Tomasky: McCain, Rick Davis and the Freddie Mac Connection--'devastating' news for Republicans!

:bounce:

From your mouth to the electorate's ear, Michael!


http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2008/sep/24/johnmccain.congress

The revelations are devastating for two reasons. First, as I noted above, either Davis lied to McCain or McCain lied to the voters. From the Times story:

On Sunday, in an interview with CNBC and The Times, Mr. McCain responded to a question about that tie between Mr. Davis and the two mortgage companies by saying that he "has had nothing to do with it since, and I'll be glad to have his record examined by anybody who wants to look at it."

Who lied to whom? This is the kind of thing we might not know for a while, or maybe never. My hunch would be that Davis concealed it from McCain and that McCain, as is his wont, just winged it Sunday night, without really caring whether it was true, because that's what he does. But let me clearly label that a hunch. I don't know. But it doesn't really matter.

The second reason this is devastating is maybe even bigger than the question of the Sunday lie, which is limited in scope after all to a sort of narrow legal question. The second reason is that McCain has been going around putting lobbyists, specifically for F & F, at the heart of the whole problem. This is from the Roll Call piece:

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac emerged as issues in the presidential race last week because of turmoil in the financial markets. In a radio address from Green Bay, Wis., on Saturday, McCain blamed the companies and their political clout for creating the housing mess now roiling Wall Street. "At the center of the problem were the lobbyists, politicians and bureaucrats who succeeded in persuading Congress and the administration to ignore the festering problems at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,'' he said. "Using money and influence, they prevented reforms that would have curbed their power and limited their ability to damage our economy. And now, as ever, the American taxpayers are left to pay the price for Washington's failure.''

I just can't picture any way of wiggling out of that. He is talking in those sentences about his own campaign manager! And he's going to be able to keep him on? Strange things happen all the time, but I have trouble seeing it.

Oh and by the way: No wonder Steve Schmidt, another top McCain strategist, said on a Monday conference call with reporters that "Whatever The New York Times once was, it is today not by any standard a journalistic organization." He obviously knew that more was coming and was trying to lay some discrediting groundwork.

This is a terrible, terrible story for McCain, and yes, the biggest political story of the general-election campaign so far.

I saw about a dozen R "stategists" and pols who did this LONG stretch to put the market downturn on the Ds on the news from Friday through Monday ... The talking point was this:

1) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were THE core problem that led to the whole collapse (The initial sweeping overstatment not even close to the truth, but the one that they would just yell over and over to make it the definitive truth).
2) DEMOCRATS are responsible for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
3) DEMOCRATS ran it, are buddies with those who ran it, made money from it, and benefited from donations - most notably BO.
4) McCain tried to impose more regulation on them, but was thwarted by BO and the democrats.

THIS was their talking point they all had fallen back into in trying to find SOME way to shout at the top of their lungs that the DEMOCRATS were to blame for the whole situation.

Davis' ties to them REALLY puts a stake into this one.

:rofl:

the McLoon camp knew there was a definite discrepancy between what McLoon said and what would eventually be reported. McLoser perhaps ought to have asked his campaign manager when his last paycheck from Fannie/Freddie lobbying came in the mail, at some point, before SPECIFICALLY railing about Fannie/Freddie lobbyists. No one this fucking stupid and/or gullible should be allowed to be Preznit.