’)That’s right, John McCain’s campaign manager was paid $2 million by Fannie Mae to specifically lobby John McCain. They were trying to fend off regulation and I guess they wanted to curry favor with the self-described “deregulator”.
Then he hired him as his campaign manager.
Gee, what a surprise: Fannie Mae made a shitty investment. I’d never have seen THAT coming.
They did better when they cut out the middleman and just shoveled the cash at the politicians directly — Chris Dodd, Barack Obama, John Kerry, et al. That money got them far better results for a lot less money.
No wonder they tanked so badly. They wasted money on hired guns when they should have just stuck to buying the pols directly.
J.
Shorter Jaye:
Hire Rick Davis and you get shitty results.
C’mon, Oliver. Why not step and be the first LW blogger to comment on David Axelrod’s astroturf smear campaign?
This won’t be good for bloggers on either side if anywhere close to being true.
Dennis,
Obama: This is not the Winner and Associates I thought I knew.
This won’t be good for bloggers on either side if anywhere close to being true.
“If anywhere close to being true.” Got it. Wilco.
Quite possibly-
Obama: This is not the Winner and Associates David Axelrod I thought I knew.
The Astroturfing story could be huge. Especially since the company currently accused of making and distributing the video is also one of the 50 biggest lobbying firms in the US, and some ties have already been found between Publicis and the Obama campaign (mainly through David Axelrod). So far, all the work put together by the Jawa Report is hanging together very solidly.
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/194057.php
J.
Nobody gives a damn what My Pet Gerbil thinks. Except other gerbils.
McCain’s number 1 campaign guy covered a** for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for major, major money. McCain’s number 1 finance guy and likely Treasury Secretary is a VP at UBS, a foreign beneficiary of U.S. taxpayer largess due to their own crappy investing and underwriting incompetence and failure to supervise their own business.
What’s ironic is that Republicans were once advocates against socialism, rather than socialist advocates of takeovers of an entire industry sector. If you think that the government should not only run but in substance own Wall Street and pay for Wall Street out of the taxes extract from corporate America’s employees, you are a Republican conservative. If you think it should provide health care for all of us out of that tax money instead, not just for the very poor, the very sick, the very old and the military like the VA, you are a apparently socialist. I don’t know what you are politically if you think that America should run, say, the sex worker and porn industry (GS-11 Assistant Supervisor in charge of Lap-Dance anagement) or the beer industry (Sam Adams meets C rations, I bet.)
“So far, all the work put together by the Jawa Report is hanging together very solidly.”
Aside from the fact that it’s all sheer speculation that proves absolutely nothing.
There is, of course, no doubt that this will be “huge” on the right side of the blogosphere. Sheer speculation that proves absolutely nothing being its stock in trade.
Shorter Jay:
“Look over there!”
My god, Duros, you’re right. We’ve got ot discuss HOW MANY CARS JOHN AND CINDY MCCAIN OWN!!!!!
J.
No, actually, we don’t.
What we need to discuss is how you can support a guy who claims to be all about lobbyist reform while being surrounded by lobbyists.
Kinda sounds disingenuous somehow.
Not too mavericky there … careful now
“Kinda sounds disingenuous somehow.”
Tell us again why John Kerry’s wealth was such an important topic for consideration in 2004 but John McCain’s isn’t now?
Once again, we have Democrats yelping about “lobbyists” as if Obama doesn’t have lobbyists helping run his campaign. It’s nothing but a distraction. A distraction from having to deal with the fact that Democrats blocked changes in the last few years that might have averted this problem.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_hassett&sid=aSKSoiNbnQY0
My god, Duros, you’re right. We’ve got ot discuss HOW MANY CARS JOHN AND CINDY MCCAIN OWN!!!!!
J.
Or how Obama is a muslim.
Q: Why is McCain clueless about the state of economy and who is informs his whacked out notions? A: “Yelp!”
“It’s nothing but a distraction.”
McCain’s hypocrisy is a distraction?
“A distraction from having to deal with the fact…”
Fact? No, this is an opinion. A poorly formed opinion, given the fact that McCain considers himself a master deregulator.
You know, Jay, it’s okay to say “I got nothin’.” We won’t think any less of you. Honest.
“You know, Jay, it’s okay to say ‘I got nothin’.’ We won’t think any less of you. Honest.”
We couldn’t possibly think less about Jay.
A distraction from having to deal with the fact that Democrats blocked changes in the last few years that might have averted this problem.
–Jay
Kevin Hassett from Bloomberg is saying his email and answering machine are both ‘filled up with howls of indignation and death threats’ as a result of that article, per NRO.
That article barely registers a 2 on a 10 scale of stuff written about Bush and Republicans every single day.
Duros, why don’t you try reading the article. Chris Dodd and Barney Frank (along with Barack Obama who was sucking at the teat of F-Mac and F-Mae to the tune of over $125K for his little time as a Senator) were both saying, “Problem? What problem?” with regard to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as early as two years ago. They blocked any legislation that would have reformed the problems that didn’t exist and you think people should be concerned about Rick Davis’s former lobbying?
you think people should be concerned about Rick Davis’s former lobbying?
You think people should be concerned about Obama and Biden’s past associations, so why not Davis and McCain’s?
No, Jay, I’m concerned with the CURRENT make up of McCain’s campaign. I don’t know why you’re not.
Did I hear right that the former head of Merril-Lynch is gonna pinch hit for Carly Fiorina now? That’s some Maverick-ness right there.
Maybe j can point us to the part in the article where Chris Dodd or Barney Frank is running for president and has Rick Davis as his campaign manager. Then he can show us where Dodd and Frank said that they are free of lobbyists on their campaign.
Are you talking about the My Pretty Jawa article? Whole lotta “a guy I know knows a guy who knows a guy who heard from a friend whose dry cleaner overheard…”
Yawn.
My bad, you’re talking about the Bloomberg one.
Mea culpa.
Still…
“A distraction from having to deal with the fact that Democrats blocked changes in the last few years that might have averted this problem.”
That’s interesting, Jay. Which bill are you and Hasstert talking about? Because Hastert links to an AEI article as if the AEI was backing the legislation that Hastert says the Dems blocked. Of course, Haster doesn’t ID the bill or discuss its details. He only wrote:
Then he argues that Dems on the committee scuttled it. But the AEI article from 2005 that Hastert links to, includes this graph, not noted by Hastert:
Now one of the criticisms that the Dems had of the legislation proposed by the committee was that it provided no real oversight while moving the Fannie and Freddie regulators from HUD to the Fed, which they thought would jeopardize the institutions core mission of making home ownership affordable to more people.
I don’t know, Jay. You want to clarify what bill, exactly, Hastert is talking about? Do you have any details on whether the Oxley-Baker bill ended up including the kind of language that the AEI recommended?
Hastert doesn’t say anything about it even as he links to an article criticizing the bill, as written, for being completely inadequate and ineffective. That actually fits the Dems criticism of the bill at the time.
Why do you think Hastert didn’t go into the specifics of the Baker-Oxley bill and failed to address the AEI’s criticism of it?
lobbyists are the mother’s milk nourishing McCain with antibodies to reality
Are you talking about the My Pretty Jawa article? Whole lotta “a guy I know knows a guy who knows a guy who heard from a friend whose dry cleaner overheard…”
You mean that one that establishes a pretty clear link between David Axelrod and a PR firm he has worked with in the past who just happened to create videos smearing Sarah Palin? Any contact between the two would be a violation of federal election laws, but we all KNOW Hope/Changorama is above all that kind of nonsense isn’t he? Of course, said videos just HAPPENED to be removed and the accounts behind them just HAPPENED to get deleted at the same time. I’m sure it was all a coincidence.
That’s the best explanation. I got a nice bridge in Brooklyn to sell if you believe that.
I should have said “coordination” not “contact” between the two….
“I should have said “coordination” not “contact” between the two….”
And how exactly has “coordination” between the two been established? Oh right, it hasn’t. Not by a long shot.
There’s just this “pretty clear link” which is based on speculation, that maybe possibly the same voiceover person in the Palin online ad has also worked with Axelrod’s company for other poitical ads. Imagine that. A professional voiceover person working on two different ads.
Of course, what makes the Jawa Report thing it’s the same woman? Do they know her name? Have they contacted her? No. They just think the voices sound really similar.
Strong stuff, Jay. Certainly strong enough for a champion of reason, such as yourself, to start spreading around as if it were true.
Oh, I’m sorry, I should have said “might, possibly, maybe, if you squint at it long enough after downing a huge pitcher of kool aid” be true.
That’s the best explanation. I got a nice bridge in Brooklyn to sell if you believe that.
And I’ve got one in Ketchican I can sell you.
God, stay down already. You guys are flailing.
And if you look now the McCain camp has attacked the New York Times for reporting this fact that Davis received that money. They don’t dispute the fact, just push it aside and say the Times is disreputable. And McCain put out an ad saying for the American people to trust him with their savings – this coming from one of the members of the Keating Five savings and loan scandal from the 80’s. This is too much.
We couldn’t possibly think less about Jay.
That’s kinda what I meant, yes.
This is just another unfounded rumor. You may go to the McCain website and you will find that it explicitly states that Rick Davis has never, never been a lobbyist for either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. The New York Times failed to perform proper research on this matter. In case you missed it, John McCain warned of the failings of Fannie and Freddie cosponsored legislation to reign in their risky practices back in 2006.