Romney taps former Fannie Mae lobbyist and BP spokeswoman to lead his Bain rehab effort [View all]

[ProSense]

Romney taps former Fannie Mae lobbyist and BP spokeswoman to lead his Bain rehab effort

by Jed Lewison

You can file this under yet another thing that only Mitt Romney could dream of doing:

Michele Davis, a former top aide to Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, has told colleagues that she will join the Romney campaign to lead a vigorous effort to defend his career in the private sector, a source told BuzzFeed Wednesday.

Davis is currently a partner at the Brunswick Group in Washington, D.C., a corporate public relations and strategy firm, where she was reportedly the firm's lead — alongside her then partner Hilary Rosen — in managing the oil company BP's public relations effort in the wake of a giant Gulf of Mexico oil spill. She served as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs and Director of Policy Planning at the Department of the Treasury from 2006 through the end of the Bush Administration, and is a veteran of the politics and P.R. of government and finance.

But she wasn't just a flack for crony capitalists, she was also a registered lobbyist for Fannie Mae:

Davis will also bring some very high-profile baggage to Romney's campaign. She arrived at Treasury from Fannie Mae, the giant, government-backed firm that backs a large share of the nations mortgages. She was vice president for regulatory policy at Fannie Mae from 2002 to 2006, and is listed as a registered lobbyist for the troubled and controversial entity — which made a practice of keeping a bipartisan squad of Washington insiders on payroll — in 2004. (Indeed, Mitt Romney attacked rival Newt Gingrich for taking payments from Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae's sibling entity.)

In her role, Davis defended Fannie Mae's independence, despite substantial tax advantages: She was quoted in Newsday that year saying the entity "does not receive a penny of funding from the government" or any subsidy.

I don't think the Obama campaign has commented on Romney's new hire, but I'm sure that if they were speaking honestly, they'd only have one thing to say: "Thank you."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/01/1115932/-Romney-taps-former-Fannie-Mae-lobbyist-and-BP-spokeswoman-to-lead-his-Bain-rehab-effort

A lobbyist for president?

By Steve Benen

A decade ago, Mitt Romney stepped in to salvage the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, which had been rocked by scandal and mismanagement. Tim Murphy reminds us today that he was largely successful, not by putting his private-sector know-how to good use, but by using a whole lot of taxpayer money to get the games back on track.

Indeed, the Mother Jones piece notes a detail I hadn't heard: Romney's 2002 Olympics received more taxpayer money than the seven previous U.S.-based Olympics combined.

It's relevant, of course, because when voters evaluate Romney's record in overseeing the games, it's worth appreciating the extent to which he didn't thrive all on his own -- he succeeded thanks to public institutions and money he received from you and me.

But Jason Cherkis added another detail I hadn't heard anything about until now.

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney loves to talk about his role salvaging the 2002 scandal-tarnished Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. It's one of the only items on his resume that he will discuss without hesitation. He's so proud of the accomplishment, he wrote a book about it called "Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership, And The Olympic Games."

His Olympics success was pivotal in his winning run for Massachusetts governor in 2002, and it may turn out to be just as important in his current campaign for the presidency. It's why he plans on cheering from the good seats when the opening ceremonies commence for the summer games in London this week.

But when it comes to the retelling of his Olympics story, Romney never mentions the L word. Lobbyist.

Yep, when Romney became head of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, he was so eager to get other politicians to give him public funds, he became a registered lobbyist.

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http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/07/26/12968625-a-lobbyist-for-president

EXCLUSIVE: Romney Bundler A Registered Foreign Agent For Hong Kong
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021018568