Topic category:  Government/Politics

Democrats are rightly concerned, because Connecticut's Republican Senate candidate, Linda McMahon, is too close for comfort to an upset win the Connecticut Senate race.

Scandal-plagued veteran Democrat Senator Chris Dodd chose not to run again because polls showed he was doomed and Democrats were desperate to keep control of the Senate and realized that a Republican win in Connecticut could decide the matter.

Longtime Connecticut Attorney Dick Blumenthal stepped forward to run and Democrats breathed a collective sign of relief, because he had high public approval.

But that high public approval was built on quicksand and based on ignorance.

It became general knowledge that Blumenthal (a former law clerk to Justice Harry Blackmun) had lied repeatedly about serving in Vietnam.

As McMahon astutely asked, if he lied about that, what else is he lying about?

This month McMahon stumped Blumenthal during their debate by asking how a job is created and then exploded the carefully cultivated myth that Blumenthal had served as an honorable and competent public servant in the Countrywide Mortgage scandal that doomed Dodd.

See Ed Morrissey's "Video: McMahon ties Blumenthal to Countrywide collapse" (http://hotair.com/archives/2010/10/23/video-mcmahon-ties-blumenthal-to-countrywide-collapse/).

Morrissey:

"Dick Blumenthal has tried to cast himself as a white knight in the Countrywide Mortgage scandal that forced Chris Dodd into retirement after the exposure of his sweetheart mortgage deals under the 'Friends of Angelo' program at Countrywide. Blumenthal points to his $8.6 billion settlement with Bank of America over the mortgage giant’s remaining loans, one that supposedly 'won’t cost taxpayers a dime,' as an example of his beneficial work for Connecticut voters and his ability to get tough with fraudsters. Linda McMahon takes aim at this argument with her new ad released yesterday titled 'Taking Care,' which alleges that Blumenthal took more care of himself than the citizen[s] of the Nutmeg State:

The McMahon campaign found Blumenthal’s connection to Countrywide by 'sifting through the Securities and Exchange Commission’s files,' according to National Review, finding a $3 million Blumenthal investment in the Blue Ridge Limited Partnership. Blue Ridge took a significant interest in PennyMac, a fund formed by former Countrywide executives to purchase and restructure some distressed Countrywide loans to turn them towards profitability. It’s not clear whether Blumenthal was aware of Blue Ridge’s stake in PennyMac — Blue Ridge says it’s 'proprietary' and doesn’t even discuss them with clients, but the McMahon campaign found it through public sources easily enough.

"Did the settlement actually do what Blumenthal claims? The cost of a good portion of the settlement wound up being paid by taxpayers after all. The campaign points to an article in The Nation that reports that Bank of America is allowed to use the Obama administration’s HAMP program incentives to fund the restructuring of the Countrywide loans it assumed — and that could amount to more than half of Blumenthal’s settlement:

Only about 12 percent of the first-lien loans initiated by Countrywide remain on BofA’s books. Investors in mortgage-backed securities, including major pension funds like CalPERS (the California Public Employees’ Retirement System), own the other 88 percent, and it is these investors who will bear most of the expense of complying with the settlement, in the form of permanently reduced principal and interest payments on their bond holdings. Believe it or not, this aspect of the deal was overlooked by the settlement. Richard Blumenthal, attorney general of Connecticut, one of the original parties to the suit, seems to have missed it entirely, claiming in his October 2008 announcement, “This settlement will cost BofA as much as $8.6 billion, but no cost, not a dime, to taxpayers.”

In fact, as it turned out later, much of the settlement’s cost would be covered by taxpayers. Bank of America is allowed to use federal incentives under President Obama’s $75 billion Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) toward the loan modifications it is required to make as the mortgage servicer for the Countrywide portfolio. In total, of its entire Countrywide financial servicing portfolio—which goes beyond the loans covered by the settlement—BofA is eligible for as much as $4.5 billion in federal incentives for completed modifications, according to an analysis by the Center for Public Integrity as reported in Mother Jones. That’s a hefty government rebate.

"So Blumenthal got it wrong to the tune of $4.5 billion. Given that he already has some serious credibility issues in this campaign, it’s hardly helps to have Linda McMahon pinning this one on him in the final fortnight before the midterm election."

RIGHT!

But McMahon may needs more.

Fortunately, McMahon can play the ACORN card!

Connecticut had its own ACORN chapter and Blumenthal has been an ACORN favorite.

If Team McMahon has not noticed Mark J. Fitzgibbons' "ACORN and the AGs" posted at American Thinker on September 23, 2009 (www.americanthinker.com/2009/09/acorn_and_the_ags.html), it's been missing a huge opportunity.

Fitzgibbons began:

"ACORN [is] being called a criminal enterprise. Despite years of warning signs that ACORN was violating the law, many state attorneys general have not investigated the organization or brought enforcement actions. State attorneys general, besides being the chief enforcement officers for violations of state laws, claim unique law enforcement authority over nonprofits.

"The reasons for inaction by state attorneys general may explain why ACORN is such a problem. ACORN has developed close ties, to put it mildly, with many state attorneys general as well as others deep in the Democrat establishment. The relationship between ACORN and Democrats may be described as symbiotic."

Fitzgibbons concluded:

"A thorough, professional investigation of ACORN could expose more serious problems linking ACORN and the Democrat establishment.

"Weaker investigations, obviously, would benefit and even protect Democrats. Most Democrat attorneys general have ambitions for higher standing within their Party, and will likely not pursue thorough investigations that could hurt their own careers.

"Before Democrat attorneys general take up, or are asked to take up, any involvement with investigating ACORN, the attorneys general themselves must answer some tough questions. It is conceivable some AGs could eventually be witnesses in, or subject to, investigations themselves.

"Already, though, Republicans at the state level, without demanding answers from attorneys general first, have asked some of ACORN's highest-graded attorneys general to investigate the organization.

"ACORN's favorite Democratic attorneys general who have been asked by Republicans to investigate ACORN include...Connecticut's Richard Blumenthal (A+)...."

That's the same Richard Blumenthal who not only accepted an award from ACORN(www.ctnewsjunkie.com/ctnj.php/archives/entry/all_eyes_on_blumenthal/), but helped ACORN by subpoenaing and making public the names of AIG bonus recipients who then were harassed at their homes by ACORN demonstrators (www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2219762/posts).

Watch this video of Glenn Beck interviewing Blumenthal (www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksVitzMsLYA).

Team McMahon should be consulting ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief (www.emergingcorruption.com) if Linda McMahon wants to win instead of come closer than initially expected. On "The O'Reilly Factor," MonCrief, a former ACORN insider who saw the light and turned right, noted that ACORN had been "an unofficial arm of the Democratic Party" for many years. It's the truth!

Michael J. Gaynor

Biography - Michael J. Gaynor

Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.

Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.

The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.

Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.

Gaynor's email address is gaynormike@aol.com.