NYTimes: Loan Titans Paid McCain Adviser Nearly $2 Million
Senator John McCain’s campaign manager was paid more than $30,000 a month for five years as president of an advocacy group set up by the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to defend them against stricter regulations, current and former officials say.
Mr. McCain, the Republican candidate for president, has recently begun campaigning as a critic of the two companies and the lobbying army that helped them evade greater regulation as they began buying riskier mortgages with implicit federal backing. He and his Democratic rival, Senator Barack Obama, have donors and advisers who are tied to the companies.
But last week the McCain campaign stepped up a running battle of guilt by association when it began broadcasting commercials trying to link Mr. Obama directly to the government bailout of the mortgage giants this month by charging that he takes advice from Fannie Mae’s former chief executive, Franklin Raines, an assertion both Mr. Raines and the Obama campaign dispute.
Incensed by the advertisements, several current and former executives of the companies came forward to discuss the role that Rick Davis, Mr. McCain’s campaign manager and longtime adviser, played in helping Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac beat back regulatory challenges when he served as president of their advocacy group, the Homeownership Alliance, formed in the summer of 2000. Some who came forward were Democrats, but Republicans, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed their descriptions.
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2 comments:
There's no mention here that, starting in 2003, Congressional Republicans - with the support of President Bush - repeatedly attempted to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with outside auditors and more capitalization to back up their loans.
Congressional Democrats blocked those efforts. That is a fact.
Democrats Chris Dodd and Barney Frank insisted that reforms were unnecessary, and accused Republicans of trying to scare people.
Obama's camp can deny all they want, but only one Senator - namely Democrat Chris Dodd - received more money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lobbyists than Barack Obama.
Now Obama is attempting to distance himself from yet another of his advisors - the man (Raines) who was in charge when Fannie Mae engaged in 9 billion dollars of misleading bookkeeping -apparently to boost pay and/or bonuses for top execs.
hahahahaha
Nice try, Republican astroturfer.
It wasn't Rick Davis and his front group that was paying him $2 million to lobby Congress against regulation. It was the out-of-power Democrats! (Yes, girlidog, Republicans owned Congress until 2006. But I'm sure you don't want facts to get in the way of a good fictional story.)
Raines talked to Obama once. He's not an adviser -- he certainly doesn't run the campaign like Rich Davis does. McCain only used Raines' photo in the ad because he is black, what we call here The Willie Horton Express.
WaPo debunked the Raines-Obama connection, as it does not exist:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/19/AR2008091903604.html
Go peddle claptrap elsewhere.
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