Right Wing Gunning for Schumer

Y'all may recall the dust-up over the IndyMac failure, when the OTS laid the blame at Chuck Schumer's feet for writing a letter warning that, without intervention, IndyMac would...well....fail.

Well, now it seems fifty-one former employees of the failed bank want California Attorney General Jerry Brown to officially investigate whether or not Schumer was to blame. Well, fifty-one former employees and a PR firm with some very particular ties:

The FDIC took control of IndyMac on July 11 after depositors withdrew more than $1.3 billion over 11 days. It was the third-largest bank failure in U.S. history. At the time, OTS Director John Reich blamed Schumer's letter for causing the run on the bank.

In a letter to Attorney General Jerry Brown last week, 51 former IndyMac workers wrote: "From the day (Schumer's) letter was made public on June 26 until the closure of the bank, a run on the bank took place and the failure became inevitable." [...]

...Copies of the employee letter were distributed to the press by CRC Public Relations whose clients include the National Republican Congressional Committee, National Republican Senatorial Committee and the Republican National Committee.

CRC, based in Alexandria, Virginia, was also linked to a company that published a book questioning 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's Vietnam service on a swift boat.

Schumer spokesman Brian Fallon questioned the motivation behind the letter.

"It certainly raises eyebrows that the firm promoting this letter is the same outfit that fueled the Swift Boat attacks and does work for the RNC," Fallon said.

Well, my eyebrows are most definitely raised. In fact, I'd say this looks like a blatant attempt to use the justice system, the media, and the court of public opinion as weapon of partisan attack. And then, when Jerry Brown finds no fault with Chuck Schumer, all the players will quickly reorganize to attack him for that.