Mr. Obama, you must always speak truth to power...even if you are that power. Jesus said, "Why do you see the speck in your brother's eye but fail to notice the beam in your own eye?" Matthew 7:3. I personally do not expect perfection...only your best! Yes, you can...speak truth to power!
(CNN) – Barack Obama on Tuesday brushed aside the notion that the head of his vice presidential search committee, Jim Johnson, contradicts the campaign's message because he has received favorable loans from Countrywide Financial — one of the companies at the center of the nation's mortgage crisis.
"I am not vetting my VP search committees for their mortgages," Obama said during a press conference in St. Louis, Missouri. "I mean this is a game that can be played — everybody you know who is anybody who is tangentially related to our campaign I think is going to have a whole host of relationships."
The comments come two days after the Wall Street Journal reported that Johnson was the recipient of over $7 million worth of home loans from Countrywide, made available through a program for friends of the company's chief executive officer.
Countrywide has taken a big hit during the current subprime loan crisis. Obama has often taken aim at the practice of issuing subprime loans.
The Republican National Committee immediately seized on that report, saying Johnson's appointment "raises serious questions about Obama’s judgment." Presumptive Republican nominee John McCain also criticized Obama, saying Monday that Johnson’s role "suggests a bit of a contradiction, talking about how his campaign is going to be not associated with people like that."
Obama tapped Johnson, a longtime Washington insider, to head his vice-presidential search late last month. Johnson held the same role for then-Democratic Presidential Candidate John Kerry in 2004. He has long been known for keeping a low profile while holding some of Washington's most powerful posts, including heading up mortgage giant Fannie Mae and the Brookings Institution.
Johnson is currently a vice chairman of Perseus LLC, a private banking firm.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Obama suggested Johnson's past loans are irrelevant to his current position with the campaign.
At some point you know we just asked people to do their assignments," he said. "These aren't folks who are working for me. They are not people you know who I have assigned to a job in the future administration, and ultimately my assumption is that this is a discreet task that they are going to performing for me in the next two months."
McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said it is "preposterous" for the Illinois senator to claim Johnson isn't working for him.
"Barack Obama has castigated Countrywide Financial, but now that Jim Johnson has been exposed for taking sweetheart deals from Countrywide’s CEO — Obama is in a state of denial," Bounds said. "It’s that brand of weak leadership and hypocrisy that shows why Barack Obama has no record of taking courageous stands or making change in Washington.”
June 10, 2008
Posted: 01:00 PM ET
From CNN PoliticalTicker Producer Alexander Mooney
© 2008 Cable News Network LP, LLLP. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved.
(CNN) – Barack Obama on Tuesday brushed aside the notion that the head of his vice presidential search committee, Jim Johnson, contradicts the campaign's message because he has received favorable loans from Countrywide Financial — one of the companies at the center of the nation's mortgage crisis.
"I am not vetting my VP search committees for their mortgages," Obama said during a press conference in St. Louis, Missouri. "I mean this is a game that can be played — everybody you know who is anybody who is tangentially related to our campaign I think is going to have a whole host of relationships."
The comments come two days after the Wall Street Journal reported that Johnson was the recipient of over $7 million worth of home loans from Countrywide, made available through a program for friends of the company's chief executive officer.
Countrywide has taken a big hit during the current subprime loan crisis. Obama has often taken aim at the practice of issuing subprime loans.
The Republican National Committee immediately seized on that report, saying Johnson's appointment "raises serious questions about Obama’s judgment." Presumptive Republican nominee John McCain also criticized Obama, saying Monday that Johnson’s role "suggests a bit of a contradiction, talking about how his campaign is going to be not associated with people like that."
Obama tapped Johnson, a longtime Washington insider, to head his vice-presidential search late last month. Johnson held the same role for then-Democratic Presidential Candidate John Kerry in 2004. He has long been known for keeping a low profile while holding some of Washington's most powerful posts, including heading up mortgage giant Fannie Mae and the Brookings Institution.
Johnson is currently a vice chairman of Perseus LLC, a private banking firm.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Obama suggested Johnson's past loans are irrelevant to his current position with the campaign.
At some point you know we just asked people to do their assignments," he said. "These aren't folks who are working for me. They are not people you know who I have assigned to a job in the future administration, and ultimately my assumption is that this is a discreet task that they are going to performing for me in the next two months."
McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said it is "preposterous" for the Illinois senator to claim Johnson isn't working for him.
"Barack Obama has castigated Countrywide Financial, but now that Jim Johnson has been exposed for taking sweetheart deals from Countrywide’s CEO — Obama is in a state of denial," Bounds said. "It’s that brand of weak leadership and hypocrisy that shows why Barack Obama has no record of taking courageous stands or making change in Washington.”
June 10, 2008
Posted: 01:00 PM ET
From CNN PoliticalTicker Producer Alexander Mooney
© 2008 Cable News Network LP, LLLP. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved.
1 comment:
Key member of Obama's VP committee steps aside
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A key member of Sen. Barack Obama's vice presidential search team, Jim Johnson, is stepping down after criticism over a mortgage he received, the Obama campaign said Wednesday.
"Jim did not want to distract in any way from the very important task of gathering information about my vice presidential nominee, so he has made a decision to step aside that I accept," the presumed Democratic presidential nominee said.
Republicans had been hammering Johnson since The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that he received a good deal on a mortgage from Countrywide because of his friendship with Angelo Mozilo, the company's CEO.
Obama has criticized Countrywide in connection with the subprime mortgage crisis.
Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for Sen. John McCain, the presumed GOP presidential nominee, said Johnson's resignation "raises serious questions about Barack Obama's judgment. ... By entrusting this process to a man who has now been forced to step down because of questionable loans, the American people have reason to question the judgment of a candidate who has shown he will only make the right call when under pressure from the news media.
"America can't afford a president who flip-flops on key questions in the course of 24 hours. That's not change we can believe in," Bounds added.
Responding to Bounds, Obama spokesman Bill Burton said, "We don't need any lectures from a campaign that waited 15 months to purge the lobbyists from their staff and only did so because they said it was a 'perception problem.'
"It's too bad their campaign is still rife with lobbyist influence and doesn't see a similar 'perception problem' with the man currently running their own vice presidential selection process," Burton said.
Arthur Culvahouse, a member of the Reagan administration, leads McCain's search team. According to The Associated Press, Culvahouse, a partner at international law firm O'Melveny & Myers, has been a lobbyist for Fannie Mae and Lockheed Martin.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Johnson received more than $7 million in home loans from Countrywide, made available through a program for friends of the company's chief executive officer.
For several days, Obama pushed back against the attacks on Johnson, the first person he named to head his search team.
"I am not vetting my VP search committee for their mortgages," Obama said Tuesday in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was campaigning.
"This is a game that can be played -- everybody who is tangentially related to our campaign, I think, is going to have a whole host of relationships. I would have to hire the vetter to vet the vetters," he said.
A Republican Party spokesman called Obama "naive" and "hypocritical" after Obama's remarks Tuesday, before Johnson stepped down.
"Barack Obama's assertion that he won't vet his own senior aides is totally inconsistent with his rhetoric," said Alex Conant, a Republican National Committee spokesman.
Johnson, a former CEO of Fannie Mae, was one of three people on Obama's search team, alongside former Deputy U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President John Kennedy.
The Obama campaign has not announced a replacement.
Johnson and Holder met members of Congress on Tuesday to discuss possible running mates for Obama.
The Republican Party broadened its attacks on Obama in the wake of Johnson's dismissal.
"If Barack Obama is concerned his campaign's ties to special interests are distracting from his VP search and message, why is Eric Holder still on his search committee?" party spokesman Alex Conant asked.
"Obama's hypocritical attacks show he can't stand up to his own standard -- and that he just isn't ready to make change."
The Republican Party accuses Holder of being a key player in the controversial pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich by President Clinton in the final days of his presidency.
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