The Wall Street hedge fund where John Edwards sought temporary employment after leaving the Senate moved heavily into the sub-prime mortgage market while he "worked" there. He has been harshly critical of sub-prime lending following the rash of defaults on them became a mini-crisis early this year. Alec MacGillis and John Solomon of the Washington Post report:
The hedge fund that employed John Edwards markedly expanded its subprime lending business while he worked there, becoming a major player in the high-risk mortgage sector Edwards has pilloried in his presidential campaign.
Edwards said yesterday that he was unaware of the push by the firm, Fortress Investment Group, into subprime lending and that he wishes he had asked more questions before taking the job. The former senator from North Carolina said he had asked Fortress officials whether it was involved in predatory lending practices before taking the job in 2005 and was assured it was not.
Read the whole story at the above link.
It should also be noted that Edwards' former colleagues at Fortress constitute his single greatest source of campaign money.
Since he wasn't directly involved in the acquisitions, this would normally not be much of a problem. But Edwards suffers from a perception of hypocrisy already: he vehemently urged Kerry not to repudiate their votes for AUMF during the campaign, but now lambasts those who have not since he decided to do it himself; he builds a house of 23,000+ square feet and gets $400 haircuts while attempting to appeal to populist anti-rich emotions; he castigates Senators for not working harder against the war, but he just quit his seat and walked away. The fact that his firm was taking a major position in the sub-prime market shortly before he decided it was immoral on the basis of publicity about the problems just fits the pattern.
Fortunately for Edwards, in the Democratic Party of today hypocrisy is considered a high virtue.
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2008 Presidential Race, Democrats, Edwards, Primaries
Tags: Democrat, Edwards, presidential campaign
Comments (1)
New democrat party motto:</... (Below threshold)1. Posted by scrapiron![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://wizbangpolitics.com/nav-commenters.gif)
| May 14, 2007 10:20 AM | Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
New democrat party motto:
Ask not what they do. Ask how much they'll pay you.
Not quite what JFK wanted but the democrat party is busy rewriting history.
1. Posted by scrapiron![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://wizbangpolitics.com/nav-commenters.gif)
| May 14, 2007 10:20 AM |
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Posted on May 14, 2007 10:20