Robert Schlesinger

John McCain, Rick Davis, and the Glass Housing Crisis

September 19, 2008 RSS Feed Print

What do they say about stones and glass houses?

John McCain today on the current financial crisis (emphasis mine): "The financial crisis we're living through today started with the corruption and manipulation of our home mortgage system. 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."

Rick Davis in 2000 talking about Fannie and Freddie: "You can say what you want about free-market distortions, but people like the system because it gets them into houses cheap."

Rick Davis was then in charge of the Homeownership Alliance, a Fannie/Freddie lobbying group that was aimed at stopping "unfounded fears about risks to the housing system," according to its website. (Hat tip to my colleague Liz Wolgemuth for flagging this.)

Rick Davis is now running the McCain campaign. (Oh and—at least 20 McCain fundraisers have lobbied on behalf of Freddie and Fannie in recent years.)

From whence did the problem stem, Senator?

Tags:
Freddie Mac,
lobbying,
presidential election 2008,
John McCain,
Fannie Mae

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"John McCain co-sponsored a bill to put a stop to this and it was killed- by the Democrats- who were lining their pockets."

that bill was introduced Jan 2005 by Hagel. McCain did not sign on until 5/2006, 10 months after it died in committee (16 months after it was introduced. He knew full well it was going nowhere.

The Republicans had control of this committee 11 to 9 over the Democrats so had the Republicans chosen to move this bill they could have.

This was introduced during the 109th Congress, of which both the Senate and House were controlled by the Republicans. This could have easily passed both, and could easily have been signed by the President.

I will leave it up to you to ponder why it never gained any steam (pssst. l o b b y i s t s, shhhh).

jimmcc01 of WA 11:14PM September 27, 2008

I have no use for either McCain or Obama - each for different reasons. But I must say the blind partisanship is more than a little goofy.

Neither of these guys is responsible for this mess... We, the people, the politicians, and corporate America, wanted real estate to continue to go up forever and everyone bought into the insanity of "all gain and no pain". The ultimate crazy Ponzi scheme.

Time to stop dancing and pay the piper... but we can't even do that. All hooked on the feel good, credit, ever increasing equity monkey.

Sober up America.

R.L. Schaefer of CA 12:58PM September 22, 2008

John McCain's lobbyist ties threaten his reformer image:

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/05/20/mccains_lobbyist_ties_pose_threat_to_reformer_image/

Lobbyists Are Running The McCain Campaign

All of the TOP PEOPLE in the McCain campaign are lobbyists for large corporations, including Big Oil, and FOREIGN COUNTRIES.

Campaign CEO - Rick Davis, a partner at lobbying firm Davis Manafort

National Campaign Director- Christian Ferry and associate at lobbying firm Davis Manafort

National Political Director- Mike Dennehy, who founded The Dennehy Group, a New Hampshire lobbying firm

National Finance Director- Susan Nelson lobbyist working for Loeffler Group LLC. Continued taking monthly lobbying payments after starting with McCain''s campaign.

Senior Policy Advisor- David Crane. A Senior Executive at The Washington Group, a corporate lobbying firm with 2006 billings of $10.4 million.

Senior Foreign Policy Adviser - Randy Scheunemann. He is McCain''s PRIMARY Foreign Policy Adviser. He is also a lobbyist for FOREIGN COUNTRIES, including Georgia (that was just in a war with Russia).

National Finance Co-Chair Tom Loeffler Owns one of the most lucrative and influential lobbying practices in Washington.

Regional Campaign Manager- Doug Davenport ran DCI''s lobbying practice. Was forced to leave when it was exposed that he LOBBIED FOR the REPRESSIVE REGIME IN BURMA.

Campaign Spokesman- Charlie Black who is chairman of BKSH & Associates, with lobbying billings of $7.6 million in 2006

Barack Obama has no lobbyists on the payroll or serving as key advisers.

julie of MA 9:29PM September 21, 2008

Robert Schlesinger

Robert Schlesinger

Robert Schlesinger is managing editor for opinion at U.S. News and World Report, overseeing all opinion editorial content. He is the author of White House Ghosts: Presidents and Their Speechwriters. E-mail him at rschlesinger@usnews.com. Follow him on Twitter: @rschles.

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