Another day, another lie revealed. Turns out Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager, was involved with Freddie Mac. Quite recently.
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.
The issue is that, indeed, on Sunday McCain said that Davis had "nothing to do with" with Freddie Mac since 2005, and invited reporters to check up on it. Well, it turns out reporters did, and Davis was involved after that point, and even right up to the present -- having Davis's company be receiving payments from Freddie Mac as of last month hardly counts as "no involvement." Worse yet, it seems those payments were made specifically because of Davis's "close ties" to McCain.
There's even a little bit of schadenfreude involved, here, in that it was McCain's flagrant lie on the matter that compelled parties to come forward, just to make sure people knew that "not involved" meant "involved, and still taking their money."
Mr. Davis took a leave from Davis & Manafort for the presidential campaign, but as a partner and equity-holder continues to benefit from its income. No one at Davis & Manafort other than Mr. Davis was involved in efforts on Freddie Mac’s behalf, the people familiar with the arrangement said. [...]
On Sunday, in an interview with CNBC and The New York Times, Mr. McCain responded to a question about Mr. Davis’s role in the advocacy group through 2005 by saying that his campaign manager “has had nothing to do with it since, and I’ll be glad to have his record examined by anybody who wants to look at it.”
Such assertions, along with McCain campaign television ads tying Mr. Obama to former Fannie Mae chiefs, have riled current and former officials of the two companies and provoked them to volunteer rebuttals. The two officials with direct knowledge of Freddie Mac’s post-2005 contract with Mr. Davis spoke on condition of anonymity. Four other outside consultants, three Democrats and a Republican also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the arrangement was widely known among people involved in Freddie Mac’s lobbying efforts.
There's more details in the story, but I'll just observe that if the McCain campaign is so ticked off at being called liars, they might try, well... not lying. I know, I know, that's so "pre-Bushian" of me.
Comments are closed on this story.