Here’s a little sneak peek of Tom Delay’s Dancing With The Stars debut tonight. Viewer discretion advised.
Late Update: TPM Reader LB:
Never mind the hips, what’s with the wrists? Is Tom DeLay deliberately trying to be limp-wristed, “making fun” as his partner/instructor commented (and being a first-class jerk in the process, IMO), can he just not get past the stereotypes in his subconscious, or is his inner Larry Craig trying desperately to surface? Inquiring minds, and all that.
Good point.
A federal grand jury in New York today handed down an indictment of uber-Democratic donor and fundraiser Hassan Nemazee accusing him of defrauding three banks of nearly $300 million over the last decade and — here’s the kicker — funneling some of that money into political contributions to candidates and PACs.
Nemazee was the finance chair of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and went on to raise millions of dollars for President Obama in the general election. But prosecutors say Nemazee’s high-flying lifestyle was an elaborate hoax perpetrated by obtaining fraudulent loans from major banks, according to a DOJ press release:
“For more than ten years, Hassan Nemazee projected the illusion of wealth, stealing more than $290 million so that he could lead a lavish lifestyle and play the part of heavyweight political fundraiser,” said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. “Today’s indictment exposes the sheer brazenness of Nemazee’s schemes and marks the end of his decade of deception.”
In his appearance on Letterman tonight, the President answers the most pressing question of the day: “I think it’s important to realize that I was actually black before the election.” Watch.
How big a Democratic fundraiser was Hassan Nemazee? FEC filings give you a glimpse.
We’ve also posted the Nemazee indictment here.
The federal prosecutor bringing the case against Democratic fundraiser Hassan Nemazee is a Democratic appointee, Preet Bharara. Before he became U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan), Bharara was counsel to Sen. Chuck Schumer and played a major role in investigating the U.S. attorney firing scandal, which at its heart was about using the awesome powers of federal law enforcement to reward friends and punish enemies.
A Senate Democratic source emails:
Some feel that if there is a single person who is responsible for bringing down [Alberto] Gonzales (which of course there isn’t), it’s Preet. This is the kind of non-partisan work that U.S. Attorneys ought to do.
But Bharara’s willingness to go after a Democratic donor is actually even more striking considering the following juxtaposition. One of the many hats Nemazee wore over the years as a Democratic fundraiser was “national finance chair” of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 2006, according to a 2007 article in The Nation. You might remember the 2006 cycle as a historic success for DSCC, vastly outraising its Republican counterpart and wresting control of the Senate from the Republicans. The man credited with much of that success was the chair of DSCC at the time: Chuck Schumer.
So in this case, one of Schumer’s former staff counsel is prosecuting one of Schumer’s former fundraising chieftains.
Joe Biden laid it on the line today at a fundraising event in Arizona:
It’s not that Republicans are bad guys. This is just the bet they’ve made. They’re going to put their chips on movement in the 35 seats in the House that have been traditionally Republican districts and trying to take them back. If they take them back, this is the end of the road for what Barack and I are trying to do. This is their one shot. If they don’t break the back of our effort in this upcoming election, you’re going to see the things we said we’re for happen.
Regarding the Hassan Nemazee bank fraud/Ponzi scheme, TPM Reader NB wonders the same thing we’ve been kicking around here:
Trying to get my head around this … I really only have one question: Shouldn’t large banks have more due diligence than this?
I mean, the low seven-figure loans, sure … that’s not that much money; just call the number that the guy gives you. But at the point where someone’s borrowing tens of millions of dollars, shouldn’t you be doing more than that? It just feels like an extremely flimsy scheme.
I mean, if it costs you $100K (two or three person-months worth of work), the largest loan here needs something like .15% odds of a total collapse for the due diligence to pay off.
Is there something more to this scheme that we’re missing?
The Boston Globe endorses Michael Dukakis as the fill-in for the late Ted Kennedy until a special election can be held. That and the day’s other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.
The Top 10 reasons Obama went on Letterman last night. Watch.
Here’s more of that dancin’ fool Tom Delay from last night’s episode of Dancing With the Stars. We’ll have a more complete highlight reel for you later this morning.