McCain's Campaign Manager Paid $2 Million by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for Access to McCain

According to the story "Loan Titans Paid McCain Adviser Nearly $2 Million" in The New York Times, Rick Davis, the campaign manager for Sen. McCain's campaign, served as a lobbyist for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Over a period of five years (beginning around 2000), Davis was paid $35,000 a month!

“The value that he brought to the relationship was the closeness to Senator McCain and the possibility that Senator McCain was going to run for president again,” said Robert McCarson, a former spokesman for Fannie Mae, who said that while he worked there from 2000 to 2002, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac together paid Mr. Davis’s firm $35,000 a month. Mr. Davis “didn’t really do anything,” Mr. McCarson, a Democrat, said.

This disclosure is particularly interesting given that the McCain campaign has tried to tie Sen. Obama to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac via misleading advertisements and statements, including a claim that Sen. Obama received campaign advice from Fannie Mae's former chief executive Franlin Raines, a claim that both Sen. Obama and Raines have denied. So, I find it quite interesting that while he takes time to attack Sen. Obama's slim attachments to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, Sen. McCain has as his campaign manager a lobbyist who earned $2,000,000 from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae solely due to his "closeness" to Sen. McCain. And remember that Davis is one of 7 former lobbyists at the top of the McCain campaign.

What is the old cliche about people in glass houses? Perhaps the "Straight Talk Express" should just stop talking before the rest of the electorate recognizes that no "straight talk" is forthcoming.