Pot. kettle. black.

"Weak Road," London.

This week Sen. John McCain made an abrupt about-face: first refusing to aid insurance giant AIG; then the very next day supporting a government bail-out. He's also been making blustery speeches about cleaning up corruption on Wall Street. A Mother Jones article notes McCain conveniently fails to mention his own campaign is staffed with 83 lobbyists working for the financial industry he now attacks.

"... Former Senator Phil Gramm, McCain's onetime campaign chairman, used a backroom maneuver in late 2000 to slip into law a bill that kept credit default swaps unregulated. These financial instruments greased the way to the subprime meltdown that has led to today's economic crisis. Several of McCain's most senior campaign aides have lobbied for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And the Democratic National Committee, using publicly available records, has identified 177 lobbyists working for the McCain campaign as either aides, policy advisers or fundraisers.

"Of those 177 lobbyists, according to a Mother Jones review of Senate and House records, at least 83 have in recent years lobbied for the financial industry McCain now attacks. These are high-paid influence-peddlers who have been working the corridors of the nation's capital to win favors and special treatment for investment banks, securities firms, hedge funds, accounting outfits and insurance companies. Their clients have included AIG, the newest symbol of corporate excess; Lehman Brothers, which filed for bankruptcy on Monday sending the stock market into a tailspin; Merrill Lynch, which was bought out by Bank of America this week and Washington Mutual, the banking giant that could be the next to fall.

"Among these 83 lobbyists are McCain's chief political adviser, Charlie Black (JP Morgan, Washington Mutual Bank, Freddie Mac, Mortgage Bankers Association of America); McCain's national finance co-chairman, Wayne Berman (AIG, Blackstone, Credit Suisse, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac); the campaign's congressional liaison, John Green (Carlyle Group, Citigroup, Icahn Associates, Fannie Mae); McCain's veep vetter, Arthur Culvahouse (Fannie Mae) and McCain's transition planning chief, William Timmons Sr. (Citigroup, Freddie Mac, Vanguard Group)."

Read Sen. Barack Obama's speech about addressing our economic woes here. Obama is meeting today with top economic advisers including former Treasury secretaries Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers, to talk about a plan to handle the financial crisis "based on the ideas I've been talking about with former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker and other advisers,'' he told Bloomberg News. Volcker, investor Warren Buffett and former Bush administration Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill will participate by phone, Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

In a speech today McCain ducks and dives from policies he helped formulate and tries to cast the blame on everyone else. Meanwhile, the international fallout about McCain's confusion over Spain's location, its president and its politics continues. Read more here, here, here and here.

Comments

[January]

I should stop by more often! Thanks for your thoughful commentary on this great big mess of a political season.

Hope all is well.

[amber]

I can not even TELL you how ill I am right now about this whooooolllleee mess. ILL!!!!

*%$%%^%#@%@@!!!!!

:(

[tangobaby]

Tara, as always, your coverage and commentary is so helpful if not also sobering. I assume that the diehard McCain voters will go his way no matter what, but I have hope that the independents, the Reagan democrats and even those self-identified as conservatives will keep looking at the issues, and the man and scrutinize closely what they see.

We are truly in a desperate state. The billions of dollars we will have to pay to shore up these companies is staggering. What more can happen to us?

[SandyV]

I have been chortling over McLame's Spain debacle ever since I heard it. I'm sure we both know hundreds of people who are more qualified than the two of them put together. It's getting embarrassing for the US, and after W, I didn't think that was possible. I hope the shift in poll numbers is a harbinger of better things to come.

[Allegra Smith]

Ah, dear..."denial" continues to be a river in Egypt to those misguided souls. I wonder what spin will they put to this one, and if they are not already working on a massive campaign to suppress it:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081006/schanberg

[Colette]

He never gives up, does he? Now someone should tell him that if he never gave up on the positive, constructive and humanistic, that would be a virtue. But never giving up on the lies and chopping-and-changing, and double-speak is a total weakness (of the worst kind).

I heard of a bunch of older people in Florida whose complaint is that neither candidate is saying what they would actually do... my reply to the person who relayed the story and who agreed with them, was: they're waiting to be spoonfed. Ignorance is no excuse. The airwaves, cyberwaves, are full of Obama's plans, including a breakdown in actual dollar figures and so on and so forth.

[Lisa-Marie]

Tara, Thank you for continuing to share the insightful information you do. It's very helpful. I thought I would share an insightful blog with you in return:

http://womenagainstsarahpalin.blogspot.com/