Best Way to Raise Campaign Money? Investigate Banks

Matt Taibbi is at it again over at the Rolling Stone with this little dity.

A hilarious report has come out courtesy of the National Institute of Money in State Politics, showing that Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller – who is coordinating the investigation into the banks’ improper mortgage dealings – increased his campaign contributions from the finance sector this year by a factor of 88!

Tiabblog--Rolling Stone


Matt goes on to say that the factor of 88 is not 88 time how much they gave the AG over the past year but over the past ten years. Let me repeat that donors from the FIRE (Finance Insurance and Real Estate) segment of our economy have given the AG chosen to lead the group of State Attorney Generals have given that AG 88 times as much money since he's been leading the settlement talks than they've given him over the past DECADE.

Here's why

If the banks had to pay what they actually owed – from the registration taxes/fees they avoided by using the electronic registry system MERS to the money taken from investors in toxic mortgage-backed securities to the fees and payments stolen from homeowners via predatory loan practices and illegal foreclosures – they would probably all go out of business

Now that we see how the money is flowing, I have to ask, why the hell is the Iowa State AG leading this? Why not one of the bubble states who have really had orders of magnitude higher damage than Iowa? Surely one of the AG's of states like Florida, California, Nevada, or Arizona would have more incentive to punish the entities involved in forclosuregate.