Change: We're Still Waiting

Change: We're Still Waiting

Hans Bader at Competitive Enterprise Institute tells us that Obama's first appointment is to reward those who played a part in creating the crisis:

Obama has appointed as his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, a former director of the failed government-backed mortgage giant Freddie Mac, which had to be bailed out by taxpayers. It’s perhaps not surprising, given that Obama was the second-largest recipient of campaign contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored mortgage giants that helped spawn the mortgage meltdown and financial crisis. Emanuel was the money man for the Chicago Democratic machine under Mayor Richard Daley, and is famous for his partisanship and “foul mouthed tirades,” according to the Washington Post. During the time that Emanuel was a Freddie Mac director, it “misreported profits by billions of dollars in order to deceive investors between the years 2000 and 2002,” according to the federal Securities and Exchange Commission.
In addition to engaging in pervasive accounting fraud, the mortgage giants have used bullying, lies, and intimidation to get their way on Capitol Hill. Emanuel is described as using pressure verging on extortion to raise money for Bill Clinton’s reelection bid.

I am so surprised.