Don’t piss down my back and tell me it’s rainin’, Ed.

Fletch54 on September 25, 2008 at 11:26 AM

Usually the term refers to pissin’ on a leg. Whatever position you prefer to assume is telling.

Either McCain is a blind fool or a liar. Which is it?

Fletch54 on September 25, 2008 at 11:26 AM

Cognitive disconnect, right? Take two aspirins and call back on November 5th.

1. Davis Manafort and Rick Davis have NEVER been registered lobbyists for Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. The two employed a battalion of outside lobbyists, many of whom did no work at all. Freddie Mac had lobbyists who were very well connected to many key Republicans. Rick Davis wasn’t one of them. EVER. This can be looked up by anyone at the Clerk of the House website. The Times artfully worded its article to clearly imply that Davis had been lobbying and that McCain is a liar for saying that nobody on his campaign has been lobbying for anyone.

2. Here is an article on the Wall Street Journal’s Washington Wire blog today. Note especially the last paragraph. Ms. Canfield also made this comment in a Sept. 7 WSJ article that went into more detail about Fannie’s lobbying machine. I know Ms. Canfield very well and she has been lobbying for stronger regulation of the GSEs since 1996. She is a very credible witness on this.

Anyone Not Tied to Fannie or Freddie Please Stand UpNick Timiraos and Damian Paletta report on the presidential race.

The McCain campaign’s attempt to play the who-has-more-connections-to-Fannie Mae-and-Freddie Mac-executives-and-lobbyists game appears to have backfired, as campaign manager Rick Davis faces new questions over his lobbying firm’s ties to Freddie Mac.

But as Barack Obama hunkers down in Tampa, Fla., for debate prep this week, he is being coached by—wait for it—a Fannie Mae executive who headed the company’s legal shop and worked closely with its stable of lobbyists.

Tom Donilon, a Washington lawyer, held several senior positions in the Clinton State Department, and the Obama campaign points to that expertise in bringing him on board as an unpaid adviser to help prep Obama for Friday’s foreign policy debate with McCain.

Donilon, who contributed $4,600 to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in March 2007 (and gave the maximum $2,300 to Obama for the general election in July), has a long resume in Democratic politics. He headed the Clinton-Gore transition effort and Clinton’s 1992 debate prep. He also served as an aide to Sen. Joe Biden in his failed 1988 presidential bid.

More recently, he served as Fannie Mae’s executive vice president for law and policy from 1999 until 2005, giving him control of Fannie Mae’s legal, regulatory and public policy activities and government and industry relations.

Donilon was one of several executives to leave at a time when the company faced pressure to improve its accounting practices, and he was mentioned numerous times in a scathing report two years ago on Fannie’s accounting misdeeds, when the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight accused the company of manipulating results to maximize bonuses. The report didn’t criticize Donilon but said that lobbyists under his direction had pushed for a government investigation of Ofheo in 2004 in order to undermine the regulator’s credibility in challenging Fannie’s accounting.

The bipartisan lobbying efforts by the housing giants isn’t a Washington secret, though both campaigns have tried to exploit the other’s connections in recent days.

The McCain camp first raised the issue with an ad spotlighting Obama’s more than $100,000 in campaign contributions from Fannie and Freddie employees for his 2004 Senate campaign, and his ties to figures including Jim Johnson, a former Fannie Mae chairman, who headed Obama’s vice presidential search earlier this year until questions emerged about favoritism he received in loans from Countrywide Financial Corp.

But the Obama campaign fired back on Tuesday, when news reports said that the lobbying firm founded by McCain campaign manager Rick Davis had until very recently been taking money from Freddie Mac. Davis took leave from the firm for the election.

“The question that now needs to be answered is this: did Freddie Mac or any other special interests buy access to John McCain by compensating top officials, including Rick Davis?” Obama spokesman Dan Pfeiffer said in a statement Tuesday.

McCain has long fought to shrink the size of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and earlier this month, a longtime critic of Fannie and Freddie told the Wall Street Journal of the housing giants’ unsuccessful efforts to win McCain over.

“There were quite a few lobbyists retained by Fannie and Freddie who tried to influence Sen. McCain, but they never were able to get their ‘hooks’ into him,” said Anne Canfield, who heads a lending trade group, the Consumer Mortgage Coalition, that has called for greater regulation of the government-backed entities.

As has been previously reported, Mr. Davis separated from his consulting firm, Davis Manafort, in 2006. As has been previously reported, Mr. Davis has seen no income from Davis Manafort since 2006. Zero. Mr. Davis has received no salary or compensation since 2006. Mr. Davis has received no profit or partner distributions from that firm on any basis — weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or annual — since 2006. Again, zero. Neither has Mr. Davis received any equity in the firm based on profits derived since his financial separation from Davis Manafort in 2006.

Sir Napsalot on September 25, 2008 at 12:10 PM

Well, apparently Caroline Kennedy will be amb. to the UK, so I think Zimbabwe would be the best place for J. Johnson. Perfect fit.

In 2003, Frank opposed Bush administration and Congressional Republican efforts for the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis. Under the plan a new agency would have been created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry. “These two entities, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are not facing any kind of financial crisis,” Frank said. He added, “The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.”

Franks, Chairman of the House Financial Committee should resign in disgrace…

During his tenure, Dodd has taken special interest in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, garnering a total of $133,900 in campaign contributions from them, more than any other person in American politics. When the Bush administration attempted to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in from 2002 to 2007, Dodd actively and successfully opposed Republican-led legislation with the help of John Kerry, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton

Dodd, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, should resign in disgrace…

On September 18, 2008 the media reported that Republican presidential candidate John McCain said he would, if elected, fire US Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox for failing in his oversight of Wall Street.

Cox, Chairman of the SEC, should resign in disgrace…

Slublog on September 25, 2008 at 11:28 AM
——————————————————-

give Fletch54 a break he probably saw some Big-Um words and became confused. I blame this lack of communication on Ed, I mean he has a lot of gall putting in big words like “profess amusement” in the first sentence of this article. How does he expect an Obama drone to get past that?

In what capacity will Jim Johnson serve under the Obama administration?

Pray it is only an ambassadorship in an obscure country.

The problem is, most of the voting public has no inkling of these controversies and issues. Tell them that it’s Obambi, not McCain, who is surrounded by corrupt advisors, and they’ll say, “Oh, that’s just right-wing propaganda.” The NBC Nightly News is not going to tell them about Jim Johnson. They’ll just show endless clips of Obambi decrying “Four more years of George Bush!” And unfortunately, that’s most of the people going to the polls on November 4th.
MrLynn on September 25, 2008 at 12:01 PM

Hopefully, when Johnson and Raines are under investigation from the FBI, we may break through the coverage blackout.

Either McCain is a blind fool or I am a liar. Which is it?

Fletch54 on September 25, 2008 at 11:26 AM

You made a typo but I fixed it…I choose the second option…

I wonder…how does this blip in the market and tightening of liquidity effect the hedge fund game? How is George Soros faring these days?

I’m so worried about ol’ George, after all. The idea of arrogant multi-billionaire political dilettante wreckers reduced to selling pencils makes me tear up…a bit….

Puritan1648 on September 25, 2008 at 11:57 AM

Soros is opposed to the plan, which makes me a bit more inclined to support it. To Ed’s story, this needs to be shouted at every opportunity, (and don’t fail to mention Raines) until everyone hears it, despite the blackout from the MSM.

Fannie Mae disclosed his compensation at the time as $2 million. The actual value of his compensation? Twenty-one million dollars. Why did Johnson and Fannie Mae hide that cost from its shareholders and government auditors?

Why indeed? Isn’t it a crime to make improper disclosures? And may I say that I want to throw a shoe at the television every time Obama demagogues about CEO pay, like when he says this:

“The American people should not be spending one dime to reward the same Wall Street CEOs whose greed and irresponsibility got us into this mess,” Obama said.

And later: “I will not allow this plan to become a welfare program for Wall Street executives. No way, no how.”

I guess Johnson, Raines, and Gorelick get a pass because their corporate headquarters were in DC, not Wall Street.

Countrywide was one of the main failure points in the sub-prime market collapse, and Johnson and Fannie Mae should have been watching it closely.

Rush had a very interesting caller the other day, who had worked for Countrywide. According to this caller, it was Fannie Mae who was pushing them to give people with bad credit A rated loans. He specifically cited Fannie Mae wanting to confer this status on people who had just emerged from bankruptcy.

Now your just another McCain shill, Ed. Is Obama and Johnson guilty as hell? Absolutely. Should the Republican candidate, owner of CFR and “Country First” reform be above reproach? Absolutely. Unfortunately, he’s not, and coming to light at the worst possible moment for him. And this example is just the tip of the McCain/Davis iceberg.

The problem is, most of the voting public has no inkling of these controversies and issues. Tell them that it’s Obambi, not McCain, who is surrounded by corrupt advisors, and they’ll say, “Oh, that’s just right-wing propaganda.” The NBC Nightly News is not going to tell them about Jim Johnson. They’ll just show endless clips of Obambi decrying “Four more years of George Bush!” And unfortunately, that’s most of the people going to the polls on November 4th. They don’t read Ed Morrissey, or even watch Brit Hume.

“Four more years of Jimmy Carter” won’t work on them. They think he’s a nice man who builds houses for the poor and wins Nobel Prizes.

John McCain has just a few weeks to break through the media barrier. He needs a “There you go again!” moment in the debates. Keep your fingers crossed.

McCain blasted the lies with factual accounting on record.

Obama is still digging his own grave, unable and unwilling to accept any factual accounting on record.

Teflon Bill Clinton delivered Obama to the morgue where Barry can await his last breath while in isolation. All those willing to “clean” Obama’s image are the very ones made of the shit we hate to begin with. Elitists, check. Media, check. Socialists, check. Corrupt official authoritarians, check. Bloated Weezel CEOs, check. Greedy investors unwilling to suffer their OWN consequences, check.

Meanwhile, the odd couple Bill and Bush Sr. are tight. The Clintons will get a pass on Bill’s enabling of our crisis because Hillary will work with McCain.

Whatever GWBush, McCain and Hillary hammer out is what we’ll be stuck with. God help us, because those three share more in common than what differentiates them.

I hope that DeMint has his strong coalition happening! I hope that Newt’s proposals clear headway through this legislated economic fiasco.

SING A SONG OF SIX PENCE

I’m so worried about ol’ George, after all. The idea of arrogant multi-billionaire political dilettante wreckers reduced to selling pencils makes me tear up…a bit….

…and I’d better see you all voting for Obama…after all, not to do so for the first black candidate is a sure sign of…wait for it…RACISM…after all…isn’t this one more feeble attempt on to sponge away the white guilt so many have been raised with?

…being raised with “white privilege” myself — privileged to work for my supper with folks of all colors without a speck of sympathy, advocacy or respite — I feel free to vote my conscience….

…so, if the first black candidate, surrounded by the detritis of a failed socially suicidal ethic, fails to get elected to the office so many feel is his “due”, I’d simply have to say that it’s a sign that the system works…and move along….

Johnson, Raines, Pritzker (the queen of the sub-prime mortgage) and Corzine.

Yet Obama supporters ask no questions- especially those in the media.

Willfully ignorant and colosally stupid. It is disgraceful.

If he did receive income and it is not on his tax filings then this whole thing is the LEAST of his problems.

Check his return filings. If no income reported, then case closed.