Marathon Pundit: Another subprime headache for Obama

Monday, June 09, 2008

Another subprime headache for Obama

It's hard to keep up with the hypocrisy of the Barack Obama campaign today, but I'm doing the best I can.

From Red State:

The Pritzkers are one of the leading business families of Chicago. They run Hyatt and have a reputation for particularly cut-throat business practices. (sometimes outside of honorable) So it isn't entirely surprising to find Penny Pritzker at the center of Barack Obama's hypocrisy over his relationship to subprime lenders. Earlier today, I wrote about Jim Johnson, who got a sweetheart deal from Countrywide which Obama had attacked. And then there was UBS, which his campaign shopped a story about, and the reporter didn't point out that the CEO of UBS has raised a quarter million for Obama.

And then there is Penny, Obama's Finance Chair. She was the former Chairwoman of a bank that failed, according to regulators via a 2001 Chicago Tribune article, due to "poor oversight by its board." The depositors felt so screwed, that they filed a RICO suit against Penny and other directors. The Pritzker family eventually settled with regulators for $460m.

So Obama is attacking CEOs of subprime lenders. And his Finance Chairman was the Chairman of a subprime lender that went under because of poor oversight. One of his major donors is the CEO of another one. And the person making his VP recommendation got a sweetheart deal from another.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Her business career hit a bump in 2001, with the costly failure of Superior Bank FSB, a Chicago-area thrift that was seized by federal regulators after it ran into problems with subprime lending. (Emphasis mine.) The Pritzker family held a 50% stake, and Ms. Pritzker had been on the board of the bank's holding company. Anxious to avoid further embarrassment and liability, the Pritzkers and their co-owner settled with federal officials by agreeing to pay $460 million over 15 years. Nearly all of the funds came from the Pritzkers. Ms. Pritzker says she regrets what happened.