And the Lies Keep Coming...

On Monday, I wrote about Rick Davis, Sen. McCain's campaign manager, being paid nearly $2 million from 2000 to 2005 for nothing other than his proximity to Sen. McCain. The night before I wrote that entry, Sen. McCain claimed in an interview with CNBC and The New York Times that Mr. Davis "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." Can you guess what's coming? Remember, this is the "Straight Talk Express" we're talking about...

Sure enough, Sen. McCain's statement was yet another lie (or, perhaps, Sen. McCain said what he thought to be true, which, as you will soon see, raises serious questions about how well he knows his top advisers). According to The New York Times, Freddie Mac paid $15,000 per month (starting in 2005 and continuing until Freddie Mac was taken over by the government), to Mr. Davis' lobbying firm. Apparently Mr. Davis was kept on the payroll, once again, because of his close ties to Sen. McCain. And, while it is true that Mr. Davis took a leave of absence from his firm for the campaign, he remains a partner and shareholder in the lobbying firm and continues to benefit from income received by the firm. Moreover, nobody else at the firm other than Mr. Davis was involved in lobbying efforts on behalf of Freddie Mac, so it would be hard to argue that the payments to the lobbying firm had nothing to do with Mr. Davis.

In other words, despite repeated claims to the contrary, Sen. McCain's campaign manager has been paid $15,000 per month for the last three years (and lots more for the years before that) for doing nothing other than being close to Sen. McCain.

I can't decide which is worse: That Sen. McCain's campaign manager was being paid exorbitant amounts of money to do nothing other than be close to Sen. McCain or that Sen. McCain either didn't know that or did know it and lied about it. And if Sen. McCain did know, besides the obvious questions of why he lied and why he allowed Mr. Davis to keep his position (the Obama campaign has been asking questions about Mr. Davis' lobbying activities for quite some time), one should also ask why didn't Sen. McCain publicly disclose that Freddie Mac (a quasi-governmental entity) was wasting money paying a lobbyist just to be close to Sen. McCain? And, are we really supposed to believe that, in all the years that Mr. Davis has been "close" to Sen. McCain and been paid huge sums by Freddie Mac, that Freddie Mac received nothing from its "investment"? Please...