In early November, KTVT-Channel 11 busted 14 Dallas Fannie Mae employees for teeing off at the Cowboys Golf Club in Grapevine -- 22 days after the feds took over Fannie Mae, whoops. Said the CBS affiliate, taxpayers coughed up $6,279.26 for the golf outing, which "outraged" Rep. Jeb Hensarling. So much so he shot off a missive to House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank in which Hensarling demanded an investigation: "Since the American people have put their tax dollars at risk to bail out the financial decisions of Fannie Mae, I want to ensure that their dollars were not being used to subsidize golf, booze, and mango towel service -- whatever that is."
Today on his Web site, Hensarling has posted the response he received from Herbert M. Allison, Jr., who, on September 8, was named chief executive of Fannie Mae. Allison, pictured at left, insists that he's "dramatically reducing or eliminating, as appropriate, expenditures in the areas of lobbying, entertainment, sponsorships, meetings and events, and certain charitable activities." But, well, gawrsh, look, a few things got missed along the way. "While we were making these cutbacks, our firm wide review did not identify the event in Dallas," he writes. "We regret that oversight, we were highly embarrassed by it, and we took immediate action to prevent a recurrence." --Robert Wilonsky
