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McCain’s campaign manager was on Freddie Mac’s payroll until last month. And McCain lied about it.

By

NYT humiliates the McCain campaign.  Again.

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…. 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.

And to anyone who wants to respond, “hey, Obama’s got Freddie and Fannie connections too,” I’ll just say, at least Obama didn’t lie about them.

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.”

Oopsie.

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  3. I mean, the man believes that Czechoslovakia is still out there somewhere, and that Iraq and Pakistan have a common border. He probably sincerely believed what he was saying. Why must you always choose the harshest possible interpretation?

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    p>Interestingly, I have found a video of Barack Obama as a much younger man attempting to purchase some change from John McCain at, funnily enough, a shop in England. MoveOn.org released the video:

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    p>

  4. Did John Kerry invest in them?  Mevermind, how much have they invested in John Kerry? Jeff Beatty for US senator! Sorry, you emperors need to put some pants on.

      • It is due to neuropathy in my extremities. Read yesterdays Herald. I have posted enough links. The problem is: thats usually the end of the thread. If I have make a serious  point, I’ll provide a reference.

        • I make enough of them myself – but I do have a problem with unsourced accusations.  As to the Herald, thanks but no thanks, that rag is barely serviceable as a bird cage liner…

    • The McCain campaign attempts to refute this extremely embarrassing revelation in the statement you link to as follows:

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      p>

      In fact, the allegation is demonstrably false. As has been previously reported, Mr. Davis separated from his consulting firm, Davis Manafort, in 2006. As has been previously reported, Mr. Davis has seen no income from Davis Manafort since 2006. Zero. Mr. Davis has received no salary or compensation since 2006. Mr. Davis has received no profit or partner distributions from that firm on any basis — weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or annual — since 2006. Again, zero. Neither has Mr. Davis received any equity in the firm based on profits derived since his financial separation from Davis Manafort in 2006.

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      p>What they don’t say, and confirm by omission (even though it’s an undisputed fact, anyway), is that Davis owns equity in his firm. The contracts with Freddie helped his firm, and supported the value of his shares even though he wasn’t working there. Your argument is like saying the Bush administration’s no-bid payouts to Halliburton didn’t help the company’s shareholders, only the employees of the firm.

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      p>I know economics is “not his strength” according to McCain, but this argument is laughable.

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      p>The McCain campaign is being run by a chap who received a direct benefit from Freddie Mac up until last month.

    • You’ve been called on this before, specifically in your Exxon MObama tissue of lies – I guess you haven’t learned from that experience, eh?  How many McCain points did you get for posting these talking points?

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      p>Rick Davis owns that firm, whether he draws salary or not.  The firm benefits from the payments, and one day Davis will draw salary again – these facts are left out of your discussion, and you’d have us believe that it’s a full and accurate accounting of the issue?  Pathetic…

  6. BMG knows that Rick Davis has not received a penny of the money paid by Freddie Mac to Davis, Manafort, and Freedman since he took leave in 2006.

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    p>

    • See this Newsweek article here:

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      p>http://www.newsweek.com/id/160713

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      p>The salient part:

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      p>

      In its initial statements to reporters this week, the McCain campaign said that the disclosure of the payments from Freddie Mac was irrelevant because Davis, who was never a registered lobbyist for the troubled housing corporation, had severed his relationship with Davis Manafort in 2006, and was no longer drawing any income from it. Jill Hazelbaker, the campaign’s communications director, said in an e-mail Tuesday that Davis “left” Davis Manafort in 2006. In a statement attacking The New York Times, posted on the campaign’s Web site on Wednesday, campaign spokesman Michael Goldfarb said that Davis “separated from his consulting firm, Davis Manafort, in 2006.” (A senior campaign official, in an e-mail statement to NEWSWEEK that was not for attribution on Tuesday night, said “Rick is no longer affiliated with the firm.”)  

      But those statements appear to have overstated the extent to which Davis had severed his relationship with his lobbying firm. Filings made by “Davis Manafort Partners” with the Virginia Corporation Commission as recently as April 1, 2008, show that Davis was still listed as one of only two corporate officers and directors of the firm, according to records on the commission’s Web site reviewed by NEWSWEEK. That filing records Davis as the “treas/clerk” of the firm; his business partner, Paul Manafort is listed as the president and chief executive officer.
      Another filing by “Davis Manafort, Inc.” (with the same Alexandria, Va. address, and recorded on Oct. 17, 2007) also lists Davis as an officer and director of the firm, reporting his position as “T/Clerk,” a reference to his formal title as corporate treasurer and clerk.

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      p>While he may not have “received a penny” from Davis Manafort since he took his leave, as a corporate officer he still derives a benefit from the ongoing payments.  You lose, geo – and so does McCain…

      • …without first making you case.

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        p>You claim that “he still derives a benefit from the ongoing payments”.

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        p>Prove it.

        • … Fannie paid the firm ergo he receives benefit.

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          p>Frankie: “Don’t worry Vinnie… I’ve got it all figured out”.
          Vinnie: “What do you mean Frankie?  You mean you’ve got a way to pay me without payin’ me?  How’s this gonna work Frankie?”
          Frankie: “I’m not going to pay you Vinnie,… stop talkin’ like that or we’ll both be in trouble.  What’s gonna happen is I’m going to leave some money in a car.  It just so happens by coincidence like {wink} that it happens be a car that you have some ownership of, see?”
          Vinnie: “Ooooohhh…. I get it now. (laughs)  Frankie, you’re one smart cookie!”

          • …he does or that he will, derive a direct financial gain from these payments.

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            p>If you cannot do this, then just say so.

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            p>No amount of frankie vinnie bullshit that you dredge up to bulk out your non-reply is going to help you prove your claim.

            • … a gain on the balance sheet of a company he owns.  In what universe do you live in where when I put money into your business it isn’t a benefit?  

              • It’s about what you know.

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                p>Do you know how receipts of the firm are distributed?

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                p>Do you know if payments to Mr. Davis are being held in escrow?

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                p>Do you know if Mr. Davis has assets that are appreciating in value as a result of these receipts?

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                p>Do you know anything about the specifics of Mr. Davis’ financial arrangements with the firm?

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                p>If you can’t answer these questions, then how can you  make the absurd claim that Sen. McCain is lying about them?  

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                p>If you can’t answer these questions, then why do you even continue to prattle on about this matter?  

                • … and it’s growing in value because of direct payments from Fannie.  What else is there to know?  His assets are growing because of Fannie.  The details… whatever they are… the result is that his assets are growing because of Freddie.  

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                  p>Let’s flip it around…  Are you claiming that his assets didn’t grow because of payments from Fannie?

                • You need to prove yours.

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                  p>You haven’t.

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                  p>Call back if you do.
                  Until then, I call b.s. and consider this matter closed.

                • Fannie and Freddie paid the firm
                  The firm’s value grows
                  The firm is Rick Davis Asset
                  Ergo Rick Davis’ Asset grew from payments from Fannie and Freddie.

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                  p>Either dispute any of the logical steps above or any of the premises… anything is is a retreat from the field.

                • This is the claim;

                  “McCain’s campaign manager was on Freddie Mac’s payroll until last month. And McCain lied about it.”
                  by: David

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                  p>Either prove the claim to be true, or don’t

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                  p>Your so-called “logical steps” do not prove the claim.
                  Hell, you haven’t even shown proof for “logical steps” two through four.

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                  p>You’re bullshitting, Mr. Lynne.

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                  p>Is that simple enough for you?

                • What we have here is a failure to communicate.

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                  p>You want me to use the word ‘payroll’.

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                  p>Silly me thinking that all that was required was showing that money changed hands.

        • If Rick Davis was deriving no benefit from his ownership of Davis Manafort, why did he have the McCain campaign pay his salary directly to Davis Manafort?

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          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 [Davis’s] 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.

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          p>So Davis was using his firm as a conduit for his salary until July 2007, then he set up a bogus “web services” firm in order to collect almost a million dollars.  Of course he doesn’t collect a salary – I wonder what he gets in dividends?  They’re taxable at the lower caplital gains rate, after all…

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