Hey David Gregory, Wasn't Your Wife a Fannie Mae Executive?
This post is written more in sorrow than in anger. You would think The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell would be an oasis of transparency in a muddled and corrupted news media.
Thursday night on Last Word, David Gregory was invited on to promote his web-only show "Pass with David Gregory." I guess the "pass" is, "I'll pass on mentioning, in all my Freddie / Fannie investigations, that my wife, Beth Wilkinson, was one of the four top executives in Fannie Mae who resigned as the federal government took it into receivership in 2008."
I'm not accusing Beth Wilkinson of corruption or vice. She's clearly an accomplished attorney, and she joined Fannie as Dodd-Frank was being passed. I have no access to what she did or did not do as a Fannie Mae VP.
But then David Gregory comes on a television show and says (at the 2:22 mark)
The background's important: Frannie Mae and Freddie Mac are quasi-public/private agencies -- they survived, and they made a great deal of money, because they worked the Hill. But they went way beyond working the Hill -- they had the Hill by the throat. This is Republicans, this is Democrats, both sides of the aisle, made a lot of money through these companies! So, that's the backdrop...
Okay, David, but where in the "backdrop" is the fact that your wife was executive vice-president and general counsel of Fannie Mae when they stopped being "quasi-private" and got bailed out by the taxpayer?
The Georgetown cocktail circuit that lets this kind of no-transparency BS stand for watchdog media is, ahem, 99 percent of the problem. They come from a world where David Gregory's wife's planned purchase of Jimmy Choo's for spring got splashed on the pages of Washingtonian Magazine, at exactly the same time that Newt collected 30K a month from Freddie Mac for history lessons. And the GE-owned "liberal network" doesn't see fit to mention it? Why give right-wingers that much ammo, Lawrence?
And the Chicago Tribune reports that the tentacles of Fannie and Freddie spread throughout the Beltway:
While presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich was forced to defend his lucrative former role with Freddie Mac this week, the mortgage giant and its larger cousin Fannie Mae had a roster of Washington heavyweights on their payroll for years, many of them Democrats.
Fannie and Freddie hired figures such as Tom Donilon, now President Barack Obama's national security adviser, and Rahm Emanuel, Obama's former White House chief of staff, as part of a campaign aimed at protecting government ties that allowed them to borrow money cheaply from financial markets.
"It was a mob-like operation," said a senior congressional official who over the years dealt with the political and lobbying operations at the firms, the two biggest sources of U.S. mortgage finance. "They had tentacles everywhere."
Gingrich was just one of a lengthy list of political power brokers with close ties to Congress and Republican and Democratic administrations hired by Fannie and Freddie as either board members, senior executives, lobbyists or consultants.
Fannie also hired other Washington power brokers during this time, including Bill Daley, who is now Obama's current White House chief of staff; Jamie Gorelick, a deputy attorney-general under Clinton; and Robert Zoellick, the current head of the World Bank.
From 1993 until 1997 Zoellick served as Fannie Mae's executive vice-president. Gorelick was vice chairman of Fannie Mae from 1997 to 2003, after she left the Clinton administration.
Kenneth Duberstein, former White House Chief of Staff for Republican President Ronald Reagan, served on the board of Fannie Mae from 1998 until 2007.
Financial institutions buying influence in Congress is nothing new. Then the taxpayers are asked to bail out those institutions, and even the media is married (sometimes literally, Mrs. Greenspan and Mr. Wilkinson) to the executive power structure of those institutions. THEN the media neglects to mention that relationship in covering the corruption that ensues.
So much for the "liberal media." The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell just gave Newt Gingrich a lovely talking point for the Hannity Show: "David Gregory should talk." Good lord, not to mention Clarence Thomas. Why should Clarence Thomas recuse himself for his wife's activities when David Gregory doesn't have to?
"Why should Clarence Thomas recuse himself for his wife's activities when David Gregory doesn't have to?" Good question here. I guess you could call it a matter of degree of consequences of their actions. With Beth Wilkinson, wife of David Gregory, you get a story that is incomplete about what Fannie Mae did or did not do or aboput the FM knew or did not know while she was counsel there. There is also a question about what David was reporting or not reporting during this period of time. But she has not effect on what a court will rule on when it come to legal proceedings involving Fannie Mae. That a Justice on the Supreme Court could have the same sort of conflict on interest is a violation of U.S. Code 28 Part 1 Chapter 21 Section 455 Discualification of Justice, Judge or Magistrate Judge.
(a) Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.
(b) He shall also disqualify himself in the following circumstances:
(1) Where he has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party, or personal knowledge of disputed evidentiary facts concerning the proceeding;
(2) Where in private practice he served as lawyer in the matter in controversy, or a lawyer with whom he previously practiced law served during such association as a lawyer concerning the matter, or the judge or such lawyer has been a material witness concerning it;
(3) Where he has served in governmental employment and in such capacity participated as counsel, adviser or material witness concerning the proceeding or expressed an opinion concerning the merits of the particular case in controversy;
(4) He knows that he, individually or as a fiduciary, or his spouse or minor child residing in his household, has a financial interest in the subject matter in controversy or in a party to the proceeding, or any other interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome of the proceeding;
(5) He or his spouse, or a person within the third degree of relationship to either of them, or the spouse of such a person:
(i) Is a party to the proceeding, or an officer, director, or trustee of a party;
(ii) Is acting as a lawyer in the proceeding;
In this case it s Justices Thomas who in in violation of the law in regard to his wife, Ginnie Thomas in relation to Health Care. This conflict has broad implications with Thomas, Scalia and Roberts who have had large scale outside contacts with a number of people and groups who have had or will have cases come before the Supreme Court as parties in those cases.
David's wife has no part in the judicial process that the Supreme Court of the United States does. The Justices sitting on the Supreme are the ultimate decider of all thing that fall under the laws of the United States of America.
. . . but the kicks to the nuts of the 99% continue unabated.
(And I don't even have nuts.)
"Courtesy is owed. Respect is earned. Love is given." --Unknown author, found in Guide to Texas Etiquette by Kinky Friedman
Gregory isn't a justice on the Supreme court who
appears to havehas a conflict of interest , he's a friggin talking head , a pretend journalist , I don't think this is a big deal , is pretty much the norm these days unfortunately . I doubt it was O'Donnell's idea to have him on his show .Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
It calls into question his integrity to talk about all the money that was made and not mention that his immediate family made some of it. I know the difference between Thomas and Gregory is big and real -- but if MSNBC allows its hosts to ignore standards -- and call on others to meet them, they're hypocrites.
Fran, when Mike Barnicle (sp?) is on Morning Joe and they are talking about the banks they always tell that Mike's wife works for Bank of America. I realize that Mike is nothing but a talking head, but they do identify that his wife is connected to that bank. Why they wouldn't hold Gregory to the same standard, I don't know. Gregory is a much higher up at the station than Barnicle.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
Yesterday at C&L Cliff Schecter did a piece with a very flattering introduction for IBM:
Some disclosure was made that Mr. Schecter had a relationship with an IBM employee as the piece continued:
Seems like IBM is a great corporate citizen working with progressives to create jobs. But is there more? Because the relationship between Mr. Schecter and IBM is important in the reader's evaluating this very flattering endorsement. Here, it seems as if Mr. Schecter and Mr. Litgow had gotten together on "some of these projects" which appear to be "corporate citizen" projects. But is there a "media relations" relationship as well?
Mr. Schecter also runs Libertas LLC. What does Libertas LLC do? Well, according to its website: "Libertas, LLC handles media relations for political, corporate and non-profit clients."
Listed as a featured client is IBM.
IBM may well be a fantastic corporate citizen. But if one of its media relations consultants is delivering this message, doesn't the reader need to be aware of that relationship to effectively evaluate the message?
Conflict standards shouldn't be ignored. And they should especially be followed by those like MSNBC who would call on others to meet them.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
"You would think The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell would be an oasis of transparency in a muddled and corrupted news media."
You would be wrong. O'Donnell is a careerist tool looking for better ratings--just like Gregory. So they teamed up.
In the GOP your status is inversely proportional to your integrity.
Omit the last paragraph which totally undermines your whole post and begin the preceding paragraph with,
'More critically in this case it is Justice...'
gregory is a corporate toady, he is not breaking the law. thomas on the other hand is,
The lack integrity on Gregory's part is not debatable as is his lack of jouranlistic talent. He has personally destroyed the credibitlity of Meet the Press. His ethics notwithstanding on full disclosure do not remotely compare to power weilded by a Surpreme Court Judge or for that matter neither the power of a former Speaker of the House turned oppurtunistic snake oil salesman that is now running for president. Power must not be taken lightly and it deserves the scrutiny of the American press and its citizens. When power is corrupt it should be addressed and subsequently dealt with legally or otherwise. Insofar as Gregory, just do what millions of us did; stop watching Meet The Press or change the channel when he's playing the Republican pundit.
Dead long before Gregory showed up. He's just putting elaborate curlicues on the lettering of the MTP headstone.
me-oww!
What an apt name that is. Passing on asking any questions that might embarrass his corporate overlords.
We've learned that Lawrence O'donnell is every bit as infected as Rachel Maddow.
Another one bites the dust.
Humpty Dumpty was pushed.
I'm shocked. SHOCKED!
Can't stomach Press the Meat. A cocktail weenie could ask better follow-up questions. But what does that matter if week after week you have Lindsey Graham, Joe Lieberman, John McCain, or David Axelrod on your show? You already know what they're going to say.
Pass the weenies, Senator.
I'll be nauseous.
David Gregory is less a newsman than he is a shill for the right wing. He had Newt Gingrich, a NOBODY doing nothing at the time, on some 22 times last year. Makes me sick to see what he's done to the show.
Put this fool on your show or else. He's a channel-changer non-personality. I have absolutely no interest in what comes out of his slack-jawed Herman Munster mask, let alone write another sentence.
Meet the Press? What press?
NBC - change the program or change the name.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
... back during Dubya's presidency, I kinda liked David Gregory, because he seemed critical of the airhead-in-cheif. I can say that about several media types.
And yeah, he's got "the look" for TV. But now he's just another lamestream media mouthpiece for the Right.
It's appalling that the public affairs programs on network TV are so lopsided in who their "guests" are. I can no longer stand to watch them.
It reminds me Itzik Gottesman, who had boasted that his mother-in-law Judith Socolov (died 2011)89, was a Russian spy. She was arrested in 1949 for passing US secrets to her Russian boyfriend, Valetin Gubitchev, while working with US State Department.
http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/itzik...
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