Barack's Fannie Problem

Why did Barack Obama, who's been a senator for about 20 minutes, receive as much money as any politician but Chris Dodd from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Why did these pseudo public agencies give money to politicians at all?

Here's the list of the top recipients of political donations from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for the years 1989 to 2008. Keep in mind that Barack only got to the senate in January of 2005.

Name

Office

State

Party

Grand Total

from PACs

Individuals

Dodd, Christopher J	S	CT	D	$165,400	$48,500	$116,900
Obama, Barack	S	IL	D	$126,349	$6,000	$120,349
Kerry, John	S	MA	D	$111,000	$2,000	$109,000

These totals are based on data released electronically from the FEC on Sept. 2 and include contributions to lawmakers' leadership PACs and candidate committees from the floundering companies' PACs and employees. Current members of Congress have received a total of $4.8 million from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, with Democrats collecting 57 percent of that.

Barack claims to be Mister Clean. This doesn't reflect the fundraising of an outsider.

If having a staffer who has worked as a lobbyist makes you "on the take," I wonder what it means when you take more money from companies like Fannie and Freddie than anybody except Chris Dodd. More than, say, 352 other lawmakers, going back to 1989.