Yesterday, Senator John McCain released a television commercial attacking Barack Obama for allegedly receiving advice on the economy from former Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines. From the stump, he has recently tried tying Senator Obama to Fannie Mae, as if there is some guilt in the association with Fannie Mae's former executives.John McCain and his Party and their lobbyist friends got us into this mess and they're the wrong people to get us out of it.
It is an interesting card for Senator McCain to play, given that his campaign manager, Rick Davis, was paid by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac several hundred thousand dollars early in this decade to head up an organization to lobby in their behalf called The Homeownership Alliance. ...
I worked in government relations for Fannie Mae for more than 20 years, leading the group for most of those years. When I see photographs of Sen. McCain's staff, it looks to me like the team of lobbyists who used to report to me. Senator McCain's attack on Senator Obama is a cheap shot, and hypocritical.
Sincerely,
William Maloni
Fannie Mae Senior Vice President for Government and Industry Relations (1983-2004)
Addendum: Rick Davis, McCain's top lobbyist (out of about 200 that work for him) actually received $2 million from Fannie Mae, or a whopping $35,000 a month for five years! And the reason he was hired, "was the closeness to Senator McCain and the possibility that Senator McCain was going to run for president again". Sure McCain, that 'greed' you're talking about starts and ends with you and your campaign staff.
