GWB appoints CEO of Ameriquest Mortgages to ambassador position!
 

Bush Picks Ameriquest Owner as Ambassador

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On the same day that the White House announced that President Bush is nominating California billionaire Roland E. Arnall to be ambassador to the Netherlands, the company he controls said it would set aside $325 million for a possible settlement of allegations of predatory lending tactics.
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Arnall is the firm's principal shareholder. He, his wife and their companies have been the biggest political contributors to Bush since 2002.



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Here is some background information on Ameriquest:

Workers Say Lender Ran 'Boiler Rooms'

NOTE: His old friend Kenneth Lay was unavailable for the position...

Re: GWB appoints CEO of Ameriquest Mortgages to ambassador position!
 

Yeah but gays suck.

Also, I will come to your house and break your exclamation mark button.

Re: GWB appoints CEO of Ameriquest Mortgages to ambassador position!
 

The exclamation point is what brings the 100+ replies...!

Re: GWB appoints CEO of Ameriquest Mortgages to ambassador position!
 

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The exclamation point is what brings the 100+ replies...!

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This makes me not want to reply at all. But isn't that part of being president? You get to appoint all your friends to pretty much meaningless positions. Who gives a flip about the ambassador to the Netherlands? Not me I tell you, not me.

Re: GWB appoints CEO of Ameriquest Mortgages to ambassador position!
 

I was just joking on that...

I personally think its embarrassing to have a man with Mr. Arnall's business background in public office, just as I thought it was embarrassing to have Kenneth Lay in office. Especially with what is about to happen to his company and his industry.

Also I think that the appointment underscores the conflict of interest involved when it comes to campaign contributions. I think that the President should be acting in the best interests of the American citizens, without worrying about currying favors with his friends, corporate interests, and the mortgage industry.

Re: GWB appoints CEO of Ameriquest Mortgages to ambassador position!
 

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I think that the President should be acting in the best interests of the American citizens, without worrying about currying favors with his friends, corporate interests, and the mortgage industry.

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Ideally, yes. Realistically, never gonna happen. No matter how much you despise Bush, the next guy, or god forbid Hillary, will most likely appoint some of his/her friends or contributors to relatively obscure posts.

Re: GWB appoints CEO of Ameriquest Mortgages to ambassador position!
 

My greatest concern is that this conflict of interest will result in policy detrimental to the US citizens.

The ambassador to Netherlands is not a meaningless position, it should go to the person best qualified to represent the US in that capacity. But you are correct in that it is not at the top of the list of my concerns. But what about other domestic issues, like curbing lending resrcitions on Fannie Mae? If politicians are so blatantly flaunting their favoritism in issues like appointing ambassadors, who is to say that Bush is not being influenced on these matters as well?

Re: GWB appoints CEO of Ameriquest Mortgages to ambassador position!
 

What is wrong with you people? Arnall is a Holocaust survivor, a devoted philanthropist, and a man avidly involved in politics. Few people suggest that he's directly complicit in any of Ameriquest's shady dealings, and his harshest critics generally accuse him merely of failing to adequately curb excesses by underlings and employees.

Also, ambassadorial positions are the quintessence of positions that don't matter.

Finally, you people need to realize that innuendo is not an argument. "He donates a lot to Bush... he's becoming an ambassador" IS NOT AN ARGUMENT without further evidence. Perhaps a clear explanation of why he's unfit for the job or somesuch. An exclamation point doesn't cut it.

LA Times story

Re: GWB appoints CEO of Ameriquest Mortgages to ambassador position!
 

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What is wrong with you people? Arnall is a Holocaust survivor, a devoted philanthropist, and a man avidly involved in politics. Few people suggest that he's directly complicit in any of Ameriquest's shady dealings, and his harshest critics generally accuse him merely of failing to adequately curb excesses by underlings and employees.

Also, ambassadorial positions are the quintessence of positions that don't matter.

Finally, you people need to realize that innuendo is not an argument. "He donates a lot to Bush... he's becoming an ambassador" IS NOT AN ARGUMENT without further evidence. Perhaps a clear explanation of why he's unfit for the job or somesuch. An exclamation point doesn't cut it.


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Its all about attacking Bush. Innuendo and fictional charges is what the Bush haters do best. They don't care about the reality of this appointment. They care about how they can spin it to sound bad. Pretty pathetic, but this plan of attack is all the Bush haters can deliver these days.

Re: GWB appoints CEO of Ameriquest Mortgages to ambassador position!
 

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Perhaps a clear explanation of why he's unfit for the job or somesuch.



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Fair enough.

I'm not sure if how familiar you are with Ameriquest... They are essentially a pump and dump shop that operates out of my hometown of Orange County, CA. They hire 20 year olds to hard sell mortgages to the subprime market only to turn them around to suckerws on the secondary market (subprime being brokerspeak for poor people and suckers being the government and indirectly American taxpayer). The "Boiler Room" analogy is a good one, only they sell extortionary mortgatges rather than stock to fake companies.

In my opinion, he will be looked back on as one of the corporate supervillains of the real estate bubble not unlike Bernie Ebbers or Naveen Jain of the tech bubble.

I think appointing him to public office, especially after the Kenneth Lay fiasco, shows an incredile lack of foresight, not to mention an insult to the people of the Netherlands.