WHICH POLITICIANS WILL BE HURT BY THE MORTGAGE CRISIS?

Mortgage crisis likely to destroy Donna's opponent, Al Wynn

Somewhat ironically, a DCCC employee sent out a powerful piece from the new issue of Time today, Will Bad Mortgages Hurt the GOP? It's very likely they already have. A slew of Republican rubber stamps in districts with worried and pissed off homeowners have been announcing their retirements every week. All of these retirees have something in common-- aside from craving lucrative jobs on K Street: they all voted for Bush's heinous and, for hundreds of thousands of homeowners, catastrophic bankruptcy bill.

Tim Walberg was one of the rare Republican success stories in 2006. After defeating Joe Schwarz, the moderate G.O.P. incumbent Congressman in his rural southwestern Michigan district, he went on to narrowly beat Democrat Sharon Renier with just 50% of the vote. Walberg, a fiscal conservative, ran on a platform of limited government, tax cuts and strong support of the war in Iraq.

Last Thursday, to the delight of Democrats, Walberg lived up to his conservative ideals-- voting against a bill in the House that tightens restrictions against predatory lending. The measure, which garnered the support of 64 Republicans in passing 291-127, would force lenders to apply for licenses and require them to verify the ability of borrowers to repay loans. "I think the market always works when we let it," Walberg told TIME just before voting against the measure. "We want to make sure that we have opportunities for consumers to have safe and opportune mortgages. This bill, I think, goes away from that, puts heavy regulation in place, discourages lending practices for just very few people who've had that problem."

As the subprime mortgage crisis has worsened and Democrats have moved to pass legislation to the address the problem, they are accusing their G.O.P. counterparts of doing too little to prevent the predicament. The issue could become a potent campaign issue in '08, as the Democrats have targeted several vulnerable G.O.P. members, including Walberg, who voted against last week's bill.

The Republicans "were asleep at the wheel while this problem was heading straight at us," said Congressman Chris Van Hollen, head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which works to elect Democratic candidates. "This is affecting people across the country in Michigan, in Florida, in Ohio-- all important swing states. This will be part of the debate about the economy overall. And people who ignore it do so at their own peril."

It is also affecting people across Van Hollen's home state of Maryland where Bush's Republican rubber stamps were joined by a particularly corrupt Democrat, Al Wynn, to help pass the bankruptcy bill that has put homeowners in double jeopardy. The irony comes in because there is a progressive icon running against Wynn in the Democratic Party primary, Donna Edwards, and Democratic powermongers like Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer and Rahm Emanuel, are out pimping for... Wynn, of course. So they may denounce Bush and his cruel agenda and try to use it-- as they should-- against rubber stamp Republicans, but when a grassroots Democrat tries to hold a corrupt reactionary like Wynn accountable what happens? Pelosi scurries over to do a fundraiser for him, showing anyone following politics that Democratic insiders are every bit as hypocritical and untrustworthy as Republicans.

Donna has an answer for Democratic insiders and hypocrits: "Montgomery County has over 700 homes in foreclosure and Prince George's County leads the state. Yet Al Wynn keeps taking in campaign cash from big banks and lenders, and voting their way. His vote for their bankrutcy bill put more power in the hands of his special interests backers; hurting consumers who are having a tough time making ends meet." Donna has pledged not to take camapaign contributions from corporate special interests and to crack down on predatory lenders and help rewrite Bush's and Wynn's bankruptcy bill so that it protects consumers instead of victimizing them.

Today Donna's campaign has a new video out that makes Times point far better than Time and makes it clear that if Republican members of Congress who took legalized bribes to vote for the interests of the credit card and mortage companies and against their own constituents are in trouble, so are the handful of Democrats who went along for the ride. Take a look:



If you think Congress needs better Democrats than Al Wynn, please keep in mind that Blue America is supporting Donna Edwards and several other progressive Democrats battling against the forces of reaction and corruption within our own party. I urge you to consider donating to Donna and other grassroots Democrats with serious primaries like John Laesch (IL), Rep. Steve Cohen (TN), Victoria Wulsin (OH), Howard Shanker (AZ), Sam Bennett (PA), Mark Pera (IL), Gretchen Clearwater (IN), Jon Powers (NY), Randi Scheurer (IL). You can hit them all-- or any combination of them-- right here at our Blue America ActBlue page.


MEAN JEAN SCHMIDT-- A NOTORIOUS SUPPORTER OF PREDATORY LENDERS

Last week when we looked at the small minority of congressmembers who refused to back the bipartisan legislation attempting to deal with predatory lenders and mortgage bankruptcies, prominently on the list, as expected, was Bush rubber stamp Mean Jean Schmidt (R-OH). Her opponent, Vic Wulsin, proposes an entirely different kind of representation for southern Ohio, one based on the needs and wishes of the folks who live there, not on the demands of corporate campaign contributors.

We need real change in Washington. I support this bipartisan, common sense effort to rein in an industry that has spun out of control, and would have voted for it. I believe we must protect all Americans from unfair and predatory lending practices. 

We know what’s happening in our neighborhoods and towns. According to Malia Rulon of the Enquirer, "Ohio ranked fifth in the nation for foreclosures in the past three months," and Cincinnati "had one foreclosure per 145 households." As of today there are 2,103 foreclosure listings in Cincinnati alone, and a shocking 75 in Jean Schmidt’s home town of Loveland, OH, population under 12,000.

What do Jean Schmidt’s neighbors think of her voting against them?

Unlike Rep. Schmidt, Republican Senator George Voinovich knows that this is an important issue, saying that "Ohioans can no longer wait while Congress fails to act." [Cincinnati Enquirer, 11/16/07.]
 
We need to stand up for our hard working families, not the Wall Street insiders who made billions when times were good and are now looking for a government bailout. Maybe she’s listening to the developers who have supported her political career.