Saturday, September 27, 2008

No More Golden Parachutes for Disgraced CEOs! Except for Those Who Contribute to Schumer and Obama...

For all the chest-pounding by Washington politicians, especially Democrats, about CEOs of failed banks and financial institutions receiving "golden parachutes," why is it these guys all tend to be big bucks Democrat contributors?

Can you say hypocrisy, boys and girls? It's bad enough Barack Obama has the audacity to do this while he's pals with Franklin Raines, who walked away from Fannie Mae with $90 million, but now comes news that the CEO of the failed Washington Mutual bank, Alan Fishman, may walk off with a $13 million package.
With the US financial system teetering on the brink yesterday, it emerged that the chief executive of failed bank Washington Mutual may end up with a "golden parachute" of more than $13 million - for 18 days he held the job.

Alan Fishman was handed a $7.5 million signing bonus when he joined the barely solvent bank on Sept. 7, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Shockingly, his employment agreement also provided for a $6.15 million lump-sum severance payment if he were canned without cause, the filing shows.

Fishman ended up being in charge of the biggest bank failure in US history.

The former chief executive of Brooklyn-based Independence Community Bank had been hired to help the bank rebound from soaring mortgage losses.
Normally at a time like this, the biggest media whore on the planet would trample his mother rushing to the cameras to denounce this stunning development, but Charles Schumer is oddly silent.

Perhaps that's because he's taken money from Fishman. Nine times, in fact. Looks like he took so much he had to give some back, in fact. You'll also notice the name Barack Obama on that list as having accepted a contribution from Fishman.

To be fair, Fishman donated once to Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani (11 years ago, in that case), but the overwhelming majority of his largesse went to Democrats.

Schumer, of course, is all too familiar with failed banking institutions, as some argue he caused a run on one already.

I won't be holding my breath awaiting his denunciation of his pal Fishman.

Instapundit links. Thanks!

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