Category Archives: McCains Lobbyists
McCain campaign manager paid by Freddie Mac recently.
Recently as in up until LAST MONTH. From the NYT:
One of the giant mortgage companies at the heart of the credit crisis paid $15,000 a month to a firm owned by Senator John McCain’s campaign manager from the end of 2005 through last month, according to two people with direct knowledge of the arrangement. The disclosure contradicts a statement Sunday night by Mr. McCain that the campaign manager, Rick Davis, had no involvement with the company for the last several years. Mr. Davis’s firm received the payments from the company, Freddie Mac, until it was taken over by the government this month along with Fannie Mae, the other big mortgage lender whose deteriorating finances helped precipitate the cascading problems on Wall Street, the people said.
This bag of batshit has been lying his ass off about Obama and his campaign personnel being tied to Freddie or Frannie. The deal here is this:
Either McCain’s people are lying to him, or the old man just hasn’t got a fucking clue and doesn’t ask the right questions of his managers. Either way, it looks really bad for Johnny. And nothing makes me happier at this point. 
McCain and his minions are back-peddaling furiously but the fact remains…Ricky has been collecting money from Freddie Mac to lobby on their behalf. As the NYT states: Mr. Davis took a leave from Davis & Manafort for the duration of the campaign, but as a partner and equity-holder continues to share in its profits. (emphasis mine)
Update: Newsweek has hit a nerve with this story. McCain is going apeshit over it and keeps saying Davis never lobbied for Freddie Mac. From Newsweek:
But neither the Times story—nor the McCain campaign—revealed that Davis’s lobbying firm, Davis Manafort, based in Washington, D.C., continued to receive $15,000 a month from Freddie Mac until last month—long after the Homeownership Alliance had been terminated. The two sources, who requested anonymity discussing sensitive information, told NEWSWEEK that Davis himself approached Freddie Mac in 2006 and asked for a new consulting arrangement that would allow his firm to continue to be paid. The arrangement was approved by Hollis McLoughlin, Freddie Mac’s senior vice president for external relations, because “he [Davis] was John McCain’s campaign manager and it was felt you couldn’t say no,” said one of the sources. [McLoughlin did not return phone calls].
The firm has Ricky’s name on the masthead…Ricky himself hit up Freddie Mac exec’s for the most recent lobbying contract..he is guilty as charged in the court of public opinion.
The saga of McCain’s lobbyists..
Not only did McCain step in it during his Politico interview regarding how many homes he and
“the heiress” own…the man said the following about lobbyists:
“Whenever there’s a corrupt system, then you’re going to have these birds of prey descend on it to get their share of the spoils,”
“Lobbyists don’t come to my office. Because they know they’re not going to be an earmark. They know they’re not going to get a pork-barrel project. Senator Obama’s gotten lots of ’em.:”
“I would not allow anyone who worked for my administration to go back to lobbying,” McCain said. “They would have to make that pledge.”
They won’t go back to lobbying? Well, perhaps that’s because they are lobbyists NOW, and they are just on a ‘leave of absence’ from those lucrative positions.
Listen to him say all the quotes above here.
The DNC has released a short ad condemning McCain for his fuckwittery regarding lobbyists.
The website McCainsLobbyists.com is a great interactive site to actually get the lowdown on many of the 159 lobbyists that work for him in some capacity; fundraising, running his campaign or advising him on major policy issues. ProgressiveAccountability.org has an excellent listing. It lists who they worked for, their clients and the issues they lobbied on as well as their current position inside McCain’s campaign. PA’s list seems endless when you first happen on the site.
This batshit-crazy old coot really must think we are all idiots. What else explains it? Its not like his lobbying brigade is a classified state secret.
Another thing to remember…even if they have left the “official” capacity of working on/in/for the campaign, many of them are still fundraising for him. Something lobbyists are very good at.
And we thought it couldn’t get any worse than George Bush…jesus, were we wrong. McCain i a lying sack of sheep shit that transcends The Shrub m’dear reader.
Its my Right to be Left of the Center 