Tangled webs
“Whatever the New York Times once was, it is not today by any standard a journalistic organization. It is a pro-Obama organization that every day attacks Senator McCain, attacks Governor Palin, and excuses Senator Obama.”
That was McCain campaign CEO, Steve Schmidt, on Sunday’s Times story that basket case mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae paid the firm owned by McCain campaign manager Rick Davis $2 million over five years, about $30,000 a month. The news about Davis emerged because the McCain camp started broadcasting ads trying to link Mr. Obama to the government bailout of the mortgage giants ”by charging that he takes advice from Fannie Mae’s former chief executive, Franklin Raines, an assertion both Mr. Raines and the Obama campaign dispute.”
Mortgage execs were ticked off and ratted Davis out to the Times, but McCain and his campaign went on the attack, saying Davis hadn’t worked for Freddie and Fannie for years, and they used the article to ramp up attacks on the media–always an easy, and often deserving, target. (The McCain anti-media blitz grew comical today as they tried to keep Sarah Palin in a photo-op bubble as she made nice at the U.N. Reporters revolted at the attempted manipulation. Nearly a month since Palin was named, and still no press conference or open interview. Astonishing.)
Back to Rick Davis. The Times now reports this:
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.
THROUGH LAST MONTH? Ouch. Is this stuff going to take a toll? Or does the public figure that campaigns are a caged death match–if you come out alive, you deserve the title? George Will is not impressed with McCain (and starts his column with a Lewis Caroll gem).
UPDATE: Newsweek has more details, including this doozy:
The two sources, who requested anonymity discussing sensitive information, told NEWSWEEK that Davis himself approached Freddie Mac in 2006 and asked for a new consulting arrangement that would allow his firm to continue to be paid. The arrangement was approved by Hollis McLoughlin, Freddie Mac’s senior vice president for external relations, because “he [Davis] was John McCain’s campaign manager and it was felt you couldn’t say no,” said one of the sources. [McLoughlin did not return phone calls].
In any case, I started this post with a quote, so might as well end with one, from Andrew Sullivan’s Quote-of-the-Day:
“We do not support government bailouts of private institutions. Government interference in the markets exacerbates problems in the marketplace and causes the free market to take longer to correct itself,” – Republican Party Platform, 2008.
AMEN – excellent post, thanks.
Already the PACS are doing the dirty work. Obama will have to be smarter than Kerry on this one. The Sterling Heights Michigan attack on Obama show how vicious it can be. These kind of attacks are working. Amazing that the Obama campaign were better in responding to Hillary. Are the Republicans better at campaigning. Looks like it. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/us/politics/24groups.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
I used to think that McCain is simply a rash man. Now I think that he is extraordinarily naive about a advisors, and he’s a sucker for bad advice from self-serving people who share his basic outlook.. First there was his astonishing choice of Palin, which no doubt was the result of advice from simple-minded super-conservatives. Now it turns out that he naively has chosen to accept the advice of self-serving lobbyists who have misrepresented their own qualifications. All this confirms the principle of human nature that we often believe what we want to believe.
The Schmidt quote was cited by NPR this morning, noting how My Friend John had allowed (for the first time in over a month) to let (a few) reporters ask him (three) questions.
Of course, it’s the big bad media, just as the big bad media was responsible for the Church’s sex abuse scandal.
And it’s just not the Times (that evil institution); a while back there was a “John the fibber” post on the internet with numerous cites from papers around the country complaining about lies (yes, lies) in the McCain TV ad spots.
Interestingly, the same NPR time spot noted that a lot of voters in Southwest PA plannned to vote for McCain because they are hunters. Obviously, personal presilection will continue to trump facts.
Personally, I feel sorry for John McCain – I think he’s trapped by a morally bankrupt. win at all cost, Republican National Committee.
a PS -I think I’m losing my mind (my wife thinks so.) I thought there was a thread in here about the Miami Archbishop sayiong “We’re not party bosses.”
Was I imagining that?
Bob Nunz said: “Interestingly, the same NPR time spot noted that a lot of voters in Southwest PA plannned to vote for McCain because they are hunters. Obviously, personal presilection will continue to trump facts.”
What is so strange about hunters supporting Senator McCain over Senator Obama if that is an important issue for them?
What is so strange about hunters supporting Senator McCain over Senator Obama if that is an important issue for them?
MAT,
So far as I know, neither McCain nor Obama has a position on hunting. How can hunting be an “important issue”? It’s not an issue at all! If Obama had disagreed with the Supreme Court decision on the Second Amendment, I can see where hunters might think it was an issue, but he didn’t.
David Nickol: Both Senators have positions on hunting. Please refer to both of their interviews with Field & Stream published in the latest issue which hit my mailbox on Monday. They also have sections on their websites devoted to the Second Amendment and sportsmen issues:
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/additional/#sportsmen for Senator Obama, and
http://sportsmen.johnmccain.com/Sportsmen.htm and
http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/77636553-6337-4ecd-b170-49e1c07d2fbd.htm for Senator McCain
I am a lifetime NRA member and sportsman and while it is not the sole issue for me, it is extremely important. I will leave it up to others to determine who is better for them on this issue, but to say it is not an issue is false and it goes well beyond the Heller ruling. It includes policies on habitat protection and wildlife conservation, federal lands management, multiple use / access laws, as well as a host of Second Amendment issues which include policies on crimes committed with a firearm, licensing, ammunition, and the level and type of restrictions on firearm ownership.
Again, I am not saying who is “better” for sportsmen, but I am saying that it is definitely a legitimate issue and the two candidates have written positions on it in varying degrees of detail and have records of voting and and other similar behavior going back over a decade in the case of Senator Obama, and decades in the case of Senator McCain, on these topics. Their track-records and positions are quite divergent and provide, in my opinion, ample basis to support one or the other because of it.
I don’t know if the votes are enough to tip a swing state, but on this morning’s NPR there was an interview of a Democrat from southwestern Pennsylvania who stated, very reluctantly it seemed to me, that he was going to follow his party and vote for Obama. He stated that all of his Democratic friends, however, were planning to vote for McCain because they perceived him better on two issues important to them: hunting and guns.
David Gibson: I realize you don’t speak for the NY Times. But how is McCain’s campaign manager being on the Fannie/Freddie payroll any more worthy of front-page play than Obama himself being on the payroll? Too lazy to hunt down the details, but didn’t he rank 2nd or 3rd among current senators (I think only behind Chris Dodd?) in accepting campaign contributions from them?
Judging by my daily email edition of the NYTimes (the national edition, seemingly), the Times DOES run a negative story every day about McCain. Without questioning the merits of any of the stories – at an editorial level, it really does seem a bit – or more than a bit – one-sided.
Oh, well, seemingly the press was far yellower in Lincoln’s day, and somehow the country muddled through.
Both Senators have positions on hunting
MAT,
Wow, was I ever wrong to comment on this. You are clearly correct, and I am clearly wrong. Apologies for poking fun. The closest I ever get to hunting is seeing squirrels and pigeons in Madison Square Park in the morning as I walk to work.
I have nothing against hunters or hunting, though I once turned down a heart from an elk a nephew took down with bow and arrow, or guns per se for that matter.
My point was perspective. I think one should wonder, given all that’s happened with our military, health care, economy, education,etc., why hunting is an “important” issue.
I am a josephking. 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.
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I am a josephking, I am a lifetime NRA member and sportsman and while it is not the sole issue for me, it is extremely important. I will leave it up to others to determine who is better for them on this issue, but to say it is not an issue is false and it goes well beyond the Heller ruling. It includes policies on habitat protection and wildlife conservation, federal lands management, multiple use / access laws, as well as a host of Second Amendment issues which include policies on crimes committed with a firearm, licensing, ammunition, and the level and type of restrictions on firearm ownership.
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