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De Omnibus Dubitandum - Lux Veritas

Friday, November 1, 2013

Senate rejects Obama nominations as fight over White House authority amps up

By SEAN LENGELL | OCTOBER 31, 2013

Senate Republicans led a successful charge Thursday to reject two key White House nominees, ramping up a longstanding feud over nominations between President Obama and the GOP.  Rep. Mel Watt's nomination to head the federal agency that oversees mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fell three votes short of the 60 needed to cut off debate, with the tally falling mostly along party lines.  Minutes later, the Senate rejected Patricia Ann Millett’s nomination to fill one of three vacant seats on the powerful D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Obama had lobbied hard for Watt since he nominated the North Carolina Democrat in May. Watt, who has served in the House since 1993, also received strong backing from civil rights and minority groups.  White House press secretary Jay Carney called the vote against Watt “enormously disappointing" and said he hopes Republicans will reconsider.....To ReadMore.....

My TakeAmazing!  The White House is ‘enormously disappointed’.  Why?  This article, Mel Watt Fails Taxpayer, Privacy, and Transparency Tests, may give insight as to why he was rejected, but I don’t know if it will explain what criteria the WH used to choose him. 

As a congressman, Watt egged on the reckless policies of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that got us into the mortgage crisis from which the economy is still recovering. But just as bad, he was on the wrong side of both liberals and conservative reformers on two crucial issues. Watt was a co-sponsor and vocal supporter of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which collapsed in 2012 after a transpartisan coalition made the public aware of its threat to privacy and innovation. And Watt was the chief Democratic opponent of a bipartisan proposal to audit the Federal Reserve and helped gut the provision from what would become the Dodd-Frank “financial reform” law of 2010.” 

And this is what the WH is disappointed about losing?  Why?  Are they afraid at some point they will have to nominate someone honest?  Are they afraid they will run out of candidates that are either incompetent, stupid, corrupt or communists?  Nah….that will never happen among the leftists in Washington…or the alleged rightest either. 
If worse comes to worse they can always nominate John McCain.  He’s had lots of experience in banking.  Remember his involvement in Lincoln Savings and Loan?  You don’t?  Well let me enlighten you!
“The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The five senators – Alan Cranston (Democrat of California), Dennis DeConcini (Democrat of Arizona), John Glenn (Democrat of Ohio), John McCain (Republican of Arizona), and Donald W. Riegle, Jr. (Democrat of Michigan) – were accused of improperly intervening in 1987 on behalf of Charles H. Keating, Jr., Chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, which was the target of a regulatory investigation by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB). The FHLBB subsequently backed off taking action against Lincoln.”
“Lincoln Savings and Loan collapsed in 1989, at a cost of over $3 billion to the federal government. Some 23,000 Lincoln bondholders were defrauded and many investors lost their life savings. The substantial political contributions Keating had made to each of the senators, totaling $1.3 million, attracted considerable public and media attention. After a lengthy investigation, the Senate Ethics Committee determined in 1991 that Cranston, DeConcini, and Riegle had substantially and improperly interfered with the FHLBB's investigation of Lincoln Savings, with Cranston receiving a formal reprimand. Senators Glenn and McCain were cleared of having acted improperly but were criticized for having exercised "poor judgment".”
“All five senators served out their terms. Only Glenn and McCain ran for re-election, and they both retained their seats. McCain would go on to run for President of the United States twice, including being the Republican Party nominee in 2008.”
See....I told you there will never be too few from either side of the aisle who will qualify for “exercising bad judgment” in Washington.  Good thing there wasn’t anything criminal or self serving behind this....after all....could it be criminal or self serving if Mr. Clean, John Glenn, a military and astronaut hero, or Vietnam War hero John McCain were involved? 

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