Bloodthirsty Liberal

Who needs change when guys like this have crisp new bills?

A key member of Sen. Barack Obama’s vice presidential search team, Jim Johnson, is stepping down after criticism over a mortgage he received, the Obama campaign said Wednesday.

“Jim did not want to distract in any way from the very important task of gathering information about my vice presidential nominee, so he has made a decision to step aside that I accept,” the presumed Democratic presidential nominee said.

Republicans had been hammering Johnson since The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that he received a good deal on a mortgage from Countrywide because of his friendship with Angelo Mozilo, the company’s CEO.

Obama has criticized Countrywide in connection with the subprime mortgage crisis.

Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for Sen. John McCain, the presumed GOP presidential nominee, said Johnson’s resignation “raises serious questions about Barack Obama’s judgment. … By entrusting this process to a man who has now been forced to step down because of questionable loans, the American people have reason to question the judgment of a candidate who has shown he will only make the right call when under pressure from the news media.

“America can’t afford a president who flip-flops on key questions in the course of 24 hours. That’s not change we can believe in,” Bounds added.

We won’t remember this guy’s name in two weeks (try two days!). But we will see over and over how his campaign has to throw ballast off the bandwagon. He’s already thrown off every clergyman he could find, and now he’s starting on his wealthy backers. It’s when he throws his wife overboard that we should start to worry—and applaud his judgment.

Michelle quotes:

“I would not dream of being a party to distracting attention from that historic effort,” he said in a statement. “I believe Barack Obama’s candidacy for President of the United States is the most exciting and important of my lifetime.”

Johnson, 64, said that he had done nothing wrong, saying “blatantly false statements and misrepresentations” had been written about him.

“Jim did not want to distract in any way from the very important task of gathering information about my vice presidential nominee, so he has made a decision to step aside that I accept,” Obama said in an e-mailed statement.

And asks:

Question–so if James Johnson didn’t really “work” for Obama, can he resign from a job he never had?