McCain's "Reform Institute" = funded by AIG; served as lobbyists' HQ

[ladelfina]

McCain's campaign co-chair, Rick Davis, served as the president of the nonprofit Reform Institute for three years, earning $395,000 in salary. Davis also headquartered his lobbying firm, Davis Manafort, in the Reform Institute's offices at that time.

Bankrupt AIG Underwrote McCain's 'Reform Institute' | Election 2008 | AlterNet

So when McCain declared this week that "The government was forced to commit $85 billion" to his mega-donor AIG, the question becomes, "What forced you to do it?" The American taxpayers never got a red cent in donations from AIG -- but now, they're being forced by people like McCain, whose career profited from AIG donations, to buy his backer's massively indebted trash heap in what can only be described as the worst business deal in this nation's history, or the worst example of crony nationalization. AIG isn't just funding McCain's policy think tank, it's also quite literally thinking for the presidential hopeful. Martin Feldstein, who serves on the board of AIG, is one of McCain's top economic advisers. Earlier this month, Feldstein gushed in the Wall Street Journal over McCain's plans to cut taxes even further, and to shift healthcare costs from employers to employees in a "tax credit" scheme that many believe will solely benefit insurance companies, at the expense of workers. Since AIG is -- or was -- the world's largest insurance company, it stood to gain from McCain's policies.

The one thing Feldstein does understand is insurance. Feldstein and his cronies at AIG essentially bought themselves an insurance policy -- you might call this type of insurance "in case our insanely corrupt, hyper-leveraged operation should ever go bankrupt" insurance

=from a story at The Nation with some links to bkgd. material in the text at the above link

This is just beyond the pale!! McCain just cobbled together some talking points for a free campaign ad op-ed in the WSJ where he said lobbyists were at the root of the problem!:

We will make sure that they are permanently restructured and downsized, and no longer use taxpayer backing to serve lobbyists, management, boards and shareholders. […]

[The federal bailout] terminates future lobbying, which was one of the primary contributors to this great debacle.

Another of campaign manager Davis' groups:

Davis headed the Homeownership Alliance, a lobbying association that included Fannie, Freddie, nonprofit groups, real estate agents, homebuilders and consumer advocates. … [The group] worked to oppose congressional efforts to tighten controls on Fannie and Freddie.

Think Progress » McCain Op-Ed: Lobbyists Like My Campaign Manager Are ‘Primary Contributors’ To Fannie-Freddie Crisis

What does he expect people to believe? That he hired all these lobbyists so he could infiltrate them and destroy from within? Study their habits for 26 years, and then... ZACK!?!