DKos diarist Hummingbird4015 just posted a very interesting diary about a NOW episode from last fall on the mortgage crisis. In Hummingbird's summary, the phrase "Kurt Pfotenhauer of the Mortgage Banker's Association" jumped out at me. Pfotenhauer is not exactly the most common name... where had I just heard it...?
Oh yeah, over at Talking Points Memo, where there was a video of McCain advisor Nancy Pfotenhauer violating McCain's supposed suspension of his campaign.
So I googled them and discovered - surprise, surprise - they are married. Gee, a McCain advisor who's literally in bed with a lobbyist for the mortgage banking industry...? Who'd've thunk it?
Apparently Kurt and Nancy are one of Washington's Sizzlingest Power Couples, at least according to May 2007 edition of Washington Monthly:
Kurt Pfotenhauer senior vice president, Mortgage Bankers Association
Nancy Pfotenhauer conservative activist
He's a former chief of staff to Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.). At the age of 24, she served on President George H. W. Bush's transition team, and was appointed by the current president as a delegate to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. She is a director emerita of the Independent Women's Forum, an antifeminist organization funded by conservative philanthropist Richard Mellon Scaife. In 2004, Washingtonian magazine named her one of the city's most important conservative leaders.
Next time Nancy appears on TV to attack Obama, someone needs to ask her how McCain can credibly be backing reforms to protect consumers when her own husband's association advocates no protections: (link):
Attached please find a letter from MBA’s Chief Operating Officer John A. Courson to members of the House and Senate supporting quick passage of legislation to enable the Treasury to purchase distressed mortgage-related assets and encouraging legislators to not include unrelated provisions to the bill, primarily changes to the bankruptcy code that would allow judges to alter residential mortgages in bankruptcy. The letter makes the case why this proposal would result in further instability in the market for both consumers and the financial markets.
What do she and her husband stand to gain if the bailout passes without consumer protections? What is she advising McCain to do? Seems like a conflict of interest to me....
Update: In the comments, OverTheEdge points out that Kurt is no longer with the MBA - but makes the excellent suggestion that someone ask Nancy Pf. about her hubby's remark in the documentary that lenders should have the "freedom to fail."