Glenn Beck is the new Woodward and Bernstein

"Between 1972 and 1976, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein emerged as two of the most famous journalists in America and became forever identified as the reporters who broke the biggest story in American politics." [from their archives--and they probably wrote that description]

Until now. Now Glenn Beck reveals two or three scandals, payoffs, and scams a week--he's leaving "famous journalists" in the dust. This week he's connecting the dots again--Franklin Raines' tenure at Fannie Mae (which helped create our current housing bubble and crisis), where he bought up the tools for a carbon exchange, then fell into disgrace, then hooked up with other Chicago green poverty pimps, labor unions, community organizers, financiers, CEOs, a future president, the wildly rich Joyce Foundation (funds the Tides Foundation's projects), a former vice-president, a variety of communist organizations and comes out squeaky clean to be an Obama advisor. Wow. What a roller coaster from power to disgrace to an even more powerful position all in one decade.

Where are the journalists when you need them, and why are they letting a "radio clown" do all the dirty work? Something like a tenth of American voters listen to or watch Glenn Beck--and they know how to investigate their little niche of the economy in their state or specialty and they send him tips, which his staff then investigates and verifies. This used to be what our "free press" did before it became a subservient lackey of the government. This week he has also covered the Democrats trying to sneak *Puerto Rico in as the 51st state using the Tennessee Plan, and the "black robe brigade," a period in our American history when pastors actually led instead of followed.

*Puerto Ricans have voted this down 3 times--they are U.S. citizens but the 3.8 million living here cannot vote in presidential elections and have no voting representatives in Congress. They don't pay federal taxes, but receive reduced welfare and other federal benefits. The two million Puerto Ricans living on the mainland have the same rights as all other U.S. citizens.

Update: Tonight Beck revealed the Wizard behind the curtain (I thought it would be Soros) is Joel Rogers of the University of Wisconsin, of the New Party, The Workers' Party, The Apollo Alliance or whatever name our "new" communists are going by. I don't think Beck mentioned this, but the Real Barack Obama blog noted him in 2008 as the husband of one of Obama's law partners. Lots of stuff on him on the web. Just Google.

Cooking the books

"Shocking exposé hit the Street last week about one of the best-loved, all-American companies: Fannie Mae, the mortgage and financial services giant. The report, written by the company's regulator, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, offered a litany of accounting improprieties at the company. You might call it "In the Kitchen With Fannie: How to Cook the Books for Fun and Profit.""

That was the story four years ago, Sept. 26, 2004 in the NYT. But even with this report, Franklin D. Raines, the company's chief executive 4 years ago, and his predecessor, James Johnson, got their bonuses. (NYT Sept 26, 2008)

Then in April of this year, paying much less than the government ask for: "Raines, former Fannie chief financial officer Timothy Howard and former controller Leanne Spencer were accused in a civil lawsuit in December 2006 with manipulating earnings over a six-year period at the company, the largest U.S. financer and guarantor of home mortgages.

Raines, a Seattle native and prominent Washington figure who was President Clinton's budget director, is relinquishing company stock options, proceeds from stock sales and other benefits. His part of the settlement is worth $24.7 million. . ." He'd worked in two different Democratic administrations, made over $91 million from 1998-2004, and blamed the Bush Administration for his problems. [Does anyone in the government from the janitors to the President ever accept the blame for mistakes?] "Raines, the first black CEO of a Fortune 500 company, has been trying to restore his reputation and challenge shareholder suits. Raised in a Seattle family that relied on welfare checks, Raines broke through racial barriers to become an adviser to President Carter and head of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget from 1996 to 1998 under Clinton." (Seattle Times, April 18, 2008 [AP])

Breaking through racial barriers to be a first anything is not necessarily a guarantee of success. And just fining the perps more millions than the rest of us can imagine obviously doesn't solve the problem either.

So what did the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight report to the Congress [Chris Dodd, Chair of Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs and Barney Frank, Chair of Financial Services, both Democrats, now squawking and pointing fingers at Republicans] this year--four years later? Well, Fannie and Fred were rising to the challenge, the Director said.

"[Fannie and Fred] were able to fulfill their key mission of providing stability and liquidity to the conventional conforming loan market. Their support of the mortgage market grew by 15 percent in 2007 versus 8 percent growth in 2006, to a total of $5.0 trillion in guaranteed mortgage-backed securities outstanding and mortgage investments. Their market share of total mortgage originations grew from 37.4 percent in 2006 to 75.6 percent by the fourth quarter of 2007. There is increasing pressure for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to do even more to support the mortgage market, which is problematic in absence of GSE reform legislation to strengthen the regulatory process."

Do you feel stable yet? Did GSE reform legislation [that means Congress has to do something] happen? Did the Chris and Barney dog and pony show just toss the report into the circular file? And the press release explaining how they plan to get to root causes doesn't make me feel any better. Sort of sounds like the Secretary of the Treasury will be the most powerful man in the world. Don't remember electing him, do you?