McCain tries to bury campaign manager scandal

Michael Tomasky writes:

Wednesday was the worst day of the campaign for McCain. The revelations about Rick Davis' firm doing lobbying work for Freddie Mac had the potential, and still may have the potential, to cost Davis his job. Certainly the story had the potential to eat up a lot of cable television time over the next two days. Over the long term, and most importantly, the story has the power, if used properly by the Democrats, to dissolve any morsel of credibility McCain had on the subject of dealing with the current fiscal crisis.

Tomasky suggests convincingly that McCain's dramatic announcement to suspend his campaign, which by last night was revealed as more public relations than reality, was an attempt to bury the Davis story.

Tomasky's blog is worth the read.

McCain lobbyist was on Freddie Mac payroll. Taxpayers pay the bill.

John McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis and his firm, was paid $15,000 a month by Freddie Mac, one of the mortgage firms bailed out by the federal government. The payments didn't end until the Freddie Mac was bailed out earlier this month.

McCain who originally campaigned as the more experienced Presidential candidate, has recently reframed his campaign as a movement for change. He has attacked lobbyists and the Washington establishment. Now we learn his camapign manger was a highly compensated lobbyist!

In an interview with CNBC and The New York Times on Sunday, McCain responded to a question about Mr. Davis’s role as a lobbyist for Freddie Mac by saying that his campaign manager “has had nothing to do with it since (2005), and I’ll be glad to have his record examined by anybody who wants to look at it.”

Well, the record was examined and it reveals that Rick Davis was on the Freddie Mac payroll until last month.

Not only that. Mr Davis didn't do anything for his $180,000 a year.

Freddie Mac officials said they can''t recall Mr. Davis’s doing any work for the company. They said Mr. Davis’s firm, Davis & Manafort, had been kept on the payroll because of Mr. Davis’s close ties to Mr. McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, who by 2006 was widely expected to run again for the White House.

So McCain lied about his campaign manager getting paid by Freddie Mac who was getting paid to provide Freddie Mac executives access to McCain. Taxpayers are now picking up the bill.

And we're suppose to believe that a McCain administration wouldn't be for sale?

Read the breaking news.

Community leaders apply double standard to MPS!

Declining state aid, a $625 million voucher experiment, and growing property taxes led a committee of the MPS Board to suggest dissolving the state's largest school district.

Did the board members who voted to supported this measure consider its impact on MPS' students? Or the teachers and staff who educate the city's children while holding our beleaguered public schools together?

There's a double standard when it comes to the education of Milwaukee's children and MPS.

Poverty has grown in Milwaukee and become more extreme, but no one suggests that we dissolve the city!

In response to increased crime, no one suggests that we dissolve the Milwaukee Police Department. Rather, we invest in more officers and better equipment and technology!

When our professional baseball team that had not won in years threatened to leave, we didn't wave good bye. We built them a billion dollar stadium!

When Bear Stearns, Freddie Mac, Frannie Mae, Lehman Brothers, the American International Group and others threaten to dissolve, we don't let them fail. We bail them out with taxpayers money.

But when it comes to Miwaukee's children, we don't hire more teachers or bail out the district, we threaten them, the adults who care for and work with them, and their schools.

Have we no shame!