Story exaggerated Edwards’ connection to lenders
To the editor:
As a friend and supporter of John Edwards, I cannot let the ridiculous attack in Molly Ball's Nov. 3 story, "Home foreclosures: Edwards' client was 'predator' "go unchallenged.
It is the second piece in the Review-Journal in the past four months that unfairly attacked Sen. Edwards on the issue of foreclosures.
The story attempts to tie Sen. Edwards to foreclosures in Nevada through tenuous and peripheral connections with the lending company Green Tree.
Rather then recognizing the leadership Edwards demonstrated by working to stop these practices, the Review-Journal article seeks to depict him as an insider of the industry.
Before John Edwards consulted for a large company, Fortress, he asked for and received assurances from executives that neither Fortress nor the institutions owned by the company participated in anti-labor or predatory leading activities. Sen. Edwards' role at Fortress was to provide insight into policy developments, how the White House and the Congress were likely to deal with key issues, and Washington's impact on the economy.
The Review-Journal story exaggerates Sen. Edwards' connections to the Fortress owned company Green Tree.
Sen. Edwards did not advise Fortress on any specific deals, holdings, acquisitions or investment strategies and when he learned that Fortress owned a subprime lender that had foreclosed on Katrina victims, Sen. Edwards took immediate action. He ordered the divestment of his portfolio of any investments that have ties to the lending company and made clear he did not want to invest in any company involved in predatory practices.
Sen. Edwards also called the partners at Fortress and urged them to review reported foreclosures on victims on Hurricane Katrina and he worked with ACORN Housing to create a new home rescue fund to assist homeowners affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita who are facing foreclosure. The fund was established in part with personal contributions from Sen. Edwards.
Sen. Edwards has proposed some of the toughest regulations to stop predatory lenders from taking advantage of families who need help the most. While no one can stop all foreclosures, Sen. Edwards is proud to have proposed the strongest national legislation against predatory lending and new steps to let homeowners escape unaffordable mortgages.
The Review-Journal story also fails to draw a sufficient distinction between subprime loans, which can be a valuable tool to homeowners, and predatory lending, which is a deceptive practice that exploits and victimizes millions of American homeowners who could have either qualified for a prime rate loan or should not have had be granted the loan in the first place.
Nor does the story distinguish between foreclosure "proceedings" and actual foreclosures when owners lose their homes.
Rather than crediting Sen. Edwards for his proactive steps, his leadership, his strong predatory lending and foreclosure policy and his lifetime spent fighting poverty and working to protect middle class and working families, the story grasped at straws and overstated innocuous connections.
Nevadans will see through the Review-Journal's distasteful rhetoric and attacks and support a real leader who does not hide from an issue but takes action to solve a problem.
Tick Segerblom
LAS VEGAS
THE WRITER, A DEMOCRAT, REPRESENTS DISTRICT 9 IN THE NEVADA ASSEMBLY.
