Freddie and Fannie: Fraud and Political Maneuvering

October 23, 2008
by Cliff Carson

A recent Associated Press report (Monday October 20th) stated that three years ago Freddie Mac hired a Republican Lobbyist Firm, DCI, and paid them $2 Million to kill legislation that would have regulated and trimmed back both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Up to 2004 the Democrats ran Freddie and Fannie, but in 2004 the Republicans took over the running of their political operations.

Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska sponsored the bill but in the end it was the targeting of the Senators for the bill by DCI that drove it to defeat. Mike Buttry, Republican Senator Hagel's Chief of Staff, said that America has paid an extremely high price for the reckless and possibly criminal actions of the leadership at Freddie and Fannie.

Who is DCI you ask? Well for starters, the DCI CEO is Doug Goodyear, yes the same person I've been brining up as one of the McCain Inner Circle, McCain's choice to be the Manager of the Republican Convention in Minneapolis. DCI brought in $3 million last year lobbying for Exxon, Mobil, and General Motors among others. And certainly we wouldn't want to forget that DCI represented the extremely repressive Burmese Government, actually was paid $348,000 to represent Burma's Military Junta.

Ironically Goodyear was chosen because McCain's first choice, Paul Manafort, was argued to be just too controversial, since he had represented Philippine Dictator Ferdinand Marcos and was Chief Political Consultant to Vickor Yanukovich, the very corrupt former Ukrainian Prime Minister, who has very close ties to Putin. DCI has been a pioneer in running "independent" expenditure campaigns by so-called 527 groups, precisely the kind of operations that McCain, in his battle for campaign-finance reform, has denounced.

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Last week Freddie Mac admitted that they did in fact "retain DCI to provide public affairs support". On Friday last week, Freddie Mac issued a short statement saying it complied with all applicable state laws and regulations in representing Freddie Mac. DCI wouldn't say how much Goodyear's firm was paid for their successful efforts to stop regulatory reforms in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

But it has been reported that DCI was paid $40,000 per month as a retainer, plus $10,000 a month for each targeted state, and $20,000 a month for each regional manager engaged in the project. They were successful, the regulations and oversight was blocked. The economic meltdown has been identified as starting from the problems of Freddie and Fannie.

Interesting what can be found out about the straight talk express. I guess that straight talk went down a curvy path. No one seems to have heard John McCain blame his choice for Manager of the Republican Convention for stopping control of the two large lending firms. Maybe McCain hasn't said it. But that doesn't mean its not true. It just means you might be wary of all that straight talk.

Doug Goodyear is just one of the "dirty" people in McCain's Inner Circle. When this hypocrite calls Obama's character into question, now you will know what sordid a character McCain has exhibited in his choice of friends and associates. Goodyear is just one of the many in McCain's Inner Circle, not an association thing, I'm talking business associates, campaign members, and friends.

Think long and hard about this man before you vote for him. As I wrote in an article one time, "Sometimes you have to lift the rug to find the dirt". When you lift McCain's rug, you will wonder how it could stay hid under there all this time.