2008-06-08wsj.com

Countrywide Financial Corp. makes mortgage loans through a vast network of offices, brokers and call centers. But a few customers have gotten their loans a special way: through Countrywide Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo.

...

One was James Johnson, a longtime Democratic Party power and an adviser to Sen. Barack Obama's campaign, who this past week was named to a panel that is vetting running-mate possibilities for the presumed nominee.

Throw in the cronyist Penny Pritzker, we are certainly starting to wonder about the sorts of people Obama keeps in his entourage (Disclaimer: we aim to be nonpartisan in our presidential candidate criticism -- see our recent post on McCain ally Gramm here).



Comments:

Oldsmoboi at 01:30 2008-06-10 said:
So... Guy 1 happens to know guy 2 who is head of a company the gives out home loans. Guy 2 got guy 1 a good deal <but not illegal> on his mortgage.

Now, guy 1 was appointed to a panel of experts by guy 3. The panel has nothing to do with the mortgage industry. The panel's job is to select guy/gal 4 to possibly work for guy 3.

I'm not seeing anything bad or rampant cronyism here.

Maybe only if the panel ends up recommending guy 2 to work for guy 3.... but that's not gonna happen.

Should we be up in arms because someone who knows someone at a car dealership got a good deal on a new car and is now going to recommend someone else for an unrelated job?

red herring. Permalink

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