The Bailout Bill Fails; The Market Falls - Zennie's Blog Report

http://www.zennie62.com - This is The Blog Report for September 29, 2008, or "The Crash of 29" - the day the stock market saw it's largest one-day drop in American History.
On this day, the market reacted to the failure of the U.S. House or Representatives to pass The Bailout Bill, the Emergency Economic Stability Act of 2008.
I discuss the implications of this action and the political fallout behind it. Moreover, I take aim at the unintelligent view of people who claim that government's not in the market and should not be. In point of fact, there's no place where Government isn't in our lives. Thus, we must make sure it works.
I also take on Senator John McCain, who deserves blame for the failure of the bill's pasage as much as he believed his involvement would deliver House Republicans -- that did not happen. Senator Barack Obama was smart enough not to try and out-do Senator McCain, but to let the Congressional House do its job.

See it on CNN - click here.

Zennie Abraham's Trip to NYC For The CNN Roland Martin Show

This is a video of my just completed (as of this writing) trip to the CNN Roland Martin Show and the CNN iReporters, Kevin Negenberger, Maggie Dowline, and Katy Brown, I met.

Obama To McCain: On Iraq, "You Were Wrong"

This was one of the most satisfying moments of the entire debate -- Barack Obama stepping up to the plate and telling John McCain that he was wrong on Iraq.I know, you know it, everybody in America knows it -- except for John McCain. He was wrong, and that's not the judgment we need.

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The First Obama - McCain Debate - My Impressions

http://zennie2005.blogspot.com

• I just watched the first Presidential Debate between Senator John

McCain and Senator Barack Obama and came away with these
impressions, but first, here was what I was looking for from the
candidates:
1) The relationship between a healthy economy, which we do
not have right now, and national security. Why? Because now, we're
dependent on borrowing from other countries, like China, which in
some cases could place us in the position of "looking the other
way" if for example that nation wants to not only build a nuclear
weapons stockpile, but share them with countries we don't want to
have them. We're in a hugely vulnerable position right now that
should send off alarm bells to all Americans.
2) Repairing our defense industry so that more of our
products are made here in America. When I was in undergraduate
school I wrote a study on the economic impact of defense spending.
In the decades leading up to the 90s, one could count on money for,
say, a new fighter jet like the F-22 Raptor, to be circulated in
America via suppliers, with maybe 10 percent going to foreign
country suppliers.
Not anymore. Now, the number is 50 percent going overseas and in some
cases more than that. That's jobs. What will the presidential
candidates do to change that?
3) Domestic National Security. The importance of knowing the
activities of local American based terrorist groups. For example,
Americans think of foreign-based groups like Al Quiada as terrorist
groups, but the Southern Poverty Law Center has a website that
lists and tracks race-based hate groups like White Supremacist
Groups based in America. "Stormfront" is such a group and has ---
GULP -- one of the largest online forums active in America. What
will each candidate do to marginalize and break up these
organizatons, some of which have had members, like Timonthy McVey,
who bombed Federal Government buildings, killing innocent people.

What Do People Want To Hear From Obama and McCain?

Kathleen Parker, Conservative Writer, Calls Fo Sarah Palin To Step Down

This new article by Kathleen Parker is getting some traction around the web.  She -- a conservative writer and commentator -- openly calls for Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to step down. She gives the call, and her reasons for it, in this blistering collection of paragraphs:

As we’ve seen and heard more from John McCain’s running mate, it is increasingly clear that Palin is a problem. Quick study or not, she doesn’t know enough about economics and foreign policy to make Americans comfortable with a President Palin should conditions warrant her promotion.

Yes, she recently met and turned several heads of state as the United Nations General Assembly convened in New York. She was gracious, charming and disarming. Men swooned. Pakistan’s president wanted to hug her. (Perhaps Osama bin Laden is dying to meet her?)

And, yes, she has common sense, something we value. And she’s had executive experience as a mayor and a governor, though of relatively small constituencies (about 6,000 and 680,000, respectively).

Finally, Palin’s narrative is fun, inspiring and all-American in that frontier way we seem to admire. When Palin first emerged as John McCain’s running mate, I confess I was delighted. She was the antithesis and nemesis of the hirsute, Birkenstock-wearing sisterhood — a refreshing feminist of a different order who personified the modern successful working mother.

Palin didn’t make a mess cracking the glass ceiling. She simply glided through it.

It was fun while it lasted.

Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.

Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there’s not much content there. Here’s but one example of many from her interview with Hannity: “Well, there is a danger in allowing some obsessive partisanship to get into the issue that we’re talking about today. And that’s something that John McCain, too, his track record, proving that he can work both sides of the aisle, he can surpass the partisanship that must be surpassed to deal with an issue like this.”

John McCain Lies To David Letterman About Suspending Campaign, Pays The Price

McCain: No Debate; Obama: Let's Debate - The Blog Report

When does a figther pilot run from an encounter?

Does John McCain really think Americans buy that he can help develop a Wall Street solution when he's not only stood for deregulation for decades but also admitted recently he doesn't get the economy? A fighter pilot only turns tail when he's lost hope.

But even this stunt about "suspending his campaign" can be used to distract from the issues. So now when November comes around, if and when the savvy Senator comes up short he's built an excuse in advance, right? This isn't merely political maneuvering: Finally we're seeing some real strategic planning from the former Navy Pilot "Country Club First" McCain; shame it's resulted in a transparent tactic that's not helping others.

So let's talk about why his support of deregulation (and the deregulation itself) was such a fiasco, shall we? Let's not forget issues matter, let's not be drawn into wondering how old a guy has to be to be called "the original" maverick, and let's not fall for a ploy to reduce the amount of time the media devotes to issues by canceling a debate that everybody but Senator McCain seems to be looking forward to.

Obama Campaign: The Debate Is On! - Calls McCain's Bluff

BREAKING NEWS from ABC - Obama campaign calls the bluff of the McCain camp, says the debate is on.

McCain Asks Obama to Postpone Debate - Code For "I'm Not Ready"

Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain are set to debate this Friday in the first of three conversations, but now according to a "Breaking News" email I just got from CNN, John McCain says he wants to postpone the debate to "work on the economy".

In my view, that's a code-word for "I'm not ready" and I've not decided how I'm going to vote on the Bailout Proposal.

According to The Political Wire , McCain's the main swing vote in the Bailout Proposal:

Congressional leaders tell George Stephanopoulos that if Sen. John McCain doesn't support the Bush administration's $700 billion bank bailout plan, the plan won't pass. 

Said one lawmaker: "If McCain doesn't come out for this, it's over."

"A Democratic leadership source says that White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten has been told that Democratic votes will not be there if McCain votes no -- that there is no deal if McCain doesn't go along."

Jake Tapper: "Senior Democrats on the Hill are worried that Sen. McCain will 'demagogue' the bill, continue to voice opposition to it, use it to run against both Wall Street and Congress, as well as to distance himself from the Bush White House. Democrats worry McCain will not only vote against the bill, he will provide cover for other Republicans to do so, leaving Democrats holding the bag for the Bush administration's deeply unpopular proposal."

Update: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid tells The Hill that McCain will support the bailout effort.

Update II: CNN reports McCain denied Reid's claim and that he hasn't decided if he'll support the bill. 

If I were Barack, I'd say no and let him twist in the wind.

Washington Post Poll Shows Likely Voters Backing Obama By Wide Margin

As I've written in the recent past, when likely voters tend to be Republican. What does it say when the majority tilt toward the Democratic Candidate? Well that's what's happening in today's Washington Post poll. See below:

Turmoil in the financial industry and growing pessimism about the economy have altered the shape of the presidential race, giving Democratic nominee Barack Obama the first clear lead of the general-election campaign over Republican John McCain, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News national poll.


Just 9 percent of those surveyed rated the economy as good or excellent, the first time that number has been in single digits since the days just before the 1992 election. Just 14 percent said the country is heading in the right direction, equaling the record low on that question in polls dating back to 1973.


More voters trust Obama to deal with the economy, and he currently has a big edge as the candidate who is more in tune with the economic problems Americans now face. He also has a double-digit advantage on handling the current problems on Wall Street, and as a result, there has been a rise in his overall support. The poll found that, among likely voters, Obama now leads McCain by 52 percent to 43 percent. Two weeks ago, in the days immediately following the Republican National Convention, the race was essentially even, with McCain at 49 percent and Obama at 47 percent.


As a point of comparison, neither of the last two Democratic nominees -- John F. Kerry in 2004 or Al Gore in 2000 -- recorded support above 50 percent in a pre-election poll by the Post and ABC News.

McCain Campaign Manager's Firm Paid By Freddie Mac Even As McCain Claims No Connection

Wow, how the connections line up. According to the New York Times and Newsweek, as Senator John McCain claimed that his campaign manager has has no business with or didn't benefit from Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae, we have this new news: Rick Davis' firm had a contract with Freddie Mac as recently as last month.

Here's the NYT account:

WASHINGTON — One of the giant mortgage companies at the heart of the credit crisis paid $15,000 a month from the end of 2005 through last month to a firm owned by Senator John McCain’s campaign manager, according to two people with direct knowledge of the arrangement.

The disclosure undercuts a statement by Mr. McCain on Sunday night that the campaign manager, Rick Davis, had had no involvement with the company for the last several years.

Mr. Davis’s firm received the payments from the company, Freddie Mac, until it was taken over by the government this month along with Fannie Mae, the other big mortgage lender whose deteriorating finances helped precipitate the cascading problems on Wall Street, the people said.

They said they did not recall Mr. Davis’s doing much substantive work for the company in return for the money, other than speak to a political action committee of high-ranking employees in October 2006 on the approaching midterm Congressional elections. They said Mr. Davis’s firm, Davis & Manafort, had been kept on the payroll because of Mr. Davis’s close ties to Mr. McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, who by 2006 was widely expected to run again for the White House.

Mr. Davis took a leave from Davis & Manafort for the presidential campaign, but as a partner and equity-holder continues to benefit from its income. No one at Davis & Manafort other than Mr. Davis was involved in efforts on Freddie Mac’s behalf, the people familiar with the arrangement said.

And this is Newsweeks account, which is blistering:

Since 2006, the federally sponsored mortgage giant Freddie Mac has paid at least $345,000 to the lobbying and consulting firm of John McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis, according to two sources familiar with the arrangement.

Freddie Mac had previously paid an advocacy group run by Davis, called the Homeownership Alliance, $30,000 a month until the end of 2005, when that group was dissolved. That relationship was the subject of a New York Times story Monday, which drew angry denunciations from the McCain campaign. McCain and his aides have vehemently objected to suggestions that Davis has ties to Freddie Mac—an especially sensitive issue given that the Republican presidential candidate has blamed "the lobbyists, politicians and bureaucrats" for the mortgage crisis that recently prompted the Bush administration to take over both Freddie Mac and its companion, Fannie Mae, and put them under federal conservatorship.

But neither the Times story—nor the McCain campaign—revealed that Davis's lobbying firm, Davis Manafort, based in Washington, D.C., continued to receive $15,000 a month from Freddie Mac until last month—long after the Homeownership Alliance had been terminated. The two sources, who requested anonymity discussing sensitive information, told NEWSWEEK that Davis himself approached Freddie Mac in 2006 and asked for a new consulting arrangement that would allow his firm to continue to be paid. The arrangement was approved by Hollis McLoughlin, Freddie Mac's senior vice president for external relations, because "he [Davis] was John McCain's campaign manager and it was felt you couldn't say no," said one of the sources. [McLoughlin did not return phone calls].

When asked about his own campaign manager's associations with the mortgage giants, McCain, in an interview with CNBC Sunday night, said that Davis "has had nothing to do" with the Homeownship Alliance since it disbanded and "I'll be glad to have his record examined by anybody who wants to look at it." (The Homeownership Alliance was set up and funded by both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to promote the goal of home ownership and counter efforts to impose tighter regulations on the two federally sponsored entities.)

Davis, in a conference call arranged by the McCain campaign on Monday, said "it's been over three years since there's been any activity in this area and since I had any contact with those folks." Davis also said he "had a severed leave of absence" from his lobbying and consulting firm, and "I've taken no compensation from my firm for 18 months." (A campaign spokesman said that Davis receives no partnership distribution under his arrangement).

It is not unusual for major corporations to enter into consulting retainers so that individuals could be available if needed. And the two sources stressed that Davis at no time made any threats or demands on Freddie Mac. But the sources indicated that Freddie Mac seldom called on Davis or the firm. On one occasion, Davis was asked to attend a meeting of the firm's political action committee during the 2006 campaign in order to give the Republican Party's perspective on the upcoming elections. In addition, Davis did meet with McLoughlin for breakfast on "one or two" occasions. Other than that, one source said, Davis "doesn't do anything" for Freddie Mac. The firm "doesn't even talk to him." In addition, Freddie Mac has had no contact with Davis Manafort other than receiving monthly invoices from the firm and paying them. But the money could be perceived as helping Freddie Mac ensure a good relationship with one of McCain's top aides in the event that he became president. The payments, along with other lobbying and consulting contracts, are expected to be terminated by the new federal overseers, the sources said.

McCain Accused of Covering Up Vietnam POW Information

I just received an email which points to a website page article accusing -- in a ton of detail -- Senator John McCain of covering up information on Vietnam POW's still in that country. I personally remember the clamor for information on what happened to POWs who never made it out of Vietnam.

But here's the text of what I was sent:

Senator McCain and the Vietnam War Prisoner of War Cover Up

Sydney H. Schanberg

September 18, 2008 - John McCain, who has risen to political prominence on his image as a Vietnam POW war hero, has, inexplicably, worked very hard to hide from the public stunning information about American prisoners in Vietnam who, unlike him, didn't return home. Throughout his Senate career, McCain has quietly sponsored and pushed into federal law a set of prohibitions that keep the most revealing information about these men buried as classified documents. Thus the war hero who people would logically imagine as a determined crusader for the interests of POWs and their families became instead the strange champion of hiding the evidence and closing the books.

Almost as striking is the manner in which the mainstream press has shied from reporting the POW story and McCain's role in it, even as the Republican Party has made McCain's military service the focus of his presidential campaign. Reporters who had covered the Vietnam War turned their heads and walked in other directions. McCain doesn't talk about the missing men, and the press never asks him about them.

The sum of the secrets McCain has sought to hide is not small. There exists a telling mass of official documents, radio intercepts, witness depositions, satellite photos of rescue symbols that pilots were trained to use, electronic messages from the ground containing the individual code numbers given to airmen, a rescue mission by a special forces unit that was aborted twice by Washington—and even sworn testimony by two Defense secretaries that "men were left behind." This imposing body of evidence suggests that a large number—the documents indicate probably hundreds—of the US prisoners held by Vietnam were not returned when the peace treaty was signed in January 1973 and Hanoi released 591 men, among them Navy combat pilot John S. McCain.

Mass of Evidence

The Pentagon had been withholding significant information from POW families for years. What's more, the Pentagon's POW/MIA operation had been publicly shamed by internal whistleblowers and POW families for holding back documents as part of a policy of "debunking" POW intelligence even when the information was obviously credible.

The pressure from the families and Vietnam veterans finally forced the creation, in late 1991, of a Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs. The chairman was John Kerry. McCain, as a former POW, was its most pivotal member. In the end, the committee became part of the debunking machine.

One of the sharpest critics of the Pentagon's performance was an insider, Air Force Lieut. Gen. Eugene Tighe, who headed the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) during the 1970s. He openly challenged the Pentagon's position that no live prisoners existed, saying that the evidence proved otherwise. McCain was a bitter opponent of Tighe, who was eventually pushed into retirement.

Included in the evidence that McCain and his government allies suppressed or sought to discredit is a transcript of a senior North Vietnamese general's briefing of the Hanoi politburo, discovered in Soviet archives by an American scholar in 1993. The briefing took place only four months before the 1973 peace accords. The general, Tran Van Quang, told the politburo members that Hanoi was holding 1,205 American prisoners but would keep many of them at war's end as leverage to ensure getting war reparations from Washington.

Throughout the Paris negotiations, the North Vietnamese tied the prisoner issue tightly to the issue of reparations. They were adamant in refusing to deal with them separately. Finally, in a February 2, 1973, formal letter to Hanoi's premier, Pham Van Dong, Nixon pledged $3.25 billion in "postwar reconstruction" aid "without any political conditions." But he also attached to the letter a codicil that said the aid would be implemented by each party "in accordance with its own constitutional provisions." That meant Congress would have to approve the appropriation, and Nixon and Kissinger knew well that Congress was in no mood to do so. The North Vietnamese, whether or not they immediately understood the double-talk in the letter, remained skeptical about the reparations promise being honored - and it never was. Hanoi thus appears to have held back prisoners—just as it had done when the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 and withdrew their forces from Vietnam. In that case, France paid ransoms for prisoners and brought them home.

In a private briefing in 1992, high-level CIA officials told me that as the years passed and the ransom never came, it became more and more difficult for either government to admit that it knew from the start about the unacknowledged prisoners. Those prisoners had not only become useless as bargaining chips but also posed a risk to Hanoi's desire to be accepted into the international community. The CIA officials said their intelligence indicated strongly that the remaining men—those who had not died from illness or hard labor or torture—were eventually executed.

My own research, detailed below, has convinced me that it is not likely that more than a few—if any—are alive in captivity today. (That CIA briefing at the agency's Langley, Virginia, headquarters was conducted "off the record," but because the evidence from my own reporting since then has brought me to the same conclusion, I felt there was no longer any point in not writing about the meeting.)

For many reasons, including the absence of a political constituency for the missing men other than their families and some veterans' groups, very few Americans are aware of the POW story and of McCain's role in keeping it out of public view and denying the existence of abandoned POWs. That is because McCain has hardly been alone in his campaign to hide the scandal.

The Arizona Senator, now the Republican candidate for President, has actually been following the lead of every White House since Richard Nixon's and thus of every CIA director, Pentagon chief and national security advisor, not to mention Dick Cheney, who was George H. W. Bush's defense secretary. Their biggest accomplice has been an indolent press, particularly in Washington.

McCain's Role

Bitterly opposed by the Pentagon (and thus McCain), the bill went nowhere. Reintroduced the following year, it again disappeared. But a few months later, a new measure, known as "the McCain Bill," suddenly appeared. By creating a bureaucratic maze from which only a fraction of the documents could emerge—only records that revealed no POW secrets—it turned the Truth Bill on its head. (See one example, at left, when the Pentagon cited McCain's bill in rejecting a FOIA request.) The McCain bill became law in 1991 and remains so today. So crushing to transparency are its provisions that it actually spells out for the Pentagon and other agencies several rationales, scenarios and justifications for not releasing any information at all—even about prisoners discovered alive in captivity. Later that year, the Senate Select Committee was created, where Kerry and McCain ultimately worked together to bury evidence...more here

John McCain Leaves GM Plant To Chants Of Obama 08

John McCain: A Man You Can't Trust With The Economy

This is a "video by a concerned private citizen" that get to the heart of the matter of the problems of Senator John McCain.

Inexperienced Sarah Palin Protected By McCain Staff - Gets Easier Debate Format

The whiners that the McCain staff is comprised of got a wish from their grossing and hand-wringing over the upcoming debate GOP Vice Presidential Candidate Gov. Sarah Palin has with Democratic VP Candidate Senator Joe Biden.

Concerned that a "free-wheeling" debate format would allow the far more experienced Joe Biden to chew the very inexperienced Palin, the McCain staffers whined for and got an easier format for her.

McCain Staffers Take Over Alaska Governor's Office - WTF?

I'm not making this up. Staffer's of Senator John McCain for President -- I think; it's not his Senate staff is it? That would be illegal, but someone check that -- have taken over Governor Palin's Alaska office. I've never heard of anything like that before. I can't think of a VP candidate that has been so protected against gaffes and errors and yet makes them anyway.

Read this editorial by the Alaska Anchorage Daily News:

McCain-Palin campaign spokesman Ed O'Callaghan announced that Todd Palin will not comply with a subpoena to testify about his role in troopergate, the Legislature's investigation into whether Palin abused her power in forcing out former public safety commissioner Walt Monegan.

O'Callaghan also announced that Alaska's governor is "unlikely" to cooperate with the investigation by the Alaska Legislature about questionable conduct by Alaska's chief executive.

Monday, he and campaign sidekick Meg Stapleton stood before Alaskans and defended the official personnel decision by Alaska's governor to fire Alaska's public safety commissioner. ABC News reported that Gov. Palin's official press secretary, Bill McAllister, paid by the state of Alaska, didn't even know the McCain staffers were meeting the press to defend his boss.

Is the McCain campaign telling Alaskans that Alaska's governor can't handle her own defense in front of her own Alaska constituents?

Way back when, before John McCain chose Palin as his vice presidential running mate, Palin promised to cooperate with the investigation.

Now she won't utter a peep about it to Alaskans. Nor will her husband, Todd, who definitely needs to explain his role in Troopergate.

Instead, Alaskans have to sit back and listen to John McCain's campaign operatives handling inquiries about what Alaska's governor did while governing Alaska.

Residents of any state would be offended to see their governor cede such a fundamental, day-to-day governmental responsibility to a partisan politician from another state. It's especially offensive to Alaskans.

Sarah Palin A John Birch Society Member? Was Reading Their Stuff In 90s

According to FireDogLake, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin may be really on the fringe -- the John Birch Society one. 

That group was and still is a code word for "racist", "sexist" White Supremacist-types who you don't want to have dinner with if your anyone of a normal mind.

Here's the details from FireDogLake and BAGNotes:

Michael Shaw at BAGNewsNotes found this 1995 image of Sarah Palin at her Wasilla City Council desk. It appears to be her official portrait, and a mundane one at that.

What's striking, as Michael points out, is the article in front of her: It's a piece about the "Con Con Call" -- one of those hysterical non-issues that conspiracy theorists of the far right in 1995 were shrieking about, involving an attempt by a handful of governors to organize a convention aimed at fighting what they saw as states' subordinate status. (Yes, the shrieking shut it down.)

One of the organizers of that particular torch-bearing mob was the John Birch Society. And sure enough, the article that Palin is proudly displaying in this portrait is a copy of the March 1995 edition of New American, the house organ of the Birch Society.

The article in question was written by Don Fotheringham. (It's no longer in the NA's archives, but you can read the text of it at this site.)

The Birchers are best known for their ardent McCarthyism and their long career in promoting cockamamie conspiracy theories about supposed Communist infiltration of government -- not just in the '50s and '60s, but well into the late '80s, until the fall of the Soviet Union. At that point, they simply picked up the same act and transferred it to promoting similar theories about the "New World Order" under Bill Clinton in the 1990s. (Chip Berlet has one of the best disquisitions on the Birch Society's long career.)

McCain Aides Made Over $14 Million Lobbying For Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae

Lost in the false claims by Senator John McCain that he foresaw the collapse of Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae (but did express concern for the future of the institutions) is the fact that several of Senator McCain's direct campaign aides have pocketed over $14 million lobbying for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.  According to Mother Jones and The Politico:

But McCain's own campaign staffers are those special interests, a fact that casts doubt on both McCain's hiring judgment and his ability to pursue tough reforms of Fannie and Freddie.

Aquiles Suarez, listed as an economic adviser to the McCain campaign in a July 2007 McCain press release, was formerly the director of government and industry relations for Fannie Mae. The Senate Lobbying Database says Suarez oversaw the lending giant's $47,510,000 lobbying campaign from 2003 to 2006.

And other current McCain campaign staffers were the lobbyists receiving shares of that money. According to the Senate Lobbying Database, the lobbying firm of Charlie Black, one of McCain's top aides, made at least $820,000 working for Freddie Mac from 1999 to 2004. The McCain campaign's vice-chair Wayne Berman and its congressional liaison John Green made $1.14 million working on behalf of Fannie Mae for lobbying firm Ogilvy Government Relations. Green made an additional $180,000 from Freddie Mac. Arther B. Culvahouse Jr., the VP vetter who helped John McCain select Sarah Palin, earned $80,000 from Fannie Mae in 2003 and 2004, while working for lobbying and law firm O'Melveny & Myers LLP. In addition, Politicoreports that at least 20 McCain fundraisers have lobbied for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, pocketing at least $12.3 million over the last nine years.