Once derisive, McCain calls his lobbyists 'honorable'
Two top advisors for Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) represented one of the nation's most aggressive predatory lenders, contradicting McCain's "straight talk" about America's collapsing housing market.
"I will not play election-year politics with the housing crisis," the GOP presidential hopeful declared last week when unveiling his response.
"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. The News revealed the story in Monday's editions of the paper.
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.
Despite their past familiarity with the issue, neither Green or Berman had any input into McCain's plan for dealing with the lending crisis, aides to the Arizona senator said last week.
"Sen. McCain has never done anything that would violate the public trust and he has never done favors for special interests or lobbyists," said McCain spokesman Tucker Bonds.
McCain's stable also includes a handful of lobbyists, the News notes, including McCain campaign manager Rick Davies, formerly a lobbyist for the telecommunications industry and Thomas Loeffler, McCain's national financial chairman, who recently helped Airbus land a lucrative Pentagon contract.
'Honorable'
McCain has previously described the work former and current lobbyists have done for his campaign. Although the so-called "maverick" Arizona lawmaker has long fought to minimize the role of special interests in electoral politics, McCain called his senior campaign staff "honorable" for their lobbying work.
"These people have honorable records, and they're honorable people, and I'm proud to have them as part of my team," he declared February in Indianapolis, blaming the system and not the individuals who work within it for unduly influencing policy-making.
"The right to represent interests or groups of Americans is a constitutional right," he added. "There are people that represent firemen, civil servants, retirees, and those people are legitimate representatives of a variety of interests in America."
Unfortunately for McCain, a review of federal records maintained by the Senate Office of Public Records show that the lobbyists at the top of the senator's campaign and senatorial staffs do not represent fire fighters, civil servants, or retirees, the legitimate causes he identified in his address on Friday.
According to the SOPR database, the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) does its own lobbying, and has also employed Dutko Worldwide, McAllister and Quinn, and Valis and Keelen, LLC.
The American Association of Retired People (AARP) also does much of its own lobbying, and has at times retained Bracewell & Giuliani, CJ Strategies, Davis, Wright Tremaine, LLP, Duberstein Group, Ernst & Young, Fleishman-Hillard Goverment Relations, Innovative Federal Strategies, Mark J. Iwry, Johnson, Madigan, Peck, Boland, and Stewart, and Reinecke Strategic Solutions.
Finally, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) does much of its own lobby work, too, and has also paid Jefferson Government Relations and Lussier, Gregor, Vienna and Associates. At the federal level, the American Federation of Government Employees is a member of the AFL-CIO, and has been represented by mCapitol Management, and Murphy, Frazer, and Selfridge.
