Ari Weinberg wrote for Forbes.


Although he was compensated handsomely, Emanuel told Sweet his job on the Freddie board was to attend quarterly board meetings and take part in committee meetings, either on the phone or in person.

 

[AgentDrazenPetrovic]

Re: Emanuel Received $250K From Freddie Mac in Board Salary and Campaign Cash During

Change!

 

[¹²³]

Re: Emanuel Received $250K From Freddie Mac in Board Salary and Campaign Cash During

If he earns more then $250K a year he should get a raise in taxes. That's fair.

 

[PapaG]

Re: Emanuel Received $250K From Freddie Mac in Board Salary and Campaign Cash During

ten foot pole>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


thread

 

[SodaPopinski]

Re: Emanuel Received $250K From Freddie Mac in Board Salary and Campaign Cash During

Gee, a column written by a columnist for a conservative honk web site bashing a member of the proposed Obama administration. SHOCKING!

But thanks for the link. I found a page on there where I could order some frozen freedom fries to bake in my American-made oven.

-Pop

 

[PapaG]

Re: Emanuel Received $250K From Freddie Mac in Board Salary and Campaign Cash During

Gee, a column written by a columnist for a conservative honk web site bashing a member of the proposed Obama administration. SHOCKING!
But thanks for the link. I found a page on there where I could order some frozen freedom fries to bake in my American-made oven.

-Pop

It extensively quotes an article from the Chicago Sun-Times. I bolded portions of these quotes. Or is that a "conservative honk web site" as well? Are you going to address the facts stated by the Sun-Times, or are you going to continue with your little ad hominem game you seem to love?

 

[SodaPopinski]

Re: Emanuel Received $250K From Freddie Mac in Board Salary and Campaign Cash During

It extensively quotes an article from the Chicago Sun-Times. I bolded portions of these quotes. Or is that a "conservative honk web site" as well? Are you going to address the facts stated by the Sun-Times, or are you going to continue with your little ad hominem game you seem to love?

I just find you silly.

You have started - at minimum - 20 threads in this forum in the past couple of weeks, all trying to link Obama with some sort of shady figures.

Yet you refuse to acknowledge or even suggest that anything shady happens on the other side.

On this subject specifically, why weren't you up in arms about the fact that John McCain's campaign team was swimming in Fannie and Freddie connections? His campaign manager was president of a lobbying association hired to protect Fannie and Freddie from government regulation. Another member of his campaign team was the head of lobbying for Fannie Mae and spread tens of millions of dollars around Washington in the form of lobbying contracts.

You'll have to excuse me if I roll my eyes at your crap, considering that all the evidence points to you not necessarily giving a shit about corruption or croneyism or shady connections; rather you care much more about trying to paint the guy you didn't vote for as some sort of devil incarnate. Well guess what? You lost. And it's precisely because many of the people you voted for over the course of the last eight years were handsomely paid to not accomplish jack-squat, and the majority of Americans decided it was time to fire their asses and replace them with someone else.

It gets old seeing you bitch and moan on this forum, essentially equating to a 2-year-old throwing a temper tantrum because he or she didn't get their way. Anything you post in this forum sets off a BS meter in my brain like nothing else.

Sure, I could spend half of my day on The Huffington Post, or Daily KOS, or any of those other left-leaning blog-til-my-fingers-fall-off sites and then regurgitate it over here, but for the most part I know to take that stuff with a grain of salt. The same way I read your right wing BS that takes two quotes from a 30 paragraph article or a 30 minute speech out of context and tries to villify the person in question.

-Pop

 

[Chutney]

Re: Emanuel Received $250K From Freddie Mac in Board Salary and Campaign Cash During

Getting back to the content of this thread, I need some help understanding the nature of the accusations. Is the author of the article suggesting he's partly responsible for the crimes the company committed, or that there was a conflict of interest between his political activity and his association with this company? Do we know what he did on that board member, or is it just speculation? I just want to get a better handle of what all this means.

 

[PapaG]

Re: Emanuel Received $250K From Freddie Mac in Board Salary and Campaign Cash During

I just find you silly.

You have started - at minimum - 20 threads in this forum in the past couple of weeks, all trying to link Obama with some sort of shady figures.

Yet you refuse to acknowledge or even suggest that anything shady happens on the other side.

On this subject specifically, why weren't you up in arms about the fact that John McCain's campaign team was swimming in Fannie and Freddie connections? His campaign manager was president of a lobbying association hired to protect Fannie and Freddie from government regulation. Another member of his campaign team was the head of lobbying for Fannie Mae and spread tens of millions of dollars around Washington in the form of lobbying contracts.

You'll have to excuse me if I roll my eyes at your crap, considering that all the evidence points to you not necessarily giving a shit about corruption or croneyism or shady connections; rather you care much more about trying to paint the guy you didn't vote for as some sort of devil incarnate. Well guess what? You lost. And it's precisely because many of the people you voted for over the course of the last eight years were handsomely paid to not accomplish jack-squat, and the majority of Americans decided it was time to fire their asses and replace them with someone else.

It gets old seeing you bitch and moan on this forum, essentially equating to a 2-year-old throwing a temper tantrum because he or she didn't get their way. Anything you post in this forum sets off a BS meter in my brain like nothing else.

Sure, I could spend half of my day on The Huffington Post, or Daily KOS, or any of those other left-leaning blog-til-my-fingers-fall-off sites and then regurgitate it over here, but for the most part I know to take that stuff with a grain of salt. The same way I read your right wing BS that takes two quotes from a 30 paragraph article or a 30 minute speech out of context and tries to villify the person in question.

-Pop

ABC News now is reporting on this.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=6201900&page=1

Emanuel Was Director Of Freddie Mac During Scandal
New Obama Chief of Staff, Others on Board, Missed "Red Flags" of Alleged Fraud Scheme

I don't find you silly, I find you ignorant, and the worst part is that it is a willful ignorance.

Now write another 5 paragraph rant that is full of nothing substantive. Address the facts...or don't. Just don't lecture me because you are too stubborn (or incurious?) to do some reading of things that may make you uncomfortable.

 

[44Thrilla]

Re: Emanuel Received $250K From Freddie Mac in Board Salary and Campaign Cash During

Just criticize what he said instead of addressing it, it's a lot easier that way.

 

[PapaG]

Re: Emanuel Received $250K From Freddie Mac in Board Salary and Campaign Cash During

Just criticize what he said instead of addressing it, it's a lot easier that way.

Hello tag-a-long. He didn't address my article other than to dismiss it, and he started off with yet another ad hominem attack, which seems to be his specialty.

As for addressing what he posted, if I am "silly", what is the point? Rahm Emanuel was a Director of Freddie Mac during the period where the books were cooked. Find me someone on McCain's staff who was also a Director, and who then was in charge of Freddie oversight while in Congress (and while still holding Freddie stock).

Or, just insult me. That seems to be the way of one coward, should you jump on board?

 

[44Thrilla]

Re: Emanuel Received $250K From Freddie Mac in Board Salary and Campaign Cash During

No I'm on your side. I thought it was well played.

 

[TradeNurkicNow]

Re: Emanuel Received $250K From Freddie Mac in Board Salary and Campaign Cash During

What do you want us to do about it?