Rove's handpicked Florida Senate candidate, a former Bush cabinet secretary, used executive-branch power to shaft ordinary citizens and please a lobbyist who raises money for Bush:

Before he resigned as the nation's housing secretary last year, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mel Martinez blocked release of a study of whether the nation's two biggest mortgage lenders discriminated against minorities.

The taxpayer-funded study, which is still secret, is at the center of a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of thousands of consumers who said they were refused credit or charged higher interest rates because of automated credit-scoring systems used by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

In his Senate campaign, Martinez promotes his record as a housing secretary who helped many Hispanics and African-Americans realize the American dream of home ownership.

...At the time Martinez blocked release of the study, one of Fannie Mae's lobbyists was Al Cardenas, former chairman of the Florida Republican Party. Cardenas is a fund-raiser for President Bush and a supporter of Martinez's Senate candidacy....

--AP/WKMG (Orlando)

Just another day in Bushworld.