McCain attacks on Obama for purported ties to Freddie and Fannie, but not McCain aides' lobbying on their behalf
In articles about the presidential candidates' responses to the economic crisis, the Associated Press, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the San Francisco Chronicle, and The Washington Post reported that the McCain campaign criticized Sen. Barack Obama for, in the words of McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds, "his ties to spiraling lenders like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and their jet-set CEOs." But those articles did not note that several senior McCain campaign aides have served as lobbyists for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or both. As Mother Jones reported on its MoJoBlog, the following McCain campaign officials have lobbied for one or both entities: chief political adviser Charlie Black, national finance co-chairman Wayne Berman, congressional liaison John Green, Arthur Culvahouse, who reportedly headed McCain's vice-presidential search team, and William E. Timmons Sr., who reportedly "has been tapped by the McCain campaign to conduct a study in preparation for the presidential transition."
According to a Media Matters for America search of the Senate Office of Public Records' Lobbying Disclosure Act Database, Black lobbied for Freddie Mac from 1999 to 2004; Berman for Fannie Mae from 2004 to 2008 and for Freddie Mac in 2004; Green for Fannie Mae from 2004 to 2007 and for Freddie Mac in 2003; Culvahouse for Fannie Mae in 1999, 2003, and 2004; and Timmons for Freddie Mac from 2000 to 2008.
None of the four articles noted McCain aides' ties to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, despite quoting McCain's criticism of Obama. The AP reported Bounds' claim that "[w]hen Barack Obama came to Washington, he chose to strengthen his ties to spiraling lenders like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and their jet-set CEOs, not make change." The Chronicle and the Post each reported all or part of McCain's statement that Obama "didn't lift a finger to avert this crisis. While the leaders of Fannie and Freddie were lining the pockets of his campaign, they were sowing the seeds of a financial crisis we see today, and they also enriched themselves with millions of dollars in payments. That's not change, that's what's broken in Washington, my friends." Additionally, both the Chronicle and the Post reported McCain's accusation that former Fannie Mae executive Franklin D. Raines served as an adviser to the Obama campaign, although the Post reported that the Obama campaign issued a statement from Raines that "strongly denied having provided counsel to Obama." The Journal Sentinel reported that McCain "said Obama was a major recipient of campaign contributions from officials with the two entities."
