Obama’s VP vetter steps down over mortgage flap

June 11, 2008

When Barack Obama chose James Johnson to be part of his VP search committee, no one was especially surprised. Johnson had, after all, helped run the same committee for Democratic presidential candidates before.

Obama did not, however, vet the vetter. Republicans pounced on reports that Johnson, the former chairman of Fannie Mae, may have received a favorable mortgage rate because he’s friends with the CEO of Countrywide, the “troubled mortgage lender that has became a symbol of the excesses that led to the crisis in subprime mortgage.”

Obama was peppered with questions about Johnson at a press conference yesterday, and the story was literally front-page news this morning. A couple of hours ago, Johnson stepped down.

A key member of Barack Obama’s vice-presidential search team, James Johnson, is stepping down after criticism over a mortgage he received, the Obama campaign said.

“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 presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said in a statement. […]

Johnson was one of three people on Obama’s search team, alongside Eric Holder and Caroline Kennedy. The Obama campaign has not announced a replacement.

This was almost certainly the right call. Johnson was just a volunteer playing a role on a committee, but he’d become a distraction; Obama didn’t have an especially compelling answer to questions about Johnson; and perhaps most importantly, as Greg Sargent noted, Johnson “made Obama’s attacks on McCain over the subprime mortgage crisis tougher to sustain.”

But as long as we’re talking about this, we might as well mention the glass house from which McCain is throwing rocks.

It’s not that Johnson’s flap wasn’t worthy of scrutiny, it’s that this offers a welcome opportunity to take a closer look at the person heading John McCain’s VP vetting committee.

Progressive Media USA did a very nice job pulling together some research on Culvahouse, which highlighted some interesting tidbits, including:

* Culvahouse de-registered as a lobbyist only one-month before McCain announced his appointment.

* Culvahouse lobbied to make it “difficult, if not impossible,” to bring class-action suits against big tobacco and gun manufacturers.

* Culvahouse is a Bush loyalist.

* Culvahouse was Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork’s “handler.”

Granted, there was no obvious controversy surrounding Culvahouse, but if we’re talking about members of the candidates’ VP search committees, it’s probably worth keeping this in mind.

Frankly, I’m glad Johnson is gone– if he had any hand in helping Gore and Kerry with their respective selections, that’s help we can do without!

  • Actually I thought (and David Gergen on CNN agreed) that Obama’s response was pretty good – what, am I going to hire vetters to vet the vetters?

    But yeah, I don’t really care either way.

  • This story bothers me in much the same way as the woman who called Hillary a monster. You are not going to have an effective campaign or administration if everyone has to be a virgin! Johnson is not picking the VP. He’s vetting candidates. He’s not even advising on policy.

    At this point I don’t know where or how I found it, but AP had a story about how neither Obama nor McCain are living up to their standards vis a vis lobbyists. Interestingly, Black, Davis nor Gramm get a word of mention. But it filled with nonsense like an Obama organizer in a state who was a lawyer who worked for a company that had another lawyer that lobbied against one of Obama’s stated postions in DC.

    At some point we have to call BS. Spitzer resigns over visits to a prostitute and would have been front page news for months had he not. Meanwhile Gibbons of Nevada appears to be a one man culture of corruption and debauchery and you have to go to TPMM to ever see his name mentioned.

  • A 20 minutes search on blogs and google in general would give a vetter the information to go looking for scandals. The stuff about Johnson was readily available before he was picked. Just like the guy Bush appointed the head of American U in Iraq was well known on line for being grabby in the men’s showers.

    Start with Google then do the official vetting stuff. Sheesh!

  • I’d like to see Obama go outside the politician-lawyer-ceo pool for appointees. 90% are dirty in some way.

  • The only reason THIS sucks, is because REPUBLICANS suck. Having nothing else to run on, all they can do is continue to try to demonize Obama, and while I find this to be nowhere in the same league as having a campaign staff nut-deep in lobbyists, this will be hammered continually. Remember, the GOP agenda isn’t about making you want to vote for McCain, it’s about making you afriad to vote for Obama. If they can confuse people so much as to what’s the right thing that they don’t vote at all, that’s a win in their books.

  • Are Republicans really getting apoplectic about the *possibility* of a low interest rate?

    Do they honestly want to face the same scrutiny? There wouldn’t be any of them left to resign.

  • So when is someone going to go after McCain for having Phil Gramm as his chief financial advisor? Gramm is the guy who created not only the housing mess by deregulating banks and allowing Wall street to get into the fame withour supervision, and also created the gas price mess when he exempted several commodities futures trading markets to operate without having to make reports as the traditional commodities futures trading markets did, thus fueling speculation in both housing and industry. Not only that, but Gramm’s proposal that McCain is touting as his method for solving the housing crisis was made with Gramm as the US president of UBS Bank and was a registered lobbyist for UBS.

    I think this is a bit bigger and a whole lot more important than a former chairman of Fannie-Mae getting loans that were not out of line for someone with his credit rating and for the kinds of loans he was making, as has been pointed out by every non-rightie observer of the situation.

  • Progressive Media USA did a very nice job pulling together some research on Culvahouse, — CB

    I’m sorry. I do know that making fun of of people’s names is “not done”. But I cannot help it… In Polish, “kurwa” (pronounced “coor-vah”) means “whore”. So, to me, the guy’s name brings an image of a bordello full of lisping ladies of the night. And, when I saw the Progressive Media USA did research there…

  • A presidential nominee can choose his running mate, any way he wants to. He can choose the person on a whim, or after deep research, or anything in between. It is entirely his decision. He owes nobody explanations about his choice, or how he went about making it. Since the GOP has seen fit, however, to muscle in and try to make political hay out of Obama’s selection process, that opens the door to a similar intrusion on THEIR candidate. It’ll be fun to watch, methinks.

    The GOP and its slavish constituents are so incredibly stupid! They go after Obama because of Jim Johnson, and the favorable loan he once got from Countryside. (BFD) They rail and vilify Johnson about it, then rail and vilify Obama (their real target) for having entrusted the man. He’s not being paid for the work he’s doing, has been given no promises by Obama, yet he got vilified. To get AT Obama, of course. It shows 1) they’re desperate for dirt on Obama, and 2) there’s little fodder for swiftboating and 3) they’ll manufacture dirt wherever they can and 4) their lack of morality is shining forth for all to see. But also, 5) they just simply GOTTA WIN anyway. No matter what.

    Okay, two can play that game. This is the part the GOP and its mindblown constituents never bothered to contemplate: that their own “war-hero” candidate might, himself, be vulnerable to the precise same attacks from his OWN rivals. Nor, had they given it this much thought, did they go a mini-step further to realize that there is a LOT more muck to be found than they’ll ever find against Obama.

    Thus, the GOP has begun the process of what once was called “hoisting themselves by their own petard.”

    Let the attacks begin. Go for it, GOP! Isn’t it funny? In spite of all your guns, you still don’t know what the word “ricochet” means. Maybe because it’s a French word, and dem fureigners ain’t no good, especially when they’re too stupid to speak proper English.

    No matter what nits they can find to pick against Obama, the Dems will find, for each nit, many big cans of worms against McCain.

    Many of those worm-cans are already well-known. And we’ve only JUST started looking for more. We Dems will examine each and every person working for the McCain campaign, as well as all the people he’s known, right back to the womb. If they can do that to Obama, all’s fair, don’tcha know?

    And let us never forget that, for Obama, the womb was that of a WHITE woman. A woman whom he adored, to whom he listened for guidance in his life – and it molded him into a truly magnificent person. This country doesn’t usually make people of that quality. His non-religious mother did good. Very good indeed. Even though she was what rabid bornagains call a “heathen.” If so, we need a LOT more heathens in this country.

    Whee…

    After all, if you’re a politician, out there schtupping a woman behind your wife’s back, you’re hardly in a position to accuse a colleague of infidelity. It’s more than just the pot calling the kettle black; it’s downright risky to your political career.

    Political Axiom: Never accuse your opponents of something that you are doing worse.

    Next subject for class discussion should, I think, be the matter of hippocrisy.

    And after that, perhaps an open discussion on whether a former POW, who offered information to the enemy in return for medical care (and GOT the medical care) can truly be called a “war hero.”

  • Republican voters you’ve done enough. You know it but you don’t want to admit it. You are really reaching now. McCain has been around a long time but he has obviously not been paying attention. He is not even competent at reading a teleprompter. McCain and the rest of Bush followers pack it in. It is time for change not the same failed policies.

  • i agree with dale …the process needs to think outside the box of the usual political four corners…how about a well tuned academic.
    throw in roy the mechanic from needles arizona just so the small town hicks dont feel left out.
    seriously it would have to be someone with a genuine grasp of the system no military no senators or governors no judges i know !!!somone like harriet meirs yeah ………she ran the texas lottery thats good enough for the supreme court isnt it??
    i truly fear america has become a land of dunces ………obama you MUST prove me WRONG.

  • btw screw the repubs they have always been hand in your pocket haters and lack wits they are the high school idiots i left behind long ago ..figures they would ALL go into politics.

  • next ousted should be Caroline Kennedy. Ohhhhhh How dare anyone say anthing negative about the Princess of America. Talk about an insider in Washington who has not paid her dues…here she is.
    She is only out front when she can make money as in Larry King selling her boring book, keeping the Kennedy name in the spotlight….otherwise give her her privacy.
    She has never earned her political expertise. She is just a celebrity that the Obama campaign is putting there to get votes.

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