McCain's Bailout Ties Revelation Yields McCain Attack On NYT: Not "A Journalistic Organization"!

by: Paul Rosenberg

Mon Sep 22, 2008 at 16:30

"Whatever the New York Times once was, it is not today by any standard a journalistic organization,"

What's he talking about?  That would be this NYT report:

Loan Titans Paid McCain Adviser Nearly $2 Million
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and CHARLES DUHIGG

Senator John McCain's campaign manager was paid more than $30,000 a month for five years as president of an advocacy group set up by the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to defend them against stricter regulations, current and former officials say.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg on both sides.  McCain's mad as hell that he's no longer completely free to disavow his entire past at a moment's notice, and it's starting to get to him. While the bailout battle itself is tremendously important--a potential Shock Doctrine-style turning point, in which the shocked start shocking back--it's impossible to extricate this from simultaneous presidential race posturing, and here John McCain is perilously close to losing his footing altogether, and plunging headlong into the Bushian abyss. The Abyss!

The McCain campaign is going on the attack against the New York Times for reporting that campaign manger Rick Davis was paid almost $2 million as head of a lobbying organization that represented Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and others....

On a conference call with reporters today, Davis said only that he was involved in an effort to promote the cause of home-ownership -- but that he wasn't actually a lobbyist....

Then Steve Schmidt, the campaign's chief operating officer, aggressively took on the Times.

"Whatever the New York Times once was, it is not today by any standard a journalistic organization," Schmidt said. "It is a pro-Obama organization that every day attacks Senator McCain, attacks Governor Palin, and excuses Senator Obama."

Well, of course, there's bound to be some repercussioins sooner or later when you lie as flagrantly as John McCain does--and then choose a running mate with less forethought than you'd use in hiring an intern.  But be that as it may, even this particularly NYT story doesn't let Obama off scott-free, though it does--quite accurately--show John McCain and his campaign in a most unflattering light.  Here's the full 5-paragraph beginning of the story:

Loan Titans Paid McCain Adviser Nearly $2 Million
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and CHARLES DUHIGG

Senator John McCain's campaign manager was paid more than $30,000 a month for five years as president of an advocacy group set up by the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to defend them against stricter regulations, current and former officials say.

Mr. McCain, the Republican candidate for president, has recently begun campaigning as a critic of the two companies and the lobbying army that helped them evade greater regulation as they began buying riskier mortgages with implicit federal backing. He and his Democratic rival, Senator Barack Obama, have donors and advisers who are tied to the companies.

But last week the McCain campaign stepped up a running battle of guilt by association when it began broadcasting commercials trying to link Mr. Obama directly to the government bailout of the mortgage giants this month by charging that he takes advice from Fannie Mae's former chief executive, Franklin Raines, an assertion both Mr. Raines and the Obama campaign dispute.

Incensed by the advertisements, several current and former executives of the companies came forward to discuss the role that Rick Davis, Mr. McCain's campaign manager and longtime adviser, played in helping Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac beat back regulatory challenges when he served as president of their advocacy group, the Homeownership Alliance, formed in the summer of 2000. Some who came forward were Democrats, but Republicans, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed their descriptions.

"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.

So, in short, (a) McCain tried to smear Obama, (b) the smear attemtp angered some people with first-hand knowledge, (c) who approached the Times, (d) which then wrote a story based on interviews with both Democrats (on the record) and Repblicans (who wanted their names withheld), and (e) the McCain campaign exploded in response, and accused the Times of "not [being] today by any standard a journalistic organization."

Of course, this barely begins to scratch the surface of how deeply embedded in the whole meltdown scenario John McCain is.  It says nothing at all, for example, of his close long-term relationship with Phil (death to Glass-Stiegel!) Graham, much less his own considerable anti-regulatory record.  But it's more than enough to draw blood from the McCain campaign.  Buckets of blood, by the looks of things.

This all goes to show what we've known all along: the GOP cannot survive honest media scrutiny.  Nothing they do is morally defensible.  Robbing the country blind, and then stealing again to bail themselves out is all part of a days work for them.  And blaming Democrats?  Just a nightcap.

Which is why they really hate it when they have to wake up in the middle of the night, and take after the press with a shotgun.

p.s. Josh has even more at TPM, including this tidbit at the end:

Late Update: For more on why Davis and Schmidt are upset, note the quote from the former Fannie Mae spokesman who notes that Davis "didn't really do anything" for the money. "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."

Ch-Ching ...

And that's their defense!

[Update]: The Politico reports:

McCain camp criticism rife with errors
By BEN SMITH | 9/22/08 3:58 PM EDT

Sen. John McCain's top campaign aides convened a conference call today to complain of being called "liars." They pressed the media to scrutinize specific elements of Sen. Barack Obama's record.

But the call was so rife with simple, often inexplicable misstatements of fact that it may have had the opposite effect: to deepen the perception, dangerous to McCain, that he and his aides have little regard for factual accuracy....

It ends thus:

Asked about the series of errors, McCain aides could not provide evidence to back up Schmidt's assertions.

One McCain aide, Michael Goldfarb, said Politico was "quibbling with ridiculously small details when the basic things are completely right."

Another, Brian Rogers, responded more directly:

"You are in the tank," he e-mailed.