Washington Nationals opening day tix near dugout used by Freddie Mac influence peddlers

• (The tickets must have worked because Freddie Mac succeeded in a giant swindle and none of them have been arrested).

WASHINGTON -- "When the Washington Nationals played their first-ever baseball game in the nation's capital in April 2005, two congressmen who oversaw mortgage giant Freddie Mac had choice seats -- courtesy of the very company they were supposed to be keeping an eye on.

• Efforts to tighten government regulation were gaining support on Capitol Hill, and Freddie Mac was fighting back.
• The baseball tickets for home opener were means of influence.

According to confidential company documents obtained by The Associated Press,

• Reps. Paul Kanjorski, D-11, and Bob Ney, R-Ohio, spent the evening in hard-to-obtain seats near the
• Nationals dugout with Freddie Mac executive Hollis McLoughlin and four of Freddie Mac's in-house lobbyists.

Mr. Kanjorski is chairman of the Capital Markets, Insurance and Government Sponsored Enterprises Subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee, one of the congressional overseers of the nation’s banking system....

• Mr. Ney ultimately served a federal prison term after pleading guilty to trading political favors for a golf trip to Scotland, other gifts and campaign donations in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.

The Nationals tickets were bargains for Freddie Mac, part of a well-orchestrated, multimillion-dollar campaign to preserve its largely regulatory-free environment, with particular pressure exerted on Republicans who controlled Congress at the time."...via Free Republic

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