John McCain's Top Advisers Lobbyists For Ameriquest Mortgage
By Nicole Belle Sunday Mar 30, 2008 5:00pm
It's all about the company you keep (h/t KL):
When Sen. John McCain addressed the nation's burgeoning mortgage mess last week, he insisted it was time for a little "straight talk."
"I will not play election-year politics with the housing crisis," the GOP presidential hopeful insisted while unveiling his plan, which many have since described as friendlier to the mortgage industry than the Democrats' proposals.
What McCain did not say - which some believe smacks of politics - is that two of his top advisers were recently lobbyists for a notorious lender in the mortgage meltdown.
John Green, the senator's chief liaison to Congress, and Wayne Berman, his national finance co-chairman, billed more than $720,000 in lobbying fees from 2005 through last year to Ameriquest Mortgage through their lobbying firm, disclosure forms reviewed by the Daily News show.
Ameriquest, which since has been bought out, was forced to settle suits with 49 states for $325 million. More than 13,680 New York homeowners got taken for a ride by the company, records show.
"They would be defined as the most blatant and aggressive predatory lenders out of everybody," said Bruce Marks, head of the nonprofit Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America.
But will the media bother to confront McCain about this derailing from his "straight talk" against special interests and lobbyists? Nah, I don't think they will either.
Login or Register to post comments.
I've never seen anything so ridiculous! Don't you realize that conflicts of interest are only relevant when it's a Democrat? Republicans are, by definition, beyond reproach and beyond suspicion! (Especially John McCain -- who, as you'll recall, is a maverick!)
Damned liberals, with their standards of conduct and ethics...
Clavis @ 1:
And a saint...you forgot that part. This isn't going to be constructive, but I need to vent a tad. There was a time when I thought McCain wasn't such a bad guy (2004 I think?), but as time goes on I just get mad at what a piece of shit he really is.
in his defense, its not politics, its backdoor hush hush pandering. I mean, I'm just sayin.
;)
More from the "straight bull express". Good thing the american media is giving him a total pass on everything he says, huh?
Look at his staff of lobbyists, look at their clients, and all his votes then make sense. McCain is the biggest whore in DC. He just wears better makeup than the rest of the GOP hogs.
Could it be likely that the GOP sent in operatives acting incognito to "observe" the Zimbabwean elections @ the weekend solely to look for new and innovative ways to manipulate and pervert the electoral process come November?
lobby lobby lobby buy your candidate here....
Boy, McSame learned how to lie as well as Chimpy McFlightsuit.
Film at 11pm on General Electric TV?
I can't wait.
I'm shocked, shocked!
McCain has yet to see a rip-off of taxpayers that he didn't like or profit from.
Remember the savings and loan scandal he was part of?
Perhaps someone should investigate further into just how wired he is into the mortgage mess.
Don't know shit about economics, but he's got his hands in the pie everytime.
I'm not surprised that Mister (Torture is Evil and Illegal and it Get's My Vote) McCain would be hanging with these crooks.
No surprise there at all.
Clavis @ 1:
Well, according to whoever decided Obama was the most liberal Democratic candidate, one of the reasons why was that he voted for Congressional ethics and oversight. Imagine that: Who knew ethics was liberal!
All the current candidates are compromised and "tainted" by Big Business.
Get over it.
No, I am not a McCain supporter, but America will continue to be a Corporatocracy no matter who wins the White House -- Dem or GOP.
Anyone associated with those damned sorts of mortgage firms should be in jail, not on the campaign trail working for anyone. That goes for Obama's camp and Hillary's as well if they have any of these lobbyists working for them right now.
No reason to "get over it." Plenty of reason to get after it.
And then there is Tom Loeffler, his top finance guy and campaign co-chair, who is a paid lobbyist for these guys:
www.asecondlookatthesaudis.com
No wonder he can't figure out the difference between Sunnis and Shiites, and thinks Iran is backing Al Qaeda.
Of course he won't "play election-year politics." He knows damned well he'd LOSE. Saying he won't play is the preemptive accusation that anyone calling him out on his blatant corruption would be the one "playing election-year politics," which, as we all know, is tantamount to using taxpayer money to fund terrorist groups who freebase frozen embryos during their down time.
burnt @ 3:
it's not the pandering.
a person has to have a strong inner moral core.
mcfuck-everyone does not, he is a blantant opportunist.
remember, this is just "pandering" now. if he gets to
the presidency, he will not be in charge or run the country,
his pandering fuck-buddies will be the hands up his butt.
K, The conservative media needs to loop this a billion times...
YouCantHandleDaTruth @ 20:
They only do that if there's a Scary Black Man involved.
I'm thinking the press will continue to give him a free pass based on two things. The report in the NYT that insinuated he might have had an affair with a lobbyist, which sort of petered out, and the fact that because he's so old they feel they must respect their elders. It might be slippery for them to go after an elderly "war hero" who was a POW. They may just be afraid in a "time of war" to go there.
Hopefully when the time for debates rolls around McCain's words and actions will show him for who is really is and the public will say, hey, that's not what he said back in 2000.
Obama isn't afraid to go after him. He's already doing it and with great style.
It's all about that company you keep.
Just google "Hillary Clinton Monsanto" to read some really scary stuff.
Ok, McCain sucks.
Let's assume a Dem president and congress.
What do you expect?
Immediate withdrawal from Iraq?
A better U.S. economy?
A better U.S. job market?
A better life for all but the most powerful and wealthy Americans?
Just askin'.
To bad the records of the investigation into their finances was not kept at WTC,as were enron,worldcom and many others. Every one should avoid ameriquest like smallpox as they and groups like them are open,running sores to honest citizens
VietVet8666 @ 25:
in the aftermath of republican destruction? goddamn right! immediately? hell no
The Fox To Guard The Banking Henhouse
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8493
The similarities between the American fascists of 1934 and today are striking.
Remembering History...
Every Pennsylvanian should understand ...before the primary.
General Smedley Butler
The fascists and ...Wall Street robber barons wanted Butler's help but, knowing of the money backing the plot, Butler decided to play along with the fascists to ascertain their strength and tactics in order to inform the Congress.
General Smedley Butler's father had served as a long-time Congressman from Pennsylvania.
watch out for Rendell in PA ....
Rendell: "Fox Has Done the Fairest Job"
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/fnc/rendell_fox_has_done_the_fairest...
Ameriquests owner was 1 of Shrubs biggest contributor.
After screw tens if not hundreds of 1000s of people he got an ambassadorship
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/28/AR200507...
Th the Netherlands no less
This guy is so shamelessly, irredeemably corrupt. His intellectual dishonesty is so deep as to be malignant. And it is becoming clear that he is a whore, a total slut, so completely depraved that he is just a pathetic tragi-comedy. I have lost all respect that I once held for him, once-upon-a-time, long, long ago.
McCain is the face, the official poster boy, of what it looks like when a person barters away his soul and receives worthless baubles in exchange for it.
pissed off patricia @ 15:
Clinton Pushes Housing Market Fixes As Campaign Manager Sits on Board of Bankrupt Lender
Pissed off patricia- Could you CC me on that email you send Hillary demanding Maggie Williams be sent to jail, please? I'd really love to see it and I promise it won't go any further.
VietVet8666 @ 25:
i respect you have questions, but you have not indicated what your opinion
is on these questions. we can not have a conversation it you only ask and
don't share. i would like to know how you would answer your own inquiries,
then maybe i or someone else will converse with you. are you interested?
dennis @ 31:
Sorry, no I won't
Speaking of Bush apointments and endorsements...
...Bush campaign contributors were named to top U.S. ambasssdorships:
William Timken, chairman of Timken Inc. and a former board member of Diebold,
--> to be ambassador to Germany.
Laurence F. Rooney, Chairman and CEO of building construction investment company Rooney Holdings, Inc.,
--> to be ambassador to the Vatican.
Roland Arnall, co-chairman of the Ameriquest Capital Corp. and founding co-chairman of the Simon Wiesenthal Center
--> to be ambassador to the Netherlands
William McCormick, co-founder and chairman of McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant,
--> to be ambassador to New Zealand
Alfred Hoffman Jr., chairman of the board of WCI Communities, Inc., a real estate firm,
--> to be ambassador to Portugal.
Whewww! It's only a direct money connection to a company that's fleeced the citizens of the United States and helped ruin the mortgage business with deception and lies, at least he wasn't a parishiner of church where the Reverend may have said something controversial once or twice.
pissed off patricia @ 15:
We're gonna need a lot more jail cells.
Unless, of course, we start letting all the small time 'drug offenders' out (which we should).
But will the media bother to confront McCain about this derailing from his “straight talk” against special interests and lobbyists? Nah, I don’t think they will either.
Yes, Nicole, it is a rhetorical question, and I concur. Nothing will happen.
You can't blame Angry Grandpa. I'm sure he doesn't even remember hiring the guy.
Brace for $1 Trillion Writedown of `Yertle the Turtle' Debt
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aHCnscodO1s0
BobbyFlay @ 36:
there's a readymade home for all the bushco criminals--gitmo
and the overflow can go to abugrab.
pissed off patricia @ 33:
:(
L.A. Confidential @ 39:
sad and outrageous, the banks and corporations will be bailed out
but not the individuals.......we will all get fucked to give welfare to the corporations
and banks.
dadams @ 40:
I think you grossly 'misunderestimate' the number of Wall Street criminals involved in this mess...
"It is well that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."
Henry Ford
Golly... you just couldn't see this comin', could ya?!
dadams @ 42:
It isn't any different anywhere else. Look at this gem.
Ont. gives Ford $17 million to re-oepn Essex engine plant; no federal cash
Keith Leslie, THE CANADIAN PRESS
March 30, 2008
WINDSOR, Ont. - Ford Motor of Canada will re-open its Essex engine plant in Windsor, Ont., with the help of $17 million from the Ontario government, but the federal government will have no involvement in the announcement, a source familiar with the deal said Sunday.
http://finance.sympatico.msn.ca/investing/news/businessnews/article.aspx...
Nice, huh? Gimme more. More Corporate welfare will "create jobs" is the message they are all spewing. Trickle down Raygunomics is still alive and well.
I saw a McLame sticker this morning on the highway in San Jose (on a Mercedes convertible, of course). I felt like I did 8 years ago, please, kill me.. Kill me
anus @ 24:
Nice!
http://www.counterpunch.org/cole02082008.html
Makes me all warm for some Monsanto baked chicken with genetically modified "organic" sewage sludge veggies and a hearty portion of 7x potential of prostate cancer milk! Drink up Chelsea!
I got two words for ya..
Penny Pritzker!
Nobody is going to be talking about campaign crooks in the fall.
Another shocker huh ?
[Deleted. Thread spam-Sitemonitor]
In 2001, McCain founded the Alexandria, Va.-based Reform Institute as a vehicle to receive funding from George Soros' Open Society Institute and Teresa Heinz Kerry's Tides Foundation and several other prominent non-profit organizations.
Arianna Huffington, syndicated columnist and creator of the HuffingtonPost.com, has served on the Reform Institute's advisory committee since the group's inception.
McCain used the institute to promote his political agenda and provide compensation to key campaign operatives between elections......Carla Eudy, a senior advisor on McCain's 2008 presidential campaign who until recently headed fundraising, was paid $177,885 in 2005 to serve as the Reform Institute's secretary-treasurer.......
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=56177
umm, who cares? welcome to washington.
John McCain always struck me as a nervous breakdown waiting to happen.
Login or Register to post comments.