No Bad Deed Goes Unrewarded in This Administration

Today Ameriquest set aside $325 million in anticipation of a flood of lawsuits from defrauded customers. And at the same time, financial reporters have uncovered some very tricky accounting gimmicks used to keep the mortgage industry looking healthy.

President Bush had a quick and decisive response: Today he nominated Ameriquest’s owner and chairman to be ambassador to the Netherlands.

Even with the company sinking in lawsuits over its predatory lending practices, Mr. Bush had a compelling reason to appoint the CEO of Ameriquest to the ambassadorial post: Mr. Arnall and his wife "contributed $5 million to a pro-Bush committee in 2003 and chipped in another $1 million for Bush’s second inauguration party." Arnall, his wife and their companies "have been the biggest political contributors to Bush since 2002."

Never let it be said that this president let little things like defrauding the public stand in the way of taking care of his friends.