Former IndyMac employees find ally against Schumer
CRC Public Relations, a firm with a Republican-heavy client list, is helping former staffers to hold to account the Democratic New York senator, who they blame for the bank's collapse.
Former IndyMac Bank workers who blame Sen. Charles E. Schumer for the collapse of the large Pasadena thrift have found an ally in their quest to hold the New York Democrat to account: a public relations firm with a Republican-heavy client list.
Schumer, chairman of Congress' Joint Economic Committee and a strident critic of the Bush administration, on June 26 released letters he had sent to federal bank regulators, saying IndyMac's shaky state "poses significant risks to both taxpayers and borrowers." He questioned whether the regulators were "prepared to take measures that would help prevent the collapse of IndyMac or minimize the damage should such a failure occur."
A run on the bank ensued, with depositors taking out a net $1.3 billion in the following two weeks.
On July 11, the Office of Thrift Supervision seized IndyMac, making it the second-largest bank in U.S. history to go under. The agency's director, John M. Reich, blamed Schumer for hastening IndyMac's demise, calling the public dissemination of the letters "reckless and grossly irresponsible."
That cry was taken up this week by a group of 51 former IndyMac employees, who said in a letter to California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown: "Because of a malicious, politically motivated act of Charles Schumer, our lives have been shattered."
The employees' letter is being publicized by Alexandria, Va.-based CRC Public Relations, which sent a copy to The Times. The firm's clients have included the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee and Regnery Publishing, which published "Unfit for Command," the 2004 attack on the Democratic Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry's Vietnam service as the commander of a Navy swift boat.
Although CRC and Jennifer Seely, the author of the letter to Brown, deny any political motivations, the campaign illustrates the big role the mortgage crisis is already playing in this election year.
Democrats, including Schumer, have accused the Bush administration of doing too little to rein in aggressive lending that left millions of Americans with home loans they couldn't afford.
Republicans, meanwhile, demanded investigations of Democratic Sens. Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut and Kent Conrad of North Dakota, among others, after reports that they received mortgages on highly favorable terms from Calabasas-based Countrywide Financial Corp. under a "VIP" program.
