Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Paid McCain Adviser Nearly $2 Million

John McSenile is trying to jump on the change band wagon but the reality is that little has changed with him since the savings and loan debacle days. He and his advisers are still tightly in bed with those that should be regulated to avoid the worse outgrowths of greed and desire to make a quick buck. Now it turns out that one of McCain's advisers received nearly $2 million from the recently nationalized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to defend them against stricter regulations, current and former officials say. Had some of those regulations been enacted, perhaps some of the ongoing financial melt down - which will ultimately be paid for by taxpayers - might have been avoided. Oh, and while I an on the subject, do NOT be deceived by those in the GOP who may try to shift blame to the Democrat controlled Congress. As one who has worked in the trenches of the real estate industry, the vast majority of the bad loans now exploding everywhere were made BEFORE the Democrats regained control of Congress in January 2007. This is a REPUBLICAN sponsored fiasco and the GOP needs to have it hung around the party's neck. Here are some highlights from the New York Times:

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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. . . . . [L]ast 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. . . .

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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.

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“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.

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“They were financed largely, possibly exclusively, by Fannie and Freddie,” said William R. Maloni, a Democrat who is a former head of industry relations for Fannie Mae. “We thought it would be helpful to have someone who was a broadly recognized Republican to be the face of the organization, and that person became Rick Davis.” Mr. Maloni added, “Rick, for that purpose, turned out to be quite good.”

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The federal bailout of the two mortgage giants has become an emblem of what critics say is the outdated or inadequate regulatory system that allowed the financial system to slide into crisis this summer.