AP: Freddie Mac Secretly Paid Republican Consulting Firm $2Mil to Kill Legislation to Regulate It

[flpoljunkie]

(And, yet the Republicans, including John McCain, try to lay the blame for the current financial crisis on Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and the Democrats.)

Hollis McLoughlin, an executive of DCI, watches a Washington Capitals hockey game Saturday, Oct. 11, 2008, in Washington. Freddie Mac secretly paid DCI, a Washington-based Republican consulting firm, $2 million to kill legislation that would have regulated and trimmed the mortgage finance giant and its sister company, Fannie Mae, three years before the government took control to prevent their collapse. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez) (Luis M. Alvarez - AP)

AP IMPACT: Mortgage firm arranged stealth campaign
By PETE YOST – 24 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Freddie Mac secretly paid a Republican consulting firm $2 million to kill legislation that would have regulated and trimmed the mortgage finance giant and its sister company, Fannie Mae, three years before the government took control to prevent their collapse.

In the cross hairs of the campaign carried out by DCI of Washington were Republican senators and a regulatory overhaul bill sponsored by Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. DCI's chief executive is Doug Goodyear, whom John McCain's campaign later hired to manage the GOP convention in September.

Freddie Mac's payments to DCI began shortly after the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee sent Hagel's bill to the then GOP-run Senate on July 28, 2005. All GOP members of the committee supported it; all Democrats opposed it.

In the midst of DCI's yearlong effort, Hagel and 25 other Republican senators pleaded unsuccessfully with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., to allow a vote.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/19/AR2008101900757.html

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. who are the Democrats on that committee?

I'd like names. They are also complicit.

[Botany]

2. Just as I thought this is Obama's fault.

Did McCain blame Obama for Freddie Mac's problems?

[WinkyDink]

3. Did you read the article? "all Democrats opposed [the bill]." Not flattering.

[flpoljunkie]

5. The fact that it was supported by all R's and stopped by Rep consulting firm, I find most intriguing

From Politifact on Hagel's bill:

The National Association of Home Builders opposed the bill, as did the National Association of Realtors. Senate Democrats said they supported some form of stricter oversight, but would not support a provision of Hagel's bill that would limit the size of the company's portfolios. Negotiations stalled and the bill never made it to the floor.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/757/

[xchrom]

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