Newsweek: A Freddie Mac Money Trail Catches Up With McCain

[maddezmom]

~snip~

Last week, though, McCain's trust in Davis was tested again amid disclosures that Freddie Mac, the troubled mortgage giant that was recently placed under federal conservatorship, paid his campaign manager's firm $15,000 a month between 2006 and August 2008. As the mortgage crisis has escalated, almost any association with Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae has become politically toxic. But the payments to Davis's firm, Davis Manafort, are especially problematic because he requested the consulting retainer in 2006—and then did barely any work for the fees, according to two sources familiar with the arrangement who asked not to be identified discussing Freddie Mac business. Aside from attending a few breakfasts and a political-action-committee meeting with Democratic strategist Paul Begala (another Freddie consultant), Davis did "zero" for the housing firm, one of the sources said. Freddie Mac also had no dealings with the lobbying firm beyond paying monthly invoices—but it agreed to the arrangement because of Davis's close relationship with McCain, the source said, which led top executives to conclude "you couldn't say no."

The McCain campaign told reporters the fees were irrelevant because Davis "separated from his consulting firm … in 2006," according to the campaign's Web site, and he stopped drawing a salary from it. In fact, however, when Davis joined the campaign in January 2007, he asked that his $20,000-a-month salary be paid directly to Davis Manafort, two sources who asked not to be identified discussing internal campaign business told NEWSWEEK. Federal campaign records show the McCain campaign paid Davis Manafort $90,000 through July 2007, when a cash crunch prompted Davis and other top campaign officials to forgo their salaries and work as volunteers. Separately, another entity created and partly owned by Davis—an Internet firm called 3eDC, whose address was the same office building as Davis Manafort's—received payments from the McCain campaign for Web services, collecting $971,860 through March 2008.

In an e-mail to NEWSWEEK, a senior McCain official said that when the campaign began last year, it signed a contract with Davis Manafort "in which we purchased all of time, and he agreed not to work for any other clients." The official also said that though Davis was an "investor" in 3eDC, Davis has received no salary from it. As to why Davis permitted the Freddie Mac payments to continue, the official referred NEWSWEEK to Davis Manafort, which did not respond to repeated phone calls. One senior McCain adviser said the entire flap could have been avoided if the campaign had resisted attacking Barack Obama for his ties to two former Fannie Mae executives, which prompted the media to take a second look at Davis. "It was stupid," the adviser said. "A serious miscalculation and an amateurish move." Still, this adviser said, McCain's faith in his campaign manager remains unswerving.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/161218

[maddezmom]

1. Troublesome Résumés 5/20/07

Troublesome Résumés
By Edward T. Pound
Posted 5/20/07
It isn't just the candidate whose reputation has been challenged in some quarters. Ethical questions have arisen about three of Sen. John McCain's most senior campaign aides—John Weaver, Richard Davis, and Terry Nelson. Weaver and Davis, often at odds over strategy, worked for McCain's presidential effort in 2000; Nelson was brought aboard for the current campaign.

Weaver, a seasoned political operative, ran into an ethical storm while employed by the 1996 presidential campaign of then Sen. Phil Gramm, a Texas Republican. Weaver was Gramm's field director but also provided direct-mail services to the campaign through his company, Campaign Services Group. In a nasty dispute, U.S. News has learned, Weaver was accused of bilking Gramm's campaign. The accusations were leveled by Jeb Hensarling, who managed Gramm's effort and is now a prominent Republican House member from Texas.

~snip~

The questions surrounding Davis concern his part ownership of a company, 3eDC, and its ties to the McCain campaign. Like Weaver and Nelson, Davis, the campaign CEO, is paid $20,000 a month. Additionally, however, Davis's 3eDC has a lucrative contract with the campaign. U.S. News could find no public record showing Davis's ownership interest in 3EDC, but in an interview he acknowledged that he was one of its two owners. McCain's spokesman, Brian Jones, confirmed that Davis "did not disclose his interest in 3eDC to Senator McCain.'"

3eDC helped build the campaign's website and maintains its infrastructure. Davis declined to disclose the company's contractual arrangement with McCain's operation, but campaign records filed recently show that the company is owed $175,000 for just three months' work. Davis identified the other 3edc owner as Paul Manafort, his partner in a lobbying firm, Davis Manafort. Manafort is a controversial figure in Washington. He has represented notorious dictators and once described himself as an "influence peddler" in testimony before a House committee examining how he and other Republican operatives profited from a housing program for the poor.

more:http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070520/28mccain.b.htm

[onethatcares]

2. $15,000.00 a month. What does one do for $15,000.00 a month?

no wonder we at the lower end of the spectrum have a time keeping up with the Davis'.

How many of you guys make 10K to 15K a month? Do you have a hard time riding in other peoples donated automobiles? How about buying groceries?

Paying the electric bill? Buying school clothes for your kids?

Gaud dammit, that's a lot of fuking money.

[maddezmom]

3. the worst part is he did nothing for it

it was an insurance policy of sorts if McCain wins.

[onethatcares]

4. the other guy, the one that worked for WaMu, and got 20 million

jeezus on a fucking airdale, that's a lot of dinero. And he only worked for them 17 days, not even long enough to find out wtf he was supposed to do.

I'm freaking lost. I'm about ready to rob a bank and do fed time to get healthcare, shit, I'm too old to be a sextoy. I just want to have 3 hots and a cot, a lttle bit of tv and some time to play the guitar. Is that too much to ask?

[maddezmom]

5. just found something else interesting:

Housing giant dropped meeting with McCain adviser
By PETE YOST – 7 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Last March, a consultant to Freddie Mac arranged a meeting between the top economist in John McCain's campaign and Hollis S. McLoughlin, a prominent Republican and top executive at the failing housing giant that is central to the nation's credit crisis.

The scheduled meeting with McCain economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin never took place because a number of Freddie Mac executives objected that it would have been inappropriate, according to three people familiar with the episode.

The executives pointed out to McLoughlin that there was no such outreach to the campaigns of Democratic candidates, said the three people, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The consultant who arranged the meeting, Harry Clark, is the founder of a Washington lobbying firm.

Out of a special account that McLoughlin controls, the Freddie Mac executive has been paying Clark more than $10,000 a month. McLoughlin has been using the same account to pay $15,000 a month to the lobbying firm of Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager, according to the three people.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jnhZ5ehM97b5g022vv1cHSheTh1gD93F6BO00