McCain Campaign Has Strong Ties To Corporate Lobbyists At Center Of Bailout
McCain Campaign Has Strong Ties To Corporate Lobbyists At Center Of Bailout
The Wall Street Journal reports that lobbyists for Wall Street firms have dispensed with traditionally subtle lobbying tactics and launched an aggressive campaign to ensure that the terms of the Treasury’s proposed bailout are as favorable to the finance industry as possible.
A major player in this effort is the Financial Services Roundtable, a “lobbying group representing the nation’s banks” with significant ties to Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) presidential campaign. According to a MotherJones report, current and former lobbyists for the Roundtable that have worked or fundraised for McCain’s campaign include:
– Former Rep. Susan Molinari: McCain campaign fundraiser, member of Women for McCain committee, and co-chair of Honest and Open Election Committee. [Huffington Post, 8/20/08; JohnMcCain.com, 9/15/08]
– Carlos Bonilla: former McCain campaign economic adviser. [TPM, 6/9/08]
– David Crane: McCain campaign fundraiser and former aide to McCain at the Senate Commerce Committee. [USA Today, 3/24/2008]
– Samuel Geduldig: McCain campaign fundraiser. [Public Citizen, 1/29/08]
– Former Sen. Phil Gramm: While not a lobbyist for the Roundtable, Gramm did address the group as a McCain campaign surrogate at the RNC. [Bloomberg, 9/2/08]
The Roundtable’s agenda in the current economic crisis appears to be two-fold.
First, to expand the size and scope of bailout. Over the weekend the Roundtable successfully lobbied the Treasury to make the proposed bailout “broad enough to include different types of assets” — including those held by foreign banks. “Depending on how many foreign banks participate,” the provision could increase the cost of the bailout to $1.4 trillion, according to Institutional Risk Analytics.
And second, to block struggling homeowners from benefiting from the bailout. The Roundtable is working hard to ensure that the bailout is limited to firms on Wall Street, calling “a proposal to grant bankruptcy judges new powers” to restructure the mortgages of struggling homeowners a “deal killer.” The Center for American Progress notes, however, that such a provision would serve to limit the total cost of the bailout.
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Great picture of McNumbNuts with this article. It looks like the noose is getting a bit tight for him.
September 22nd, 2008 at 7:57 pmshit, I thought that was Popeye…
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:01 pm“McCain Campaign Has Strong Ties To Corporate Lobbyists At Center Of Bailout”
– - Oh, it’s even better than that. The meme building steam on the Right is that the mortgage crisis happened not because of deregulation, but because brokers were pressured into making loans to “minorities and risky folks,” as Neil Cavuto snarkily put it.
The problem is that Rick Schmidt was pushing mortgage loans to those same minorities and risky folks as he says:
“We have an opportunity in the next decade to increase minority homeownership and significantly reduce the minority homeownership gap,” Davis is quoted saying here. “The future of the housing market rests heavily on the economic success of minorities. Homeownership is likely to grow faster among minority Americans in the next decade if all the stakeholders in the housing industry work together to make it happen. The Homeownership Alliance is working toward this goal.”
So, the McCain people helped push this mortgage crisis over the edgem by their own logic.
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:03 pmThe McCain campaign reeks with the stench of Delay and Abramoff money. They are hanging on to complete their looting of the US Treasury and covering their tracks.
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:05 pmBoy, that Phil Gramm seems to have his face all over this Republican failure.
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:06 pmI guess former Rep. Molinari could help rape more Americans at the “Honest and Open Election Committee.” How on earth did they come up with a name like that?
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:10 pmOne of the Roundtables (please Republicans quit stealing names and titles that equat you with noble ideas!) main goals is to make sure homeowners can’t have their mortgages restructered. O.k. I get it, we’ll take all the Fed.’s money, bail ourselves out, get great pay raises, and keep the root cause in place. That’ll fix it, and when the economy goes more in the tank because people are still loosing their homes, we’ll just ask for more money to fix it.
Please, someone in congress or the senate, please kick some republican ass.
John McCain wanted Phil Gramm to be PRESIDENT..so much so that he was Gramm’s Campaign Chairman in 1996.
Gramm’s Texas Twang never took off, and he lost Badly to Bob Dole, who lost badly to Bill Clinton.
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:13 pmRegardless of the outcome of the public bailout of failed Republican financial policies, Democrats will be made to answer for their votes–recall that anyone not going along with the failed Republican fiasco in Iraq was painted as a traitor.
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:18 pmFother chucker! The WSJ just reported the Fed will allow private equity firms to buy larger chunks of commercial banks. This is a form of deregulation, that gives the PEU boys what they’ve wanted for some time.
The Carlyle Group’s financial group has an ex-Number 2 to Hank Paulson and the brother of French President Sarkozy.
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:19 pmI’m watching Keith right now, and he keeps flashing a picture of Rick Davis, and I’m struck by just how much Davis looks like Jeffrey Dahmer!
Seriously.
PEACE
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:20 pmIts like bailing out Las Vegas gamblers, these people do not deserve one dime.
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:25 pmThe implosion of Wall Street last week resulted in a near-death crisis for John McCain’s presidential campaign. His post-Palin bump eviscerated, McCain was staggered by the reemergence of the economy as the dominant issue in the 2008 election. His daily-changing positions revealed that McCain, a man who has repeatedly admitted his ignorance of economics, is struggling to cope with his diminished presidential prospects. Armchair psychologists might call the process John McCain’s five stages of grief over the economy.
For the details, see:
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:27 pm“McCain’s Five Stages of Grief over the Economy.”
So how exactly does someone “Lobby” a sitting Secretary of the Treasury? Do they offer the person a bribe? (In the form of a VERY well paying job after they leave the Treasury position.) To they just hand over a large sack-full of money?
How exactly is this done?
Perhaps they go to the Republicans in the House and Senate and just start handing out money/drugs/hookers/boys/goats or whatever else these people demand for changing legislation.
What a country…..
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:58 pmWhat schtick is he trying to do?
Gleason, or Dangerfield?
Either way, he just looks… wierd.
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:03 pmTo top it off McCain, as a thirty year insider, is running as a reformer.
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:45 pmQuick Vote
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:59 pmDo you agree with the Bush administration’s decision to spend $700 billion to bail out the financial system?
Yes 31% 87613
No 69% 198948
It’s about influence. The rich boys on Wall Street have access to their own heading the Treasury. Last week’s crisis came about from a 9 fold increase in credit default swaps.
No poor person purchased them last year when they went for $100,000 for a year’s coverage on $10 million in debt/mortgage securities. When they hit $900,000 the rich boys yelped.
When the big boys won’t cover each other’s debt without charging outrageous rates, someone needs to help out. Now we’re back to the role of the poor person.
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:23 pmTo McHoover’s credit, I don’t think he understands. Or, he is a lying thug of the crime family.
September 22nd, 2008 at 11:23 pmXisithrus Says:
Its like bailing out Las Vegas gamblers, these people do not deserve one dime.
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:25 pm
_______
Actually, it’s more like bailing out the casinos.
September 22nd, 2008 at 11:40 pmCaption: “To the moon, Alice, to the moon!”
September 22nd, 2008 at 11:47 pmI thought he was a reformer………oooooh that was so yesterday.
September 22nd, 2008 at 11:54 pmI got an email from democrats.com saying:
“George Bush wants taxpayers to pay $700 billion to bail out Wall Street for its reckless investments in mortgage-backed securities. That’s on top of $800 billion for other recent bailouts, including A.I.G., Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Bear Stearns.”
Can someone explain this? Is this right or wrong? Is it really $1.5 Trillion?
Robert Scheer on DemocracyNow today said we need a criminal investigation of Paulson, Rubin, Gramm, and others who benefited from this fraud and bailout.
September 22nd, 2008 at 11:54 pmNow I see barfly already mentioned Gleason and Dangerfield. I tell you, I don’t get no respect!
September 23rd, 2008 at 12:03 amhad enough @17,
September 23rd, 2008 at 12:40 amCNN must have gotten too many NO’s. They have rephrased the question now. Still, it’s 60-40 NO.
.
What was Johnny McStraight-talkin ’bout Lobbists and his campaign again…?
.
September 23rd, 2008 at 1:38 amBut, but, but, this can’t be!!! John McCain is traveling around the country telling everyone that Barak Obama is the guy with all the crooked lobbyists!
“The crisis on Wall Street, my friends, started in the Washington culture of lobbying and influence pedaling and he was right square in the middle of it,” McCain said, painting Obama as a Washington insider. “My friends, this is the problem in Washington. People like Sen. Obama have been too busy gaming the system and haven’t ever done a thing to actually challenge the system. That’s not country first, that’s Obama first.”
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/09/19/1426312.aspx
September 23rd, 2008 at 8:49 amHey guys, sign this petition, we don’t want the bailout.
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/news/record.cfm?id=303340
September 23rd, 2008 at 1:12 pmIt has been evident for years that when McCain speaks of “taking on the lobbyists and special interests” he is speaking of hiring so many of them to run his campaign and presumptive administration. John McCain-Ready to be Led
September 24th, 2008 at 2:42 pm