McCain Camp Hits Wrong Guy (Not on Obama's Team) for FannieMae Ties, Ignoring Two of their Own

[bigtree]

from Washington Monthly: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_09/014790.php


September 19, 2008

WHAT FLAILING LOOKS LIKE.... Is it me, or has John McCain's message become completely incoherent this week?

Yesterday, he got things started by insisting he would fire SEC Chairman Christopher Cox if president, which was odd since a) Cox isn't really to blame; and b) the president can't fire the SEC chair. From there, McCain told an audience, "Sen. Obama's own advisers are saying that the crisis will benefit him politically." Pressed for even a shred of evidence to back that up, McCain's campaign couldn't think of anything. It was just another instance of McCain getting caught in another foolish lie.

And then McCain decided to go after Obama's association with Franklin Raines: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hC9O6sRspcMU1TS3H0CLrE2IWu-gD939NBFO0

Republican McCain released a new spot Thursday that quotes The Washington Post as saying Democrat Obama gets advice on mortgage and housing policy from a former Fannie Mae chief executive, Franklin Raines.

Obama's campaign says Raines is not an Obama adviser and that McCain's campaign knows it because Raines said so in an e-mail earlier this week to Carly Fiorina, a top McCain adviser. Obama's campaign provided The Associated Press with a copy of the e-mail.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton ... said Obama only met Raines once briefly at an event, and that Raines sought an introductory meeting with Obama Senate aide Mike Strautmanis. At that meeting, Burton said no advice was sought from or given by Raines, who also had served as President Clinton's budget director.

I'd just add that while the attack is plainly wrong, it's foolish even if we accept the attack at face value. If getting advice from an official at a troubled financial institution is a sign of bad judgment, then why is that two of McCain's top advisors include John Thain, from Merrill Lynch, and Martin Feldstein, who serves on AIG's board of directors?

[babylonsister]

1. As usual, the rethugs have their own set of rules. Thanks for

the info, and I await Obama's response to this current load of b.s.

[cliffordu]

2. Thanks for posting this.

Every time gramps opens his mouth another floundering lie spews forth.

He makes me sick to my stomach.

[bigtree]

3. funny

he repeated this charge today: http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/articles/2008/09/19/prepared_remarks_by_john_mccain_on_our_financial_markets/?page=full


plus, there's this:

from Mother Jones: (http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/09/9663_mccain_fannie_freddie.html )

"McCain suggested bold reforms for Fannie and Freddie that would "terminate future lobbying, which was one of the primary contributors to this great debacle . . . If that's the case, McCain should look first to his campaign staffers as the cause of that debacle.One of them was Fannie Mae's head of lobbying, and spread tens of millions of dollars around Washington in the form of lobbying contracts. A number of McCain staffers were on the receiving end of those contracts, collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars each from the lenders to rep their interests. And McCain's campaign manager served as president of a lobbying association that fought to protect Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae from the sort of regulation that McCain is now proposing.

Aquiles Suarez, listed as an economic adviser to the McCain campaign in a July 2007 McCain press release, was formerly the director of government and industry relations for Fannie Mae. The Senate Lobbying Database says Suarez oversaw the lending giant's $47,510,000 lobbying campaign from 2003 to 2006.

And other current McCain campaign staffers were the lobbyists receiving shares of that money. According to the Senate Lobbying Database, the lobbying firm of Charlie Black, one of McCain's top aides, made at least $820,000 working for Freddie Mac from 1999 to 2004. The McCain campaign's vice-chair Wayne Berman and its congressional liaison John Green made $1.14 million working on behalf of Fannie Mae for lobbying firm Ogilvy Government Relations. Green made an additional $180,000 from Freddie Mac. Arther B. Culvahouse Jr., the VP vetter who helped John McCain select Sarah Palin, earned $80,000 from Fannie Mae in 2003 and 2004, while working for lobbying and law firm O'Melveny & Myers LLP. In addition, Politico reports that at least 20 McCain fundraisers have lobbied for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, pocketing at least $12.3 million over the last nine years.

For years McCain campaign manager Rick Davis was head of the Homeownership Alliance, a lobbying association that included Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, real estate agents, homebuilders, and non-profits. According to Politico, the organization opposed congressional attempts at regulation of Fannie and Freddie, along the lines of what John McCain is currently proposing. In his capacity of president of the group, Davis went on record in 2003 and insisted that no further reform of the lenders was necessary, in contradiction to his current boss's sentiments. "Fannie and Freddie are subject to an innovative and stringent risk-based capital stress test," Davis wrote. "The toughest in the financial services industry."