AP IMPACT: Mortgage firm arranged stealth campaign (DCI's Doug Goodyear later hired by Mc*)

[Kadie]

AP IMPACT: Mortgage firm arranged stealth campaign
By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer Pete Yost, Associated Press Writer – 34 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Freddie Mac secretly paid a Republican consulting firm $2 million to kill legislation that would have regulated and trimmed the mortgage finance giant and its sister company, Fannie Mae, three years before the government took control to prevent their collapse.

In the cross hairs of the campaign carried out by DCI of Washington were Republican senators and a regulatory overhaul bill sponsored by Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. DCI's chief executive is Doug Goodyear, whom John McCain's campaign later hired to manage the GOP convention in September.

Freddie Mac's payments to DCI began shortly after the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee sent Hagel's bill to the then GOP-run Senate on July 28, 2005. All GOP members of the committee supported it; all Democrats opposed it.

In the midst of DCI's yearlong effort, Hagel and 25 other Republican senators pleaded unsuccessfully with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., to allow a vote.

more....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081019/ap_on_bi_ge/the_influence_game_housing_12

[Democrats_win]

1. That gun is smok'in! Call CSI, the GOP's fingerprints are all over the 2008 financial collapse.

[calimary]

2. I hope we see some action on this.

Colin Powell will suck all the oxygen out of the room for awhile (good in that it's a positive story for our side), but this will probably get sucked up in the vacuum. We need to keep track of this, though. And share it whenever possible.

[kirby]

3. I dont understand one point...

"whom John McCain's campaign later hired to manage the GOP convention in September."

What would McCain be responsible for managing the convention? That was setup/managed the primaries had picked even picked the presumptive GOP candidate.