Loan Titans Paid McCain Adviser Nearly $2 Million

Loan Titans Paid McCain Adviser Nearly $2 Million

www.nytimes.com

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.

“The value that he brought to the relationship was the closeness to Senator McCain and the possibility that Senator McCain was going to run for president again,”

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So McCain is going to end the culture of corruption in Washington by curtailing the influence of lobbyists.... right... sure and if you believe that I got a bridge in Brooklyn you can buy.

www.nytimes.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Very good, Grover. The corruption is incredible. On both sides of the fence, i might add.
For those who are still under the dilusion, what you see is NOT what you get. We have been living in a make beleive world. No wonder these times are known as the "awakening"

WAKE UP PEOPLE.

ps. I saw it on tape and McCains reaction to the question was a very uncomfy one.

Sadly, both McCain and Obama both have unfortunate ties to Freddie and Fannie. I guess it made sense at the time. Talk to people who have experience running the largest financial institutions in the country. Hind sight is 20/20...

I guess the real difference here is that McCain's campaign manager fought strictly for deregulation. Obama's advisers just ran the company.

Either way it does not look good for the credibility of either opponent.

This should be in no way shocking.

We would not be presented with the 'two' choices for president if they were both not eminently acceptable to the corporate agenda.

Someone should write the Bilderbergs and congratulate them on successfully derailing the United States and bringing back the success of the robber barons of old.

[edit on 22-9-2008 by Maxmars]

But at the very least the Obama camp doesn't pretend its going to reign in the lobbyists while being run by those very lobbyists.

So McCain had an advisor that took money, but Obama himself took money, and that's the same to you?

McCain's advisor is just that, an advisor. Obama is…well..himself.

I believe in the short time he was in the Senate he received the 3rd most ever from Fannie/Freddy in donations. Obama is much deeper into this than McCain is.

reply to post by nyk537


They ALL take money... that's not the issue.... the issue is McCain is posturing himself as the one who will reign in lobbyists when his campaign is run by lobbyists.

Thats kind of like the pot calling the kettle black,I know several lobbyist's who funnel money into Obamas side,they all do it,I think they should do away with all of them

But is Obama also not making himself out to be some agent of change and enlightenment, and yet he himself is partaking in this filth?

Your trying to make this a mark against McCain, when in fact Obama is just as, if not more guilty of it than McCain.

I am so surprised that such intelligent people still maintain that the politicians are anything other than employees of the corporate parties? Who cares how they 'posture' themselves? This is a media construct you're debating about.

Do you actually believe that there is some point of difference between them that will somehow translate into the financial masters relinquishing their gains for the benefit of the 'people'?

The political gamesmen have exhausted the American reserve of hope and wealth, and left us with nothing but the bills. And you're going to fight about which 'pretty boy' is 'on the take'? They all are, and always have been. If either of them had not been part of enabling this fiasco, you would never have seen them in the race in the first place.