RELEASE: Space Followed Obama's Orders

Release:

Obama: Vote for the Taxpayer-Funded Wall Street Bailout

Zack Space: OK, Boss!

Mt. Vernon, OH – Meet Richard S. Fuld, Jr. Former chief executive of Lehman Brothers, a global investment bank that went belly-up recently … but not before handing out huge paychecks to its executives.

Fuld got about $350 million in pay and bonuses during his tenure at Lehman Brothers. In 2006, Fuld ranked 5th on Forbes list of Highest Compensated CEOs. In the days before it declared bankruptcy, Lehman Brothers handed out $550 million in pay and millions in bonuses to other executives, including packages worth $18.2 million to two individuals who, according to the Associated Press, were "terminated involuntary" – Wall Street speak for "fired." At the same time these bonuses were being handed out, the company was begging the federal government for a taxpayer-funded bailout.

Not bailing out Lehman Brothers is one of the smarter decisions the government's made lately. Still, some lawmakers just couldn't help themselves.

Take Rep. Zack Space (D-Dover). He voted for the huge taxpayer-funded Wall Street bailout last week at the behest of his liberal leaders, who apparently just can't stand to see Wall Street CEOs struggle. So after the U.S. House wisely defeated one bad bailout bill, Barack Obama got on the phone to lawmakers to ask them to reconsider … to, in the words of his campaign spokeswoman, "take another look at it." Space apparently liked what he saw – taxpayer bailout, special-interest pork and all!

"Barack Obama began calling individual rank-and-file members Tuesday, the campaign confirmed, in a sign that he is stepping up his advocacy on behalf of the endangered $700 billion financial package, Carrie Budoff Brown reports. ... 'He is urging members to take another look at it,' spokeswoman Linda Douglass said." (Ben Smith, "Obama Calls House Members," The Politico's "Ben Smith's Blog," www.politico.com, 9/30/08)

"Obama also hinted that had he known earlier the deal was going down to defeat he would have worked the phones even harder, especially given that some of those who voted no, were some of his early supporters." (Lee Cowan, "Obama Places No Blame, But...," MSNBC's "First Read" Blog, firstread.msnbc.msn.com, 9/30/08)