Rick Davis is John McCain's campaign manager. He's also a liar, and now he's been caught red-handed. Davis is the one who lashed out in desperation at the New York Times yesterday, but as their hero Ronald Reagan tried to say, facts are stubborn things:
WASHINGTON — One of the giant mortgage companies at the heart of the credit crisis paid $15,000 a month from the end of 2005 through last month to a firm owned by Senator John McCain’s campaign manager, according to two people with direct knowledge of the arrangement.
The disclosure undercuts a statement by Mr. McCain on Sunday night that the campaign manager, Rick Davis, had 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.
They said they did not recall Mr. Davis’s doing much substantive work for the company in return for the money, other than speak to a political action committee of high-ranking employees in October 2006 on the approaching midterm Congressional elections. They said Mr. Davis’s firm, Davis & Manafort, had been kept on the payroll because of Mr. Davis’s close ties to Mr. McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, who by 2006 was widely expected to run again for the White House.
So is John McCain going to "make him famous" now?
Since it is the NYT I will wait and see if any of this is true. (They have a bad habit of simply making things up when it comes to McCain.) But let us stipulate that McCain and Obama both have connections to people who have connections to Fannie and Freddie. The difference between them is that McCain fought hard for legislation to regulate and reel in the two giants in 2005. Obama sat on his hands and did nothing during that same time. (Obama did nothing aside from raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars from them, that is.)— bon- You owe an apology to JACKIE CALMES and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK. You have taken their story, written objectively, and added emphasis when not needed. Had they intended this to be part of their story, THEY would have used BOLD type-set.— shoeshineboy
- One of the things McCain planned for poorly was only making his "campaign hideaway" big enough for one. First, Phil Gramm gets sent away, then comes out when Carly Fiorina gets shunted. I guess we'll be seeing Carly tomorrow, because Rick sure does need a place to crash for awhile. The way his campaign has managed their ethical issues, he should have figured on something along the lines of a Penalty Box.— yobill626
- One of the things McCain planned for poorly was only making his "campaign hideaway" big enough for one. First, Phil Gramm gets sent away, then comes out when Carly Fiorina gets shunted. I guess we'll be seeing Carly tomorrow, because Rick sure does need a place to crash for awhile. The way his campaign has managed their ethical issues, he should have figured on something along the lines of a Penalty Box.— yobill626
- Still awaiting a post from the resident MediaGuruExpertKnowitallCitizen about Highway patrol officer Patrick McDonald. I guess recognizing and honoring in print those who die in the line are not worthy enoughy for your precious fingers on your keyboard.— shoeshineboy
- yobill626: Both candidate seem to be pretty trigger happy with that bus this cycle, don't they? Something tells me McCain will put his foot down here, though, and refuse to get rid of Davis. Davis is a brilliant guy and has done a lot of good for McCain. I don't think McCain will toss that aside.— bon
- Of course the Times will try to blow this out of proportion(if it is even true), no problem though---Obama's connection to Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson are FAR MORE dubious than Rick Davis' relationship with the companies.... Not that we expect the Times to be honest in their reporting and elaborate on all the facts of the story so that Obama's connections are exposed... They are pathetic!!!— Delaware Vol
- yobill626: Oh, and PS, Fiorina still has a very high level management position at the RNC. She is still helping McCain. She just isn't much of a surrogate, as we have seen in recent weeks.— bon
Comment removed.- bon: I was just busting chops about Davis. I know he's not going anywhere. However, he's the CAMPAIGN MANAGER, for G*d's sake! Cons like to throw around Raines' & Johnson's names whenver they can, but their connection to Obama is MUCH smaller than McCain's connection to people like Gramm, Fiorina & Davis. Heck, one of the jokes about Obama is the fact that he consults with anyone with a pulse. You can't verify that either of these guys is anywhere close to Barack's inner circe. Its painfully obvious that McCain's inner circle is experienced, but ethically challenged.— yobill626
- bon: I also think Fiorina is sharp as a whip. YOU were the guy that pushed her for McCain's VP more than anyone else here & on Polman's blog. She makes Joe Biden seem like low maintenance. However, McCain has a lot to defend in regards to her --- she of the enormous payout while 200 people lost their jobs.— yobill626
- yobill626: To be fair, Johnson and Raines were personally involved in crafting the boarder-line illegal business practices for Fannie Mae over the last decade. Davis consulting for Fannie Mae and Fiorina and Gramms saying silly things is not really comparable.— bon
- You guys are dancing around the other big problem here, that McCain released a statement on Sunday night that Davis hadn't been involved with Freddie Mac for a couple of years -- so they lied.— will
- For those who are just tuning in, Democrats killed S. 190 in committee. Their righteous outrage today shows that they have conveniently forgotten this fact. Also, the fact that they will tie pet projects to it that sound good but just introduce uncertainty (executive comp regulation) means we will have Sarbanes-Oxley-style knee-jerk legislation, only less effective and more costly.— Echo
- "2007, Wall Street's five biggest firms -- Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley -- paid a record $39 billion in bonuses to themselves." http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/09/last-years-big.html Which makes the $30K per month for 5 years that Davis earned chump change.— Some Boca Dude
Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.
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