Via Memeorandum, Jim Johnson steps down:
Obama and his campaign staunchly defended Jim Johnson against the charge that his ties to troubled mortgage lender Countrywide disqualified him from sitting on Obama’s vice presidential search committee, but Johnson just pulled the plug: He resigned as chairman of the steering committee just now.
“Jim did not want to distract in any way from the very important task of gathering information about my vice presidential nominee, so he has made a decision to step aside that I accept. We have a very good selection process underway, and I am confident that it will produce a number of highly qualified candidates for me to choose from in the weeks ahead. I remain grateful to Jim for his service and his efforts in this process,” Obama said in a statement.
If prior to reading this post, you had no clue who Jim Johnson was, don’t worry, you are not alone. In fact, if you polled the country, about half of them would ask if you were talking about the former Cowboys coach, the other half would have no clue. Which is to say this is a story about nothing. The cable news channels might talk about it for a minute or two, and I am sure someone in the GOP will gloat over this before strapping on a wetsuit tonight, but this is really no big deal (although probably a sign of what is to come in the next few months- it will be hard to keep up with all of it). The only thing that matters is who the VP choice will be, not who vetted the choice. Quick: Who vetted John Edwards? Al Gore? No fair using google. The only reason some people remember who vetted Dick Cheney is because it was… Dick Cheney. How is that working out for the country?
Dreggas
It’s called desperation. With the fact that McShitstain has people who are ADVISORS who were or are lobbyists, corporate cronies, and/or crooks they have to find something, anything to hit Obama with and this is the thin assed gruel (like McShitstains hairline) that they came up with. The little peckerhead Dan Abrams was talking about this last night and I just wanted to reach through the TeeVee and slap him upside his head. Like Obama said in response yesterday, “If we were to vet the vetters who were doing the vetting we’d never get anything done”.
fuddmain
This guy vetted John Edwards. Also, Geraldine Ferraro. I only know that because I’ve been reading The Field and eating my brussel sprouts.
This will get even less attention with McCain saying it’s “not too important” when the troops come home.
This is fart in a whirlwind.
John S.
Fuck the media.
The story I read on this was yet another dutiful regurgitation of McCain’s bullshit talking points. And of course, this is far more important than McCain saying that he isn’t “too concerned” about bringing the troops home.
It’s gonna be a LONG road to November…
Dug Jay
Just heard on MSNBC that Johnson will be replaced by Sandy Berger as the lead on the Veep Selection committee.
This just in also:
Zifnab
Fucking fantastic. If your name is Dick Cheney.
Zifnab
Concern Trolls is Concerned!
D-Chance.
Yes, that’s why he quit. A plum position vetting for the future leader of the free world… and he quits over nothing.
Yeah. Right.
But I forget, the Obamessiah transcends vetting…
Jill
That fucklewit Joe Scarborough was all over this nonsense this morning. They will do ANYTHING THEY HAVE TO in order to get McCain elected. The media is not our friend. Funny how they’ve ignored McCain’s lobbyists.
Tsulagi
Why wait until night?
BREAKING: Johnson Steps Down from Obama VP Committee
Another Scalp for the Online Right
JR
This just in from the Obama camp:
Oh snap!
NR
If this is the top political story today over McCain’s Iraq comments, it will be proof positive that the media is completely in the tank for McCain.
4tehlulz
That’s true; McCain would flip-flop in a much-shorter period of time.
Pb
Yeah, that’d really disqualify him and Maggie Williams, Henry Cisneros, John Green, Wayne Berman, and John Edwards’ hedge fund too… Wealthy People Make Money In Financial Sector, Film At 11!
Dug Jay
This New York Times story details far more damaging information about Eric Holder, a deputy Attorney General under Clinton and another member of Obama’s Veep Selection Committee. In brief, the NYT notes that Holder helped steer the attorney for Marc Rich, a fugitive from US ciminal charges, whose pardon request would likely have been rejected through normal channels due to his status as a fugitive, to the man Holder wanted assistance with in getting his next job. Now there’s a man who knows something about conflicts of interest. Of course, Rich was granted the pardon as Clinton was leaving the White House. Holder subsequently admitted to Congressional investigators that he hoped his assistance in this matter would aid in his appointment to AG if Gore were elected President in 2000.
gbear
“Who Will Vet the Vetters of The People Vetting the People Vetting Obama’s VP?”
Eddie Vedder?
David Vitter?
4tehlulz
Oh dear. Will she do for the country what she did for HP?
Dr. Squid
Ahem. Two wetsuits.
And a dong.
Dreggas
I gotta laugh at the feigned outrage again because here we have McCain who has, as a chief economic adviser, someone who helped create the subprime mess and who basically says “let them eat cake” who came up with McCain’s “We aren’t going to do a damn thing to help the American people” economic policy going after someone who got a loan through countrywide (IIRC).
Then you have the special-special-ed twins D-Change and Dug Jackass show up here defending this weak sauce between sucking on some of those balls McCain has that we heard so much about.
Truly this is going to be a good year.
ThymeZone
Boo ya. This is the way campaigns at this level are supposed to work. Sharp, focussed rebuttals. The art of having the last word. I like the idea of a president who can put together a sharp team like this.
Good work. Once again the McCain team shoots itself in the groin.
oh really
My cat’s vet. And he’s squeaky clean.
marjowil
You can’t win by caving to the righties:
in other words: “Forced to step down.”
If the guy didn’t step down, then Obama & co. would not be guilty of flip-flopping, they would be “ignoring grave concerns of the people who care about the credibility gap” or some such. jeez
empty
Expect the next target to be Penny Pritzker. Though she did donate to McCain in the 2000 so maybe they will be more gentle with her.
Doug H. (Fausto no more)
Remember how HP used to make really solid hardware?
And now they don’t?
That’s Carly Fiorina. Just imagine what she’ll do to the US economy.
Koz
Who cares? Let’s say, reasonably enough, that Obama doesn’t bear any responsibility for Johnson’s misconduct and that his association with him isn’t strong enough to matter.
Everyone knows that we have had in recent times, a crisis in mortgage lending. Well, what do we do about it? If Obama says that we can or should do nothing, then fine, that’s a reasonable argument, let him make that case. But so far, the whole thing is demagoguery over how much the CEO makes. That doesn’t get anybody anything. And if he doesn’t know it, then it’s up to you who supposedly support him and let him know.
Jon H
“and I am sure someone in the GOP will gloat over this before strapping on a wetsuit tonight”
I really look forward to seeing how long “wetsuit” lasts as a viable GOP punchline.
I’m hoping it lasts 40 years.
Jon H
“Once again the McCain team shoots itself in the groin.”
Not a problem, McCain’s penis is kept in the nightstand with the batteries.
Dreggas
like the putter in his golf bag eh?
David Hunt
So instead of spending 40 years wandering the wilderness, the Conservatives are going to spend 40 years underwater?
Punchy
OT but incredible….
Sneaky muthafuckers
Never thought of this. Makes sense now. The old reach-around, Iraqi-style.
Zifnab
I wish that were true. But the income gap raises some serious questions about how industry in America operates. If we’re living in a market economy that rewards economic failure and job loss with financial rewards, then something is wrong.
It doesn’t get anybody (in the US) anything, if we tolerate a handful of executives shipping tens of thousands of jobs overseas to sweet shops in China and Vietnam so that they can make obscene profits. It doesn’t get anybody (in the US) anything, if all the oil wealth our major corporations are making in profits get dumped into Dubai. It certainly doesn’t benefit anyone when our major financial institutions simply become pirating vessels used as vehicles for extending bad credit in one hand, bad investments in the other, and cleaning up as the middle men while both sides go broke.
There are some very substantial problems with the current incarnation of capitalism in the US. Simply blowing off major trends and massive impropriety as “scapegoating those rich guys” misses the serious impact their decisions make on our daily lives.
montysano
And so, the Calvacade of Stupid begins.
How’s about trying this: don’t cave to the Flying Monkey Brigades. Just don’t. How about punching back for a change? I’ve always thought that if J. Kerry had gone on TV and said “Sean & Rush are welcome to blow me”, he might be president today. Instead, he triangulated and parsed and waffled, and got his ass handed to him.
I’m dismayed that Johnson resigned. Why cave to those who will never, ever vote for you? I’m just sick of it. Sean Hannity is now out there saying “The BO campaign is disarray.” Tell them to fuck off, and if that truly costs us the election, then we’re so far gone that we deserve whatever we get.
srv
Can you say Scooter Libby?
Is there a point other than MUP is beholden to the same powers that your hero was?
loquacious mute
So when is Phil Gramm going to resign? How does Johnson’s loan from CW compare to Phil Gramm facilitating the mortgage crisis to begin with by passing deregulation and lobbying for UBS. This guy is advising McCreepy on the economy. Why is the Obama campaign not screaming this from the rooftops. Gramm’s shenanigans have real life implications. It is beyond hypocrisy.
Dreggas
Hannity is so full of shit his eyes are brown. Let the fat bastard keep bloviating all he wants. Fortunately more people are starting to turn off FAUX News now.
loquacious mute
Who is vetting for McInsane, Cheney or maybe even Rove?
The Other Steve
Dug Jay – But pardoning Scooter Libby was A-OK.
God, you are a tool.
srv
Who could have foreseen? Not Phil. And certainly not Wendy Gramm, as she sat on the board of Enron (you can’t make this shit up). John has to have people who’ve screwed up bigger than he did on Lincoln Savings.
Koz
In that case, the charge against Obama has some real juice. Jim Johnson got favorable treatment from Countrywide, supposedly the object of Obama’s ire. Which come to think of it, isn’t much different from Obama’s sweetheart deals with Rezko. Exactly whose side is Obama supposed to be on anyway?
Koz
Btw, “our” major corporations aren’t making the big money in oil. It’s foreign corporations, and most importantly, foreign governments.
crw
Except Johnson was a liability for other reasons. cf Geraldine Ferraro especially. Frankly, Obama’s mistake was picking him to begin with. This episode provides a convenient excuse for him to get a better, less DLC-oriented vetter taking the lead.
You’re right. The fRighties are going to find a reason to kvetch no matter what Obama does. So he should just plow ahead and take the course of actions that will most directly benefit him.
ThymeZone
Nobody is persuaded by anything they see on FauxNews.
Yes, exactly what he has been doing for the last year. And will continue to do.
Koz
You tell me, how does a Lexus compare to a cocker spaniel?
Lenders want to lend the money, borrowers wanted to borrow it. Where does Phil Gramm fit in here?
stickler
Koz opines:
Note the lack of any substantiation. Maybe there’s evidence out there somewhere to prove Koz right? Hmmm. Let’s do a cursory search and see what we find :
Yeah, just as I thought. Wingnut troll is not just mistaken, he’s completely, 100% back-assward.
montysano
Yes. Yes he is. But he won today. He and his minions yapped about Johnson, our side caved, and now they’ll yap about it for several more days. I just don’t get it. If BO’s people had stood firm, the idiots would get tired of the story in a couple of days (ratings, ya know) and it would have disappeared. I’m sick to fucking death of caving.
Koz
Great, here’s another winner who thinks that trash talk is a substitute for education.
The world’s production/consumption of oil is 85 million bbls/day. Let’s say that the production cost is $10/bbl (probably about right for the world as a whole, but high for the Middle East) and it’s sold for $100/bbl. Then world total oil revenue is around $3 trillion a year. Of which, Exxon gets about 10% of revenue but %1.5 percent of the profits.
Furthermore, Exxon is “dumping” anything in Dubai. Dubai is part of the UAE, a small oil-rich country. The can hire drillers and other oil service companies, like Exxon. But because the UAE controls the mineral rights in its own land, it gets most of the oil price appreciation.
I wonder if this is supposed to mean that Zifnab (or you, for that matter) wants us to go to war against the UAE so that we can take their oil.
4tehlulz
translated: “I have no facts.”
Church Lady
I don’t think too many people will confuse Jim Johnson with Jimmy Johnson. If you don’t know who Jim Johnson is, you don’t watch any cable news nor read the paper. In other words, uninformed.
ThymeZone
So, if you are watching Countdown, you know that the poll numbers today are …. rather amazing.
Let me put it this way: Unless McCain really turns it around, this contest is already over.
I have never seen poll numbers shift like this in such a short time before. Others will pick apart the details but I think the truth is just this: This contest is a mismatch.
That latter number is going to close up. I am still predicting a 10+ win for the Democrat.
I wonder what they are saying down at McCain headquarters right about now?
montysano
White dudes…….. we truly fucking suck sometimes.
Jake
Alright. So most of you know I’m a big Obama supporter.
This bothered me. I see no good reason for him to have stepped down. I agree, the righties manufactured something out of the thinnest gruel imaginable, and yet look where we are. On a day when McCain said something incredibly stupid, we have this getting almost equal time on the networks.
I was encouraged by Obama’s response to this yesterday, not because it was particularly good (it wasn’t), but because it indicated that he thought it was ridiculous (it is). I’d just really prefer that he show better kung fu than this. This seems like pretty weak kung fu to me.
BTW, Campbell Brown and her shown on CNN are REALLY FUCKING ANNOYING.
loquacious mute
HuffPo has a good piece on how this was a fabricated scandal by WSJ.
empty
Yes you do :)
tofubo
exactly
aBlog
yet another jeff
I think Bush already did that for her…
yet another jeff
Reminds me of Heathers…as does the GOP…
Jay
George Mitchell’s free right now. He’d make a good VP picker.
passerby
I don’t understand why anoyone would be upset by J.Johnson stepping down. When Obama announced his VP vetting team and I read Johnson’s background I was disappointed that he had a history (read connections) with the housing market.
I thought immediately that this was a mistake because, newsflash, the housing market crash has its beginnings in the (predatory) lending sector from which Johnson came.
I don’t have all the details of JJ’s dealings and I don’t need them. His association with that realm makes him dirty, dirty enough to be attacked.
There must be 100’s of other capable, “clean” people that Obama could have chosen. Not to insult Caroline Kennedy, but if she’s qualified to vet, surely finding someone cleaner would have been easy pickings.
Q: Why did he select Jim Johnson?
T
stickler
Koz, look:
I notice you provided no links for your “let’s say” suppositions. If your case is based on fact, then produce the facts.
I actually produced one fact: a NYT story (one of many) pointing out that Exxon had a record year for profits last year. Depending how you measure it, Exxon had the most profitable year in the history of human capitalist enterprise.
Your spitballs do not refute this.
See, in my line of work (I’m a professor), we rely on “facts” to buttress our arguments. Otherwise our peers deride our arguments as based on “bullshit.” And that can be a real downer.
srv
Duh. Why is his economics team filled with Citibank and Walmart fellators?
Change they believe in and can package well enough for you to believe in.
DougJ
If McCain names Carly Fiorina as his VP, this race is over. All those disgruntled women who stuck by Hillary til the end will flock to the McCain camp.
The one thing I don’t know, and maybe one of you can help me out, is what it would be possible to have Carly Fiorina and Condi Rice server together as co-VPs? Think about it: Carly takes in all the angry white women, Condi brings in all the angry black ones. It would be pretty amazing to have a dynamic CEO and an accomplished figure skater, concert pianist, and college provost serving together at once. Think of the synergy — it would be like HP and Compaq all over again.
passerby
To answer your question: Because they know their way around the business world.
But, to my question, why select a Fannie Mae man to do VP vetting. Now that the primary season is over, all eyes are turned toward the VP selections of both candidates.
As I suggested, certainly the qualifications to be a vetter do not require a PhD in Vetology and they obviously don’t require housing market experience.
Please, elaborate on your “Duh” srv. Though it is said brevity is the soul of wit, I find your answer way too succinct and bordering on intellectual laziness.
T
Koz
WTF? The current production/consumption of oil is 85M bbls/day, and the current front month futures price for a barrel of quality grade oil is $135 as of this morning. The exact numbers are changing all the time, but within a very narrow range, these ,are facts, and are well known to be so.
Beyond that, the total revenue from world oil production comes from this newfangled idea called “multiplication”, which is tough but a real “professor” ought to be able to handle it. The only part of that comment that was remotely speculative was the production cost.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
What a lovely idea.
The HP shareholders proxy fight over whether to proceed with that merger or not was a fookin bloodbath, including Nixonian dirty tricks featuring spooks hired by Carly and her henchmen to spy on an HP board member suspected of leaking gossip to the press.
I’m sure there are pleny of people from HP with “Carly stories” who would be happy to spend their summer vacations having friendly chats with Keith Olbermann, to the point where Scott McClellan might actually have to go out and find himself another gig.
srv
What do you think a VP vetter does? He goes around and politely “listens” to all the players for their inputs on VP/cabinet selections and reassures them that “change” is coming. Vetting isn’t about who has a daughter in the basement cage, it’s about getting the A-lists approval. That includes Dems and Republicans. I assure you, James Baker is high on the vetting rolodex. At the same time, who would better reassure Wall Street that the fix isn’t in, and the mortgage/bank bailouts of 2009 and 2010 (wait for those resets) are not already being planned by Robert Rubins Citi VP and former Treasury Chief-of-Staff who, coincidently, has been on MUPs team since day one.
Change you can believe in.
Conservatively Liberal
If Obama needs a vette vetted, I am ready to offer my services. Send me the new 650 horsepower C7 and I will let him know if it is worthy.
;)
Richardson
Oh hell yes it matters!!! Why???
Because the media has gone on about this for two full days now. Op-ed’s in the NYTimes. Lead story at the Washington Post. And what else has happened during that time you ask? Well, nothing much really, just John McCain’s suggestion that the occupation of Iraq will be more or less permanent, costing us billions of dollars, thousands of lives, and dragging us ever deeper into the Imperial quagmire of the Middle East with not so much as a word about it from the MSM…
What this tells us is where the corporate media’s priorities are. They are interested in defeating Obama, electing McCain and continuing Bush’s policies. This is precisely why this story matters.
passerby
Thank you srv.
I’m cynical enough to be very leery about Obama’s association with the same fellators (to borrow your word) who have used Americans as pack mules for their market schemes behind which they serve the uber wealthy.
Especially with regard to Rubin’s involvement, as I have come to view him as a kingpin member of a fascist cabal. He’s been lurking there, through the Clinton administration, through W’s tenure, and now,evidently Obama’s.
[Let me take this opportunity point to this a reason there is no difference between Dem and Rep presidencies and congresses]
More questions:
Does Obama achieve the office of POTUS without the support of these very powerful players?
How would he go about altering the deeply entrenched market ways that have enslaved the american taxpayer?
I say it will be impossible to wrest power(money) from these corporatists without a god-in-the-machine type of event.(Maybe a little help from the World Court)
Is Obama playing: “Keep your friends close, keep your enimies closer”?
T
srv
The thought has never crossed his mind, and everyone else is too emotional to notice.
les
How about some numbers on how much of that money goes to the producers, yapper? Much of it sticks with Big Oil, and more with speculators (in the deregulated by Gramm et al) oil futures market. Enron redux.