Over at the RTOOnline news site of the predatory rent-to-own industry, the headline reads New York Democrat and PIRG Hero Maloney To Chair House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit. In fact, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) did receive a score of 100 on the PIRG Congressional Scorecard last year, and, as the RTO boys point out, among the "only" 42 others who did were "Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) and current Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)." That's a bad thing? Voting for consumers, the environment and government reform over the special interests? We're looking forward to working with Chairwoman Maloney, a leader against predatory lending, and many others. I'd point out by the way, that we work with people with very low scores as well. Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) may not always agree with us (7% lifetime score), but has long been one of the leading Congressional privacy champions.

What's rent-to-own, by the way? The industry promises the American dream of ownership, then takes it away with punitive $10-20/week perpetual debt contracts. Think "I owe my soul to the company store."