As my first OP (and I'm not even sure I can get my point across properly)

[ErikJ]

39. Spitzer was clear hit job, to silence him for exposing Bush/Wall St mortgage fraud

in the Wash Post a month earlier. And for going after mortgage fraud in NY.

Predatory Lenders' Partner in Crime

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What did the Bush administration do in response? Did it reverse course and decide to take action to halt this burgeoning scourge? As Americans are now painfully aware, with hundreds of thousands of homeowners facing foreclosure and our markets reeling, the answer is a resounding no.

Not only did the Bush administration do nothing to protect consumers, it embarked on an aggressive and unprecedented campaign to prevent states from protecting their residents from the very problems to which the federal government was turning a blind eye.

Let me explain: The administration accomplished this feat through an obscure federal agency called the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The OCC has been in existence since the Civil War. Its mission is to ensure the fiscal soundness of national banks. For 140 years, the OCC examined the books of national banks to make sure they were balanced, an important but uncontroversial function. But a few years ago, for the first time in its history, the OCC was used as a tool against consumers.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/13/AR2008021302783.html