FANNIE MAE'S $40 BILLION SCANDAL - AND HOW RELIAPUNDIT SCOOPED BOTH INSTAPUNDIT AND THE WASHINGTON TIMES BY MONTHS - IF NOT YEARS!

Today, INSTAPUNDIT linked to a WASHINGTON TIMES article about the HUMONGOUS Fannie Mae Scandal. WASHTIMES:

When most people hear the word "Enron," they mentally complete the phrase by adding the word "scandal." As reporter Lester Holt of NBC's "Today" put it in a Jan. 1 story, "Enron has been the poster child, if you will, of corporate scandals."

It isn't the only one, though. There's $40-billion scandal with most of the same elements -- even connection to prominent politicians. Just don't expect to see much about it on TV. After all, the top people involved here are Democrats.

Welcome to Fannie Mae, the government-sponsored mortgage giant. As part of a scandal that's been running nearly two years, Fannie Mae has "misstated earnings" to the tune of $10.8 billion. That's some tune.

So far, the Fannie fiasco has cost Chief Executive Officer Franklin Raines and several other top executives their jobs. The stock has dropped from nearly $80 a share to around $50 -- roughly $30 billion in lost value. And the company recently settled with the federal government and agreed to pay $400 million in fines, stemming from allegations the firm fiddled with the books to ensure bigwigs got performance bonuses.

To top it off, the Fannie Mae leadership was quite well-connected in D.C., especially to the Democratic Party. The Washington Post on May 23 made this all clear in black and white. The front page of that day's Business section showed how James A. Johnson, a former campaign manager for Walter Mondale's presidential run, had created "a political powerhouse."

That story had a photo of Mr. Johnson, who had been chairman and chief executive of Fannie Mae, flanked by two other photos -- both other prominent Democrats. On one side was Mr. Raines, a former head of the Office of Management and Budget under Bill Clinton. On the other was Clinton Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick.

While the rest of the graphic listed other prominent Democrats and Republicans, the titanic captains at Fannie Mae were clearly Democrats.

I first blogged on EXACTLY this HERE on DECEMBER 23rd 2004. YUP 2004!

I then blogged it again on NOVEMBER 21st, 2005 - HERE.

I then blogged this on MAY 24th, 2006 - HERE.

This is more proof that if you want the best news analysis BEFORE anyone else is even covering the nes, then just read THE ASTUTE BLOGGER - EVERYDAY.

(The American Thinker, BIZBLOGGER and NRO did link to the 5/24 post.)