September 18 - This Day in Michele Bachmann History

For those history buffs out there, we're creating a new segment called "This Day in History" - starting with Representative Michele Bachmann:

September 18, 2008: Bachmann issued a press release announcing a bill to "stop frivolous lawsuits from blocking domestic energy production. In America, drilling for oil and natural gas can be easily hampered by frivolous litigation filed with the sole purpose of delaying and blocking energy exploration."

September 18, 2008: ExxonMobil donates $3,000 to Bachmann, the largest individual contribution ExxonMobil has given to Bachmann ($7,000 total since June 2006).

That's This Day in History - September 18, sponsored by the Council to Promote QPQ.

Better for Bachmann to be connected to McCarthy rather than the Mortgage Bankers Association?

As you know, Michele Bachmann recently put in her pitch for starring as the villain in "Good Night and Good Luck 2" with her recent appearance on Hardball, and has invited some scrutiny into her record in the past few days. The funny thing is maybe it's better for Bachmann to be compared to Joseph McCarthy than to the donors who've made campaign contributions over the last few years - it's a Who's Who of Disgraced Oil and Financial Services Companies:

COUNTRYWIDE FINANCIAL CORPORATION PAC 10/17/2007 $1000
COUNTRYWIDE FINANCIAL CORPORATION PAC 5/8/2008 $1000
FREDDIE PAC 7/17/2007 $1000
FREDDIE PAC 2/26/2008 $1500
FANNIE MAE PAC 9/11/2007 $500
FANNIE MAE PAC 9/11/2007 $1500
FANNIE MAE PAC 2/22/2008 $2000
MORTGAGE BANKERS ASSOCIATION PAC 7/25/2006 $1000
MORTGAGE BANKERS ASSOCIATION PAC 9/20/2006 $1000
MORTGAGE BANKERS ASSOCIATION PAC 11/2/2006 $500
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MORTGAGE BROKERS 3/7/2007 $2000
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS PAC 4/20/2007 $1000
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS PAC 7/23/2008 $1000
EXXONMOBIL PAC 6/9/2006 $2000
EXXONMOBIL PAC 5/15/2007 $1000
EXXONMOBIL PAC 3/6/2008 $1000
EXXONMOBIL PAC 9/18/2008 $3000
AMERICAN BANKERS ASSOCIATION PAC 10/2/2006 $5000
AMERICAN BANKERS ASSOCIATION PAC 8/24/2007 $1500
AMERICAN BANKERS ASSOCIATION PAC 9/21/2007 $1000
AMERICAN BANKERS ASSOCIATION PAC 1/25/2008 $1000
AMERICAN BANKERS ASSOCIATION PAC 5/27/2008 $1000
AMERICAN BANKERS ASSOCIATION PAC 7/24/2008 $2000
AMERICAN BANKERS ASSOCIATION PAC (BANKPAC) 8/27/2008 $500

No wonder John Sununu wanted to bail out AIG

Senator John Sununu (R-NH) likes to claim he's a leader and not a partisan when it comes to cleaning up the current Wall Street mess.

"I've been proud of the leadership role I've provided on some very important, very large scale regulatory questions....And I think the framework we created for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and AIG and insurance companies are the right frameworks to pursue as we begin looking at legislation again at the beginning of the next session to really reform, consolidate and modernize our entire financial service regulatory framework."

But in the case of AIG, perhaps it was Sununu's pocketbook as much as his "leadership" that ked to his support for the bailout. Sununu has received more than $16,000 from an AIG PAC since 2001, including $5,650 in the last 16 months. If that's leadership, we'd hate to see what he'd be like as a partisan. And, if he was a true leader, shouldn't he donate at least that $5,650 to the federal government as the part of the bailout he supported?

SUNUNU, JOHN E VIA TEAM SUNUNU 05/29/2001 1000.00
SUNUNU, JOHN E VIA TEAM SUNUNU 12/13/2001 1000.00
SUNUNU, JOHN E VIA TEAM SUNUNU 03/13/2002 1000.00
SUNUNU, JOHN E VIA TEAM SUNUNU 10/03/2002 5000.00
SUNUNU, JOHN E VIA TEAM SUNUNU 09/04/2003 2000.00
SUNUNU, JOHN E VIA TEAM SUNUNU 05/02/2006 1000.00
SUNUNU, JOHN E VIA TEAM SUNUNU 06/18/2007 1250.00
SUNUNU, JOHN E VIA TEAM SUNUNU 06/27/2007 4000.00
SUNUNU, JOHN E VIA TEAM SUNUNU 02/05/2008 400.00

Fannie Mae

Amid all the congressional criticism of the most recent mortgage-related bailout and today's news that the FBI is investigating Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and others for committing fraud, it is interesting to point out that a number of senators running for re-election in 2008 have recently received campaign contributions from the Federal National Mortgage Association Political Action Committee (better known to most as the Fannie Mae PAC). And "recently" means calendar year 2008.

The biggest recipients? Senators Norm Coleman (a total of $7,500) and Saxby Chambliss (a total of $7,000) received the most out of all senators who are running for re-election. Earning a honorable mention and getting the most bang out of the special interest buck is Senator Roger Wicker, who received a total of $5,000 from Fannie Mae even though he only replaced predecessor Trent Lott on December 31, 2007.

Given that the federal government (and taxpayers for that matter) recently took over Fannie Mae, wouldn't the best thing these senators could do for taxpayers would be to return campaign contributions to Fannie Mae?

Below is the list of senators running for re-election who received Fannie Mae PAC funds in 2008:

Recipient's Name		Amount
COLEMAN, NORM		$7,500
CHAMBLISS, C SAXBY		$7,000
BAUCUS, MAX		$6,000
ALEXANDER, LAMAR		$5,000
COLLINS, SUSAN M		$5,000
CORNYN, JOHN		$5,000
ENZI, MICHAEL B		$5,000
WICKER, ROGER F		$5,000
ROBERTS, PAT		$4,000
SMITH, GORDON HAROLD		$2,500
LANDRIEU, MARY L		$1,500
MCCONNELL, MITCH		$500

Truman Lives (We Wish He Did!)

Welcome to the Truman Lives blog. The point of this blog is to highlight our findings about politicians who say one thing but then do exactly the opposite (especially when it comes to special interests). The hope is to live up to the standards of the famed Truman Committee, which was led by the future president of the United States (and this blog's namesake) when he was but a obscure senator from Missouri.

Please direct all cheers and jeers to trumanlives@rocketmail.com.