Where was Republican Rob McKenna when Countrywide customers needed him?

Are you paying attention to downballot races in this November's election? You should be. The outcomes of several contests will have a direct impact on your life.

Consider the story of Countrywide, my former mortgage company. Countrywide has been in the news a lot this year after its unethical lending practices were exposed (such as rewarding employees for selling risky loans).

It turns out that John Ladenburg, the Democratic nominee for Attorney General, has been calling on his opponent Rob McKenna for months to join a group of Attorneys General in filing a lawsuit against Countrywide, which became another division of the monster that is Bank of America at the beginning of the year.

The Office of Financial Institutions, which is under the Governor, acted months ago. Apparently, McKenna never went to court but jumped forth to announce a settlement based on the lawsuits brought by Attorneys General form other states.

In response, John Ladenburg's campaign issued this statement:

"I am disappointed that after months of calling on McKenna to take action against Countrywide (see June press release from Ladenburg's website) that he stood on the sidelines only to come in at the 11th hour right before an election and announce a settlement based on the law suits of other states."

"What you didn't hear from Rob McKenna today is that he never filed a lawsuit against Countrywide. You never heard if he would lobby Congress to prevent this from happening again—the story of Countrywide will become just the prelude for the next great rip-off of consumers without an Attorney General willing to call for increased regulation."

The deceptive ploy of taking credit for the work of others at the last minute seems to be a big Republican trend, from John McCain's campaign on down.

It's time we had an Attorney General who actually cares about consumer protection. We can't wait another four years for a real successor to Chris Gregoire.