Bob McCarty Writes

Click image to view video.

Though today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day, it seems some on Wall Street and in Washington, D.C., started celebrating early.  Beyond just talking like pirates, however, they actually looted and pillaged the nation’s financial markets.

By some estimates, the losses at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and AIG, just to name a few, will exceed $600 million could cost $1 Trillion and impact several generations.

Surprisingly, many of those most responsible for the mess don’t belong to the political party identified by the favorite letter of pirates — the “R.”  Instead, they are Democrats who, in addition to their monetary swashbuckling, serve as senior officials in the campaign of Democratic Party presidential nominee Barack Obama.

One, in particular, is Franklin Raines.  A Congressional Quarterly report today offered this background information on Raines:

Raines, who served as head of the White House Office of Management and Budget under Bill Clinton, left Fannie Mae in late December 2004 amid allegations of accounting irregularities, saying he was holding himself accountable by taking an early retirement. Fannie Mae agreed to pay $400 million in fines in the wake of the scandal.

Another is Jim Johnson, about whom CQ reported this:

Click to view Jim Johnson video.

Obama has an even stronger link to the former leadership of Fannie Mae: He tapped another former Fannie CEO, Jim Johnson, to head his vice presidential selection committee. But Johnson was forced aside when it was revealed that he had been the beneficiary of a low-interest loan from Countrywide Financial Corp.

Though officials with the Obama campaign deny Raines’ involvement as an adviser and play down the junior senator’s relationship to Johnson, Americans with any sense see through Obama’s smokescreen and, come Nov. 4, should tell him to take a walk — down the plank, that is.

To watch the latest John McCain advertisement on Obama’s association with financial pirate Raines, click here or on the image above left.

To watch a video about Obama’s association with financial pirate Johnson, click here or on the image above right.