The lucky winners included folks like Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Kent Conrad (D-ND), plus several former Cabinet secretaries: ex-Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson; ex-Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala (who is to receive a Presidential Medal of Freedom on Thursday) and ex-UN Ambassador and Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke.

A diverse - but influential - lot.

...

But already the FOA scandal has ensnared Barack Obama's veep-selection committee chairman, Jim Johnson, an ex-boss at Fannie Mae. He had to quit the committee after The Wall Street Journal reported that he got a low-rate loan from Countrywide.