Fortunately, Sen. McCain has excellent healthcare coverage and can get checked out for early signs of Alzheimer's disease! Via Media Matters:

In what will, no doubt, be a recurring trend from Senate Republicans as they fight health care reform, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) decried the Senate Democrats' legislation by using faulty and fact-less rhetoric. McCain falsely accused the Senate health care reform of using "Enron accounting" measures. His comments are ironic, however, in light of his close, personal relationship with Phil "Mr. Enron" Gramm.

Gramm Was National Co-Chairman Of McCain's Campaign. Former Texas Senator Phil Gramm is the general co-chairman of McCain's presidential campaign. [JohnMcCain.com, accessed 6/3/08]

  • McCain Was Chairman Of Gramm's 1996 Presidential Campaign. The Pittsburgh Tribune Review reported that in 1996, "McCain was national chairman for the presidential-nomination bid of U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas." [Pittsburgh Tribune Review, 9/3/07, via LexisNexis]

McCain: As President "I Would Rely On" Gramm. During the January 24 Republican debate in Florida, John McCain said, "But I as president, as every other president, rely primarily on my secretary of the Treasury, on my Council of Economic Advisers, on the head of that. I would rely on the circle that I have developed over many years of people like Jack Kemp, Phil Gramm, Warren Rudman, Pete Peterson, and [think tank] The Concorde Group." [New York Post, 1/26/08, emphasis added]

McCain: Gramm Is "Smartest" Politician. John McCain said the following about Phil Gramm to the Houston Chronicle: "He's probably the smartest - not just economist, but politician - there is." [Houston Chronicle, 2/25/08, via LexisNexis]

McCain Praised Gramm's Strategic Advice. The Houston Chronicle reported, "In an interview with the Chronicle, McCain called his friend's ability to frame issues and come up with clever campaign tactics 'just remarkable.'" [Houston Chronicle, 2/25/08, via LexisNexis]

  • McCain Looked To Gramm When Campaign Was Floundering. The Houston Chronicle reported, "After working in the background for months, Gramm stepped into the center of the McCain campaign at its nadir last summer. Gramm said McCain 'asked me to come to Washington to look at the books and see what we needed to do to straighten them out.' The man famous for the Gramm-Latta budget cuts of the Reagan era recommended deep cuts in the McCain campaign budget and a radical change in strategy so that voters would hear the old 'straight-talk express' again. It worked. In January, Gramm stepped out of the shadows. He traveled with McCain in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina and stumped solo for his friend in his native state of Georgia." [Houston Chronicle, 2/25/08, via LexisNexis]

McCain Said Gramm Was His "Mentor" On Economic Issues. New York Times business and economics columnist David Leonhardt wrote, "Mr. McCain begins the story of his economic education in 1982, when the country was in recession and he was first elected to the House. Once in Congress, he worked with Jack F. Kemp and Phil Gramm, who conservatives who were also in the House then, and Martin Feldstein, a Harvard economist who was an aide to President Ronald Reagan, to pass tax cuts and spending restraints. Mr. McCain said that Mr. Gramm - 'a guy who taught economics for 12 years at Texas A&M' and has endorsed Mr. McCain - had been an especially important mentor." [New York Times, 1/26/08, emphasis added]



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33 comments

McCain has mastered one thing well. He can fling shit with the best of them. Of course the shit he flings is often a bit messy but that hasn't stopped him yet.

Imagine how much fun it would have been to watch President McCain and his trusty companion Ms Palin flinging shit for four miserable years. Good times!

the sh*t is still swung, and it is still sticking to the plaster in the wall.

.

Sweet Jebus, is that old fucker still talking? This ossified turd will let any inane oral diarrhea dribble out of his pie hole in a desperate attempt to be relevant won't he?

Hee he he. Just what I was thinkin'.

... John McCain who 'suspended' his campaign to have an economic durrrrrrrrrrrrr moment in 2008?

Thanks for the advice, Senator. Now sit down. Having a millionaire heiress as a wife and rubbing shoulders with other useless rich people really doesn't make you an economic expert. It makes you a disgusting sycophantic leech, about whom the best thing can be said is, "You totally suck."

Beyond that, do the words, "KEATING FIVE" ring any bells?

Don't expect any Democrats to correct him or call him out him about his hypocrisy.

It would be nice for once, just once, to hear and see prominent Democrats state forcefully and coherently to the nation the simple truth that the GOP and it's conservative ideology brought us to the economic disaster we're in today. Ideally they would be saying it every day, but just once would be nice.

Maybe Pelosi is capable. Obama and Reid sure aren't.

He's kinda like your elderly uncle at Thanksgiving. He just says shit that no one listens and if they do they just write it off to his age. No harm, no foul.

There was probably no one in the senate chambers while he was rattling on.

We have no one on our side.
No one to stand up and point to the facts and just say
"the honarable gentleman from --your bible belt redneck state here-
is lying" Not misrepresenting, not mis-speaking, not mistaken
...LYING.... "And here are the charts, graphs and spread sheets from the GAO since the Eisenhower administration that shows the GDP and
the deficits and the standard of living for the middle class
under dem. & rep. administrations. The truth is obvious.
And while were at lt lets look at the charts and graphs of high school drop outs, teenage pregnancy, literacy and health care.
Guess what? The red states suck. "

Why oh why isn't the case being made on a daily basis?
Is congress like the media that they'll take any perposterous
blather and give it credance just for the sake of controversy or is it that there's an unspoken conspiracy between the parties to keep the ball of confusion perpetually rolling untill we're all sucked dry. It's like 2 oposing lawyers in a devorce case. Just keep the
case going until we've drained all their assets then find a settlement. Most of them are lawyers after all.

--end rant---

...

I miss President McCain and VP Palin.

Life would have been so much better if only . . .

All that poo adds up, after all.

Keep him out of your fish tank. You would have to clean that sucker once a day instead of just on Sunday. :)

out from the McCain Campaign. It was DAYS before the UBS bank scandal broke in the US media:

The Real Reason For McCain's Friday Night Phil Gramm Dump

Stephen D reports on a Phil Gramm Friday night dump attributing Gramm's resignation from the McSame campaign to the "Americans are whiners!" comment. I think that is just cover for the more likely real reason:

UBS, LGT Helped Hide Assets, Evade Taxes, Senate Says

By David Voreacos and Carlyn Kolker

July 17 (Bloomberg) -- UBS AG and Liechtenstein bank LGT Group aided rich U.S. clients who wanted to disguise ownership of accounts and evade taxes on hidden assets, a Senate subcommittee said.

UBS, the world's largest wealth manager, hid as much as $17.9 billion for 19,000 Americans who didn't declare assets to the Internal Revenue Service, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said in a report released in Washington late yesterday. LGT, owned by Liechtenstein's ruling family, fostered a ``culture of secrecy and deception'' while assigning code names to U.S. clients, the panel said.

Remember that Phil Gram works for and lobbies for one arm of UBS in the USA. More below... And an interesting side note from similar article ABC story posted earlier before you get there:

A former UBS private banker, Bradley Birkenfeld, has agreed to a plea deal and is reported to be cooperating with US authorities in bring charges against American citizens on tax evasion charges.

As soon as I read that article linked out by jimstaro at ePM I figured there might be a link.
UBS is still Phil Gramm's gig, isn't it? So sayeth his Wiki:

"Gramm is a vice-chairman of UBS Investment Bank."

And we all know about McCain's lobbying troubles because of Gramm:

U.S. Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign faces questions regarding a top economic adviser's work for Swiss banking giant UBS Warburg.
Economist and former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm is vice chairman of UBS Investment Bank and has lobbied Congress on the company's behalf.
UBS has been hit hard by the U.S. housing and mortgage meltdowns.

Smoke >>> Fire? Might be worth fanning the flames a little? Face it... Calling Americans whiners is nothing compared to things that republican criminals typically do.

It would be interesting if Cindy McCain's (or one of her trusts') name was on that list of IRS tax dodgers, eh? That would clearly typify a republican circle jerk we have come to expect from the GOP these days. Nevermind the fact that Cindy McCain has a proven track record of not paying her taxes. And when there is a Friday Night Dump involving corrupt republicans and meant to distract the candy coated media from the real story, timing is everything.

idredit, over at Booman Tribune where this is x-posted, as well, chunked in the last piece I was about to go looking for.

you may be on to something here...

but it depends on the meaning of resign Gramm remains in the background as an advisor. But coupled with the UBS naughty naughty, there's the deep in the poop sub-prime debacle.

The Carpetbagger Report

Is Gramm gone, or is he only kinda sorta gone?
Yesterday, the McCain campaign disputed part of Novak’s report, saying that Gramm would no longer be a surrogate. But the report also said Gramm would advice McCain on economic matters, and on this, the campaign said nothing.

Gramm’s decision comes after word that, in his weekend column, Robert Novak was to report that the Gramm and McCain had talked subsequent to the ill-time remarks and that he’d stay on as a surrogate and adviser.
But McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said earlier today that Gramm would no longer represent the campaign.
Gramm’s move tonight appears to be a move to clarify his status. But when asked whether this meant he’d no longer advise or represent McCain, Bounds only said that it was Gramm’s decision to step down from his co-chair post.

So, it’s just another round of double-talk from McCain. First the campaign agrees with Gramm, then it doesn’t. Gramm is a surrogate, then he isn’t, then he is, then he isn’t. Gramm is an advisor, then he isn’t, then he might be.

I can understand the campaign’s embarrassment, but this is ridiculous. Gramm not only thinks we’re a “nation of whiners,” he’s also, more importantly, the man whose financial deregulation efforts made the market meltdown possible.

While Gramm's help in advancing banking deregulation is widely considered partially responsible for the Mortgage Crisis, you have to remember that his deregulation also made it easier for UBS to enter into all kinds of schemes that helped along their offering these illegal tax havens.

The deregulation is much bigger than just mortgages when you look at Gramm.

[update] Welcome to Crooks and Liars readers who may have made their way over here from Mike's Blog Roundup. And also thanks to idredit for saving me a lot of time in finding the last piece of a story that I was editing and building on the run.

As we are hearing whisps of news about many of those uber rich UBS clients being dogged by the IRS... It is nice to throw this out there every time Gramm's name comes up with McCain's.

That's a lot of work you did there and it's so juicy too. Thanks!

a diary I wrote during the Presidential campaign. But thanks. :) Too many people forget about Gramm's work with UBS and concentrate solely on his ties to other failures like Enron and deregulation.

Nice post.

without the millions of us across the Blogosphere watching, writing and commenting to put it all together. Every little Cog in this machine has a part to play. And, thanks! :)

One of the weekly news magazines is saying that Cheney should run for President in 2012. I forget which one it is but the guy who wrote the article was on Morning Joe this morning. Maybe McCain can run with him as his veep. Kind of a reverse of bush cheney as this time the veep would be the clueless one. The whole idea of a President Cheney makes me think suicide isn't as bad an idea as some people say it is.

Cheney for President!! Run DICK Run.

Oh...what a freakin' crash and burn that would be. Glorious.

With luck the pressure of all that campaigning would finally put a stop to that government financed heart in his chest. You know...the one that pumps the recycled blood of dead Iraqi children on which he sups.

Old and irrelevant. He should go retire to one of wife's seven houses.

I'm sure she'd prefer that he stay at whatever house she is NOT bangin' the pool boy at.

..I have to say, I was concerned listening to the rant that he had lost it. I may not agree with the aged senator but I respect his service to this nation and hope that he or his loved ones see that maybe its time for a little R&R in any one of the houses he forgot he owns.
I also thought that, if those two, mccain/palin, were ever elected, we'd be in
deep-ER doo-doo right now! Interesting thought though, palin probably would have quit by now and in all liklihood, joe lieberman would have taken her place.

In regard to you last sentence, ya think?

Everyone is in a tizzy about everything the President does now, imagine what a nightmare it would be to know that old and dumber were running the show. That my friend would be just about intolerable.

..but I never believed palin was first choice for mccain. That pairing was for cheap, political theater, nothing else.

... we're caught in the ages-old conflict of Smart vs. Stupid.

Stupid doesn't do their homework, and Smart either has to patiently tutor Stupid in hopes that they elevate their game, or (as with Obama having to clean up the Frat Boy-in-Chief's mess) do Stupid's homework for them. Stupid goes on being Stupid, until the day that Stupid joins the ranks of the delinquent and/or unemployed, and everyone wants to know how this could have happened.

would've already authorized our assistance for an Israeli sneak-attack on Iran....as soon as McPain took his first nap in the Oval Office!

Oy

John, just shut the hell up. Don't you get it yet. people are all over every lie you tell.

McCain/Palin...the "mavericks".

The sell out and the quitter. A perfect match in the GOP.

What bothers Mr. Magoo is that his husband Sarah Paliban has more cred than he. snicker.

McCain as president would have appointed Gramm as Sec. Treasury.

(in my best Doctor Phil)

"So how's that working for you?"

Come this way, John. I'll get your walker and a fresh diaper. Time for you to blow on your soup.

I have been asking for days were this low life piece of Scum and Trash disappeared to.

This is the Gutless Wonder that SNUCK the elimination of the Glass Seagull act into the last session of the 1999 Senate package and FAILED to inform his colleagues.

Oh yeah and then the Trash on the right are blaming Slick Willy, yet they complain it is to large to read and it is VACATION time, so we know how they do business and what their REAL Priorities are.

Now with this knowledge and the Senates OWN investigation can they start prosecution of this piece of Garbage

McCain is really senile and just should retire.

was not well during the campaign--I personally think he is having TIA's, and his fellow Senators know it. It's gotten worse. The brain is going, and he should just go home, and enjoy the time he has left.

33 comments

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