Fannie Mae is revving up their PR machine again. Target: the new Congress. This Sunday the Fannie Mae PR arm is sponsoring  the 2006 Fannie Mae Foundation Help the Homeless Walkathon on the national mall  in Washington.

To promote her current concert tour 90s vintage singer songwriter Jewel has signed up to serve as the honorary chair of the 2006 the Homeless Walkathon.  The press release says

"Jewel brings a powerful and personal perspective when she speaks on this issue." 

Perhaps this refers to a brief youthful freeloading period once used as compelling fodder for her bio. A book of poetry published at the apogee of her popularity recounted her harrowing homeless experience with a poem tilted "Sleeping in my Van." Let's just say  Walt Whitman she's not. 

Fannie Mae is still recovering from a  massive scheme perpetrated by its politically well connected management to manipulate financial results to trigger huge bonuses paid out to senior executives. These multi—million dollar payments were doled out to people like long time Washington insider Frank Raines and former 9/11 Commmissoner Jame Gorelick. Fannie Mae said Wednesday that they have spent more than $1 billion to clean up this mess as they push to complete financial statements by year's end. The company hasn't filed statements since late 2004. All told this malfeasance has cost Fannie Mae in excess of $1.7 billion dollars so far.

The homeless event website clams there are 12,000 homeless in Washington. $1.7 billion dollars comes to $142,000 per homeless person. The local NBC affiliate offered themselves up as a major PR platform. This morning they ran a special 1/2 hour show highlighting the upcoming event. No mention of the $1.7 billion boondoggle.

Unlike the the Enron and Worldcom executives whose crimes were no more egregious it looks like these perpetrators as going to get away scot free.

Co—opting  congress has worked for Fannie Mae before. Their allies on the authoritative committees clearly aided and abetted this misconduct. Several members of the House and Senate actively impeded investigations. Only when the truth of these misdeeds became undeniable did these members curtail there interference.

Based on past history, this election was probably a victory for the wrongdoers. Fannie's most ardent defenders were Democrats and harshest critics were Republcan.

Christopher Alleva  11 12 06