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Let's say you're an average American who knows that two relatively important things called Fannie and Freddie have been put into government receivership. This seems to be bad, as in other companies you used to think were big will suffer bad; as in you better not want to sell your house, retire or send your kids to college in the next five years bad.

So you wonder to yourself: Self! How could two massive companies with implicit backing of the U.S. government be so poorly run and/or regulated that this could happen?

Well I'm no financial expert, but the Center for Responsive Politics might give us some hints:

If the same guys who created you and the rules that govern you are also heavily invested in your enterprise and get lots of campaign donations from you, maybe they're more likely to go easy on you. If not, there's always lobbying to fall back on.

Or as the Politico put it:

If you want to know how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have survived scandal and crisis, consider this: Over the past decade, they have spent nearly $200 million on lobbying and campaign contributions.

But the political tentacles of the mortgage giants extend far beyond their checkbooks.

The two government-chartered companies run a highly sophisticated lobbying operation, with deep-pocketed lobbyists in Washington and scores of local Fannie- and Freddie-sponsored homeowner groups ready to pressure lawmakers back home.

As the guys on Mythbusters say: Well there's your problem.

Now let's be clear: Fannie's and Freddie's executives designed and prosecuted the policies that led to all of this, and they were buying into a larger pattern of doing business that in hindsight looks absolutely nutso. But one does not spend that kind of money without wanting something, and it looks like to me (sitting in the cheap seats here in Raleigh) what Fannie and Freddie wanted most of all was freedom in the way they did business while still clinging to the security blanket of taxpayer protection.

Would the Congress have been more skeptical if all that money wasn't sloshing around? You can't say for sure, but ... how could it not have been?

Worth noting that Sen. Barack Obama is #2 on the contributions list and McCain shows up on both the contributions and investment list. Also on the contributions list: North Carolina Reps. Brad Miller, Mel Watt, David Price, Walter Jones and Robin Hayes.