Fannie, Freddie Tentacles Embraced Many in Washington

* Freddie and Fannie had deep political connections
* Rahm Emanuel, Tom Donilon were on payroll

By Tim Reid, Margaret Chadbourn and Mark Hosenball

While presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich was forced to defend his lucrative former role with Freddie Mac this week, the mortgage giant and its larger cousin Fannie Mae had a roster of Washington heavyweights on their payroll for years, many of them Democrats.

The two entities spent over $170 million on political and lobbying operations in a 10-year period leading up to the financial crisis of 2008 when both were seized by the government as they teetered on the brink of failure, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

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