Freddie Got Fingered

$30,000 a month for twelve years is $360,000. Did that buy McCain a new car?
Or did it go to Oil Stocks?
Was McCain Blind, or involved?
Vote ‘No’ to McSee You in Prison.
Vote Independant.
PS Rick Davis, proving The Times right? :)

No, the issue is one of ETHICS.
IF that is too unfathomable for you then I suggest you go find your conscience wherever you last had it.

Apparently there are still those who are too dumb to understand the difference in money being paid by the corporation for the direct purpose of lobbying on their behalf, as opposed to employees of that corporation donating to the candidate of their individual choice.

Odd how you don’t mention that Rick Davis never lobbied for FANNIE MAE and that he hasn’t been part of that firm since 2006.

Karen
if he really lef tthat firm in 2006
oy ugh and duh
that’s when he started planning Mccain’s run ugh. How can we have this many _______ people on here.

the washington post reported that Raines was an Obama advisor..now WaPo calls mccain a liar for stating that raines is an Obama advisor.
idiots.

I’ve come to except that whenever McCain attacks Obama for something, he is probably guilty of it.

McCain might have won if he had picked Romney. They would have campaigned with an emphasis of experience and fiscal responsibility. Given the current economic news, that choice might have been a winner. After only a couple of weeks, McCain’s choice of Palin makes him look stupid. She’s a loser. Most significantly, McCain reached out to the social conservative “base” with the Palin pick rather than the fiscal conservative “base” with a Romney pick. That was a mistake for McCain, the Republican Party, and our country. Even if McCain/Romney hadn’t won, they would have re-galvanized the role of the Republican Party as fiscally responsible. Our country needs that message and it goes a lot further for everyone than the family values garbage, which people like Palin peddle but fail typically fail to live up to even in their personal lives. McCain/Palin: The Bridge to Nowhere

There is a difference between being paid as a consulting firm and being an employee, or manager at a high level who has pocketed MILLIONS of taxpayer guarenteed money to pay yourself a bonus. IN the case of a firm being paid $30K per month for consulting, well as the Wizard of Oz pointed out, “that is a horse of a different color.” By the way $30K per month for a year is $360K, for 12 years it is $4,320,000.00 a little difference. And it was paid to a firm not an individual. Wonder how many people the firm has employed? Someone kept saying ask the “right questions” well do just that! Ask all the questions!
And this is still nothing compared to Oprah Winfrey and Jack Rezko paying for your campaings!
So here is another suggestion, Throw them all out, and stop “career” politiicans. Throw out their $15,000.00 per month retirement plan after a single term, throw out their “military” medcial benefits, and make them live like the rest of us. Then see how quickly they really try to “fix” the problems.

Nice headline. LOL

If McCain wins he will be history’s most reviled and hated POTUS ever. I am sure G.W. is very happy to know that.

Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac’s involvement in the current financial crisis is that they *bought* some of these improperly rated (B grade mortgage backed) securities. Apparently neither one issued these tainted bonds.
The McCain camp choose to push a supposed connection with their opponent based on a single, incorrect report. Now they are caught in their own web of their own making as it turns out that McCain’s campaign manager received $15,000 a month as late as August.
Its hard for me to shed any tears for McCain’s misfortune.

Guy:
ABC likes Obama because the Most Influential Woman In Entertainment is THE Obama backer. She’s also a big stockholder in CNN, thus the slanted coverage there. You didn’t know this?
OH has decided to buy the White House this year. I’ll be surprised if she doesn’t succeed at it too.

Why would America REWARD complete Republican failure ?
We wont.

Get it right, there is a big difference between the candidate himself (Obama)receiving money from Fannie MAE and Freddie MAC and some aid to Mccain receiving aid…..
Posted by: get it right | Sep 24, 2008 8:22:19 AM
—————————————-
Yes people get it right. Obama recieved a fund raiser check one time, While McCains Advisor Rick Davis was recieving fund for years, up till last month. Even while McCain was saying one thing, his pockets were still being lined, for Oil Stocks.
It’s called let’s say one thing and do another. McMulti-Face may not win this year.
Vote no to Oil Tycoons
Vote no to scare tactics
Vote no to McSmells Fishy
Vote no to Middle Eastern Capitolism, They make their women stay quiet.
Vote No to O’Reilly, he likes capitolism like the Middle East.
Buy Human Souls cheap, Sell High. Make a Buck O’Reilly. Fair and Balanced Trial for Rick Davis.
Vote yes to Green Energy
Vote yes to Free America

JAKE! There you go again. McCain is a POW for goodness sakes. Sarah Palin is a mother of five. I bet you don’t even like apple pie. You must be one of those foreigners with an Obama crush who hates Americans! Are you secretely a Canadian? Fess up.
Just because John McCain has every other lobbyist on K-street working for his campaign (uh, I mean former lobbyist, uh I mean future repentant lobbyist?) does not mean that John McCain is in their pocket or would let them write major sections of laws, like the 1996 Telecommunications Act. No sir! And Sarah Palin has been staring down the Russian bear for years (uh, I mean shooting bears).
So you just better watch out there Yogi! Once John McCain and Sarah Palin take office they will be channeling my hero Richard Nixon. And believe me sir, you are on THE list!

Either Rick Davis lied in his disclosure or McCain lied (unlikely). Either way, Mr. Davis is suddenly a huge liability. Probably gone sooner than later.

Gotta love the FBI.

chicagopearl
I have been part of the conversation on Jake’s blog for the past year and a strong and vocal supporter of Obama and facts…
and a month ago I must have struck a cord because the Mccain campaign or supporters… started posing as me (which is common but) consecutively and consistently…
and someone else asked several times that the other “dl” must have been hired to refute anything I said… whether or not they were
that is where (the real one) comes from…
but it is consistent with the Mccain campaign
pose as someone who knows what they are talking about and then spread disinformation.
lol

JOhn
Mccain gave A (one) speech about fannie Mae and freddie Mac
His behavior toward deregulation in all sectors speaks much louder than that one speech.
His hiring the people who created the laws to alllow this to happen
and the hugely conspicuous ommission of wall street finance and banking
would lead any simple and logical person to realize …it was a (one) speech.

A little something for the dems that are still trying to wiggle their way out of the truth.
Our Nation is in an economic crisis over the mortgage meltdown; and, unless we own up to the historically documented cause factors, we may well be doomed to repeat this debacle with the coming election.
This crisis, purely and simply, was set-in-motion by the cheerleading of the Politically Correct Social Engineering that flourished under the Clinton Administration in the artificially inflated boom years of the 1990s.
In an effort to increase minority home ownership, the Clinton regime threw sound fiscal discipline under-the-bus; and, promulgated policies that forbid mortgage lenders from using common-sense criteria such as : income; ability to afford a reasonable down payment; and, credit history, as metrics in the evaluation of mortgage applications. The same congressional left-wingers who, with their insatiable appetite for social engineering, later vehemently rejected Bush Administration efforts in 2003 to re-implement sound regulatory practices, with the Congressional infamous Dead-On-Arrival mantra.
Charges of racism in mortgage lending practices flourished during this era; and, lending institutions led by the quasi-federal entities of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, flamed by Congressional diatribe that had been massaged by enormous contributions and favorable loan rates to select politicians, were appointed to lead the charge to “create” and to “absorb” non-performing assets from such institutions as Country-Wide Financial. Assets which were, by sheer definition, fraudulent loans with no ability to repay; and, via the Quasi’s were proliferated throughout our financial sector.
In brief, mortgage lenders were compelled to abandon fiscal discipline and “RISK” as guiding principles in mortgage creation. Policies that were obscured so long as housing values continued to escalate; but, when the bubble burst similar to the dot-com fever; and, housing values began to implode, the crisis was set in motion.
Two of the principal players in the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae calamities, Jim Johnson and Franklin Raines, are now leading the financial advisory cadre for Barack Obama, the second leading Senatorial recipient of lending institution largess. Interesting that it was Obama who recently led the charge to prohibit mortgage lenders from tightening their lending terms for low-income recipients. Think there’s any possibility of a correlation here? Even a Democrat Congress couldn’t swallow that proposal.
Of commendable note is the fact that John McCain was one of only three (3) co-sponsors of the 2005 Senate legislation (S 190) which if enacted could have short-circuited the current crisis confronting our financial sector.
And now Obama, with his innate Marxist/Socialist concepts, has focused his campaign on extravagant promises to find still other methods of transferring financial benefits to those whom he considers “disadvantaged”. Clearly, the election of Obama, who has learned nothing from the these catastrophic events, when coupled with the Democrat’s obstinate obstruction of America’s efforts to develop our indigenous energy resources, would set in motion still other financial crises of unparalled proportions.
The “Rational Majority” in our electorate only has a brief few weeks to identify the true enemy in our midst; and, to relegate their Socialist diatribe to a barely audible level. Greg Neubeck

Will McCain ask for Rick’s resignation or just sack him?

Karen, it is Rick Davis’ firm that he is one of the . The lobbying firm is called “Davis Manafort”, partners Rick Davis & Paul Manafort. Rick Davis might not personally be getting the money, at this time, but it is being banked in “his” firm. Take your blinders off.

[Lots of silly comments. I figure just under half of them are astroturfing]
This isn’t about McCain having stones, this is about the campaign failing at two very basic tasks:
1. Vetting it’s senior members
2. Vetting planned remarks
Any candidate should know about the liabilities and baggage carried around by their subordinates, precisely so they don’t get bitten while going after their opponent. Particularly after Hilary was busted on the exact same thing months ago. For this to make it all the way into a television ad says to me that the campaign is completely out of it’s depth.

Get it right, there is a big difference between the candidate himself (Obama)receiving money from Fannie MAE and Freddie MAC and some aid to Mccain receiving aid…..
Posted by: get it right | Sep 24, 2008 8:22:19 AM
—————————————-
Corporations cannot give to candidates. The center for responsive politics list adds up contributions from Fannie and Freddie employees and their families.
Obama has received a lot of money during his presidential campaign, though, and Fannie and Freddie don’t make his list of top 20 companies.
The top three companies with employees donating to Obama are Goldman Sachs, University of California, and Citigroup, according to the center.)
The New York Times looked at contributions from Fannie and Freddie’s boards of directors and lobbyists, who are technically not employees. That analysis found Fannie and Freddie-related contributors gave $116,000 to John McCain and his related committees, compared with $16,000 to Obama and his related committees.

The news media is in the tank for OBAMA.His economic advisor was the head of F.M. They said he committed mismanagment and we will see if the FBI gets him. Also where are all your staff in Chicago going over OBAMA and all his advisors.You guys have lost what the news is about and now are like a sop opera.Look at the pools about what the people think of you and it shows in your income.Soon you will have only hard core Liberal buying your rags.

Congressional Republicans and Democrats alike have financed federal deficit spending with legislation that promoted lenient credit and underfunded regulatory agencies oversight to encourage U.S. consumer borrowing in order to produce economic expansion.
The dot-com securities and sub-prime mortgage market scams flourished as a result of hamstrung regulators and irrationally exuberant consumers.
Americans cannot rely on a Congress bankrupt of money, morals, and ideas to find solutions for America’s wealth and leadership meltdown when redirecting blame and using pork-barrel politics to win re-election is the measure of success in Congress.
It is in America’s long term survival interest to get rid of the Congressional dinosaurs and pass an amendment to limit Congressional terms to a cumulative total for both houses of eighteen (18) years.

Chris Dodd is corrupt, Bahney Fwank is corrupt and McCain is a hypocrite. Unfortunately for McCain he’s not running against Dodd or Frank, he’s running against Obama. Even Obama’s relationships with Johnson and Raines don’t add up to McCain having Davis RUN HIS CAMPAIGN.
If Obama keeps pounding on this theme McCain will continue to lose ground.

Dude! forget the canidates
People should focus on the real problem,the head of the snake.
A Congress that is more concerned with themselves.
By now if the economy wasn’t so bad they’d be voting themselves a pay raise

@ historyforgotten
$30,000 per mo * 12 mo per year * 12 years is $4,320,000…. Considerably more than 360k…

Here we go again. Wasn’t it McCain that said after being implicated with Charles Keating of Lincoln Savings and Loan that it was the worst mistake of his life?
McCain was a frequent guest on Keating’s jet and at his opulent vacation home in the Bahamas. $160 billion later and Keating serving four years in jail you would think that McCain would be a little smarter than hiring Rick Davis and lying about his connections and blaming the press. Howe stupid can you be……oh yes even more stupid …..chosing a running mate that appears like a cheer leader at a football game.

Not only did the Bush administration do nothing to protect consumers, it embarked on an aggressive and unprecedented campaign to prevent states from protecting their residents from the very problems to which the federal government was turning a blind eye.
The administration accomplished this feat through an obscure federal agency called the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The OCC has been in existence since the Civil War. Its mission is to ensure the fiscal soundness of national banks. For 140 years, the OCC examined the books of national banks to make sure they were balanced, an important but uncontroversial function. But a few years ago, for the first time in its history, the OCC was used as a tool against consumers.
In 2003, during the height of the predatory lending crisis, the OCC invoked a clause from the 1863 National Bank Act to issue formal opinions preempting all state predatory lending laws, thereby rendering them inoperative. The OCC also promulgated new rules that prevented states from enforcing any of their own consumer protection laws against national banks. The federal government’s actions were so egregious and so unprecedented that all 50 state attorneys general, and all 50 state banking superintendents, actively fought the new rules.
But the unanimous opposition of the 50 states did not deter, or even slow, the Bush administration in its goal of protecting the banks. In fact, when my office opened an investigation of possible discrimination in mortgage lending by a number of banks, the OCC filed a federal lawsuit to stop the investigation.

The guy running McCain’s campaign is a liar and just another lobbyist stealing our tax dollars. This is reflected in McSame’s campaign, which is all lies.
Good bye GOP and Good riddance. You deserve to become an irrelevant party for your divisive rich guy politic.
OBAMA-BIDEN 2008

Let me make sure that I understand you, middleoftheroad: your wife is voting for McClain/Palin simply because Sarah Palin came equiped with a vagina?
What an intelligent choice that was…

Now we know why McCain’s been racking in hundreds of millions to the GOP funds through his lobbyists.

Paul,
Did I state my party affiliation?
LOL

Obama campaign received donations from individuals that work for a firm, like you and me. McCain makes big deal about it influence on Obama.
Mccain top advisor gets paid 15,000 a month up until this August and we are supposed to believe there is no influence on McCain

McCain’s site makes clear that things are as McCain said they are.
The NY Times: Official Flagship of the Barack Obama campaign.
Don’t look for a retraction soon.

Bush tried to reform of FNMA in 2003 and Democrats blocked it.
McCain spoke for reform of FNMA in 2005 and Democrats blocked it.
Dodd wanted to loosen regulation of FNMA in 2007.
“Dodd is pressing for a loosening of the loan regulations restricting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, government-sponsored lenders that bundle mortgages into tradable securities. The administration is resisting the proposal.”
There is no question who is a fault here.

Another McCain lie. Going out the back door of a corrupt system, coming in the front door and shouting “let me throw the bums out”. Please…..This happened under the Republican watch, it is the Republican brand that must suffer. Anything less is enabling citizenry not holding spoiled leaders accountable. Wake up America.

My namesake, Rick has it wrong. Davis did not lobby for Georgia. That was Scheunemann, the foregin policy advisor for McCain. Not to be confused with Tim Timmons, the 77 year old uber lobbyist who is planning the transition for his young friend, John McCain. Or Phil Whiner Gramm, the Swiss Bank lobbyist who authored the legislation leading to the meltdown. Rick, you need a scorecard to keep up.
If I mispelled anyone’s name I apologize, like Palin’s staff, who put out a press release which misspelled “Henry Kissenger” I am only interested in the photo op, not editorial content.

I used to respect the NYT but after this campaign cycle – no more. There’s a substantial difference between a candidate/campaign directly working with someone (ex., Johnson) and a campaign employee’s business (from which he is separated and not receiving compensation) working with someone.
Even while acknowledging that David himself hasn’t been a registered lobbyist for years, the NYT goes for the implication that he’s in the pocket with FM/FM. [Do they seriously think that his firm should refuse business because of how it makes the McCain campaign look?]
The NYT should know better. Or, if their reasonign was consistent, apply the same disdain/indignation at all the Congresspeople, lawyers/lobyists (including those working with/for Obama), etc who had ties to FM/FM. I haven’t seen that — Dodd/Obama/et al get a pass, while Davis is now crucified?
Worse, is the persistent description of Homeownership Alliance as a group designed to lobby against regulation — their charter explicitly said no lobbying of Congress or the Administration; their members include a broad band of realty, financial, and consumer groups — including Habitat for Humanity. Tax credits for ownership, housing cost assistance, development of affordable housing … these are bad things?
So now the Dems are up in arms that a McCain staffer worked for a few years on educating the public on the value of ownership and advocated for helping them find avenues of doing so?
If that’s wrong, then huge swaths of the Dem party should be tarred and feathered. And their platform changed – we’re for the people … as long as you let us be the ones in charge.
Even more dispiriting is the fact that so many people (commentators, voters) aren’t even trying to think rationally any more. Critical thinking is out the window.

“There’s a substantial difference between a candidate/campaign directly working with someone (ex., Johnson) and a campaign employee’s business (from which he is separated and not receiving compensation) working with someone. ”
So now Rick Davis is just a campaign employee?
He’s not the campaign manager of McCain?
So Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager, receiving MILLIONS from Fannie Mae with the direct accusation that this was to buy access to McCain is unimportant.
But a guy helping with the VP search and having no other role in the campaign is the worst scandal ever?
Is that the smoke you are blowing?

Ryan -
A campaign manager is still an employee, right? He’s paid to do a job.
You want to believe that Davis was hired for Homeownership Alliance solely to get access to McCain, go ahead – I think there can be other reasons, prime among them his connections to the Republican party b/c of his work on the Reagan, Dole and 1st McCain campaign. Yes, shocking- people hire people who know Congressmembers to lobby.
You want to think that hiring Davis Monfort is solely to get access to McCain (the chain being hire the firm, somehow link to a man who’s on leave for 18 mos, and then link to the guy he’s now working with), go ahead. I think there can be other reasons – prime among them the fact that FM/FM was one of the top purchasers of lobbying services in DC and had contracts large and small with a great number of lobbying organizations.

“A campaign manager is still an employee, right? He’s paid to do a job.”
When you call them an employee you give the impression that his influence is equal to a receptionist or an office manager. He is the campaign’s manager.
“You want to believe that Davis was hired for Homeownership Alliance solely to get access to McCain, go ahead”
No. I think Davis’s firm was paid $15K a month for access.
His work with the homeownership alliance (which seems to be part of the GOP media structure, even with Habitat for Humanity included) is just the tip of the iceberg.
If the Abramhoff investigation (which is still nailing people) proved anything, its that Republican corruption runs deep and runs far.
You want to believe a campaign that lied about his relationship in the first place then attacks the people reporting these facts.

Jake
I have to take exception to something here.
Here is a national story that is likely fundamentally wrong. The Times has likely perpetrated an offense against Davis and McCain.
How is that “unnamed sources” can be used to impeach someone without recourse?
Where’s the justice in that?
How do we know that this wasn’t simply a Kos staff member talking to the Times?
Why could that not be as likely as what they assert?
I despise impeachment in anonymity. If you have something like this to say in a major news source then it ought to be done under one’s own aegis or it is simply not true.
False statements need recourse.

Ryan C -
Where’s the lie? The campaign noted Rick Davis’ ties to Homeownership Alliance. They noted when he was last registered as a lobbyist. Were they supposed to also report on the Davis Manfort connections and contracts?
If that’s now the level of disclosure required, will Obama campaign follow – identifying every manager/employer, companies from whom they’re on leave, and the companies past and current client list? Where should we start:
- David Axelrod (ASK Public Strategies, clients included AT&T and Commonwealth Edison),
- Steve Hildebrand deputy campaign manager (an evironmental group), – adviser Robert Sussman who lobbied for Cinergy, Reliant and regional energy companies,
- John Podesta (Podesta Group) head of transition team
- adviser Daniel Shapiro who lobbied for the American Petroleum Institute
Or other advisers like Daschle (now w/Alston Bird), Mark Keam, the lead Democratic lobbyist at Verizon; Jimmy Williams, vice president of government affairs for the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America, etc …

“Ryan – Try 2003, not 2006.”
So McCain waited until May 2006 to join a bill that was intro’d in 2003.

“You think the Fannie Mae connection was something unimportant to be clear about?” … Yes, actually I do. Either be consistent, and want to know all the connections to all the business lobbying on both sides of the campaigns, or let it go. Ex., in a time of high energy costs and uncertainty, do you think lobbying for energy companies doesn’t pose a potential conflict in crafting energy policy/legislation?
“…when presented with evidence of corruption and conflict of interest your first instinct is to deny it happened. Your second instinct is to find a different culprit. ” –
1) But I don’t see evidence of corruption. You’re bootstrapping that because FM paid a lobbying firm who’s founder had/has connections to McCain, there’s corruption. Show me proof — where’s a vote that reflected this? where’s the quid pro quo? As for conflict of interest, see above.
2)I’m not finding a different culprit – I’m asking you to hold everyone to the same standard. Lobbying is part of government – it’s how citizens and businesses and every group in between advocates their position with their elected official. You’re drawing an arbitrary distinction that special interests/lobbying related to McCain campaign is bad, but special interests/lobbying related to Obama campaign is OK.
“And you had the gall to chastise people about “critical thinking”.”
Yep – I do.

“Yes, actually I do. Either be consistent, and want to know all the connections to all the business lobbying on both sides of the campaigns, or let it go. Ex., in a time of high energy costs and uncertainty, do you think lobbying for energy companies doesn’t pose a potential conflict in crafting energy policy/legislation?”
So to be consistent, you are going to ignore all conflicts of interest because that would force you criticize McCain?
“1) But I don’t see evidence of corruption. You’re bootstrapping that because FM paid a lobbying firm who’s founder had/has connections to McCain, there’s corruption. Show me proof — where’s a vote that reflected this? where’s the quid pro quo? As for conflict of interest, see above.”
What did Davis’s firm do for $15K a month?
Why did McCain abandon after his efforts at reform after cosponsoring a bill once?
2)I’m not finding a different culprit – “I’m asking you to hold everyone to the same standard. Lobbying is part of government – it’s how citizens and businesses and every group in between advocates their position with their elected official. You’re drawing an arbitrary distinction that special interests/lobbying related to McCain campaign is bad, but special interests/lobbying related to Obama campaign is OK. ”
I am drawing a distinction between a guy who was on the VP search team and a guy who was the campaign manager.
You seem to want everyone treated the same regardless of the depth of their involvement in the campaign is.

I’m a huge Obama supporter and think McCain would be terrible for the US. But. But, shouldn’t we be focusing on the candidates? Obama’s defense Re Rezko? He never did him any favors. So let’s focus on McCain. Did he ever do favors for Freddie or Fannie? Would McCain know that a friend is profiting from his public association with McCain, a Senator?
Please, for the good of the country, let’s vote on issues. Isn’t it enough that McCain is an avowed de-regulator? There does not seem to be any proof that McCain did favors for Davis, or even received any benefits from Davis. It was DAVIS being paid, not McCain.
If there is further fault on McCain though, it’s, as Tapper points out, it’s rank HYPOCRISY. Keep the focus on the candidates (lest we be talking about the Wrights of the world).