Economic Summit Slated For Camden, Duh, Who?

by Lance Dutson

CAMDEN TO HOST PINGREE/ FRANK ECONOMIC SUMMIT
Maine welcomes co-sponsor of the subprime crash, Barney Frank

CAMDEN – Maine Democrat Congresswoman Chellie Pingree will share the spotlight Monday with Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank, acknowledged by many as one of the key players in the lead-up to the recent financial collapse in America.

Congressman Frank spent years pushing for risky lending practices, using the power of his position as Chairman of the Financial Services Committee to bully financial institutions into lending to unqualified borrowers. Warned repeatedly that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were facing collapse, Frank held his ground until it collapsed beneath him.

"Maine families in the 1st Congressional District have suffered tremendously because of Rep. Frank," said Maine GOP Chair Charlie Webster. "Unless Chellie Pingree is taking Barney Frank on a tour of the devastation he caused, I think her fundraising with him in a Bayview Street mansion in Camden shows an amazing lack of understanding, of compassion, toward the majority of the people she's supposed to represent," said Webster.

Rep. Frank will be guest of honor at a fundraiser for Rep. Pingree, scheduled for 5:00pm on Monday at a 16,000 square foot mansion on tony BayView Street in Camden. Pingree’s close ties with hedge fund company Paloma Partners, the recipient of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars through AIG’s government bailout, paints a picture of the event as a gathering of economic rogues.

“Chellie Pingree literally lives off the largess of the hedge fund industry,” continued Webster. “Her association with Donald Sussman and Paloma Partners is so unsettling. Let’s look at it through a regular Mainer’s eyes: AIG gets a huge Wall Street bailout. $200 million of that bailout money works its way to Sussman’s Paloma Partners. Then Paloma Partners turns around and funnels hundreds of thousands of dollars to Chellie Pingree’s campaigns. This doesn’t look good from any vantage point.”

Sussman’s Paloma Partners employees and associates have donated over $130,000 to Pingree’s re-election campaign, and donated over $100,000 to her campaign in 2008. Sussman has also donated millions to liberal groups and PACs in Maine, including the Maine Democratic State Committee.

“Chellie Pingree has a lot to answer for,” concluded Webster. “Rubbing elbows with the likes of Barney Frank and Wall Street robber barons like Donald Sussman, at a time when Mainers are hurting, sends the clear signal that she couldn’t care less about the working people of Maine. “

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