rick davis

Now that the election is over we start getting a bigger look into the inner workings of the McCain campaign:

Randy Scheunemann, a senior foreign policy adviser to John McCain, was fired from the Arizona senator's campaign last week for what one aide called "trashing" the campaign staff, three senior McCain advisers tell CNN.

One of the aides tells CNN that campaign manager Rick Davis fired Scheunemann after determining that he had been in direct contact with journalists spreading "disinformation" about campaign aides, including Nicolle Wallace and other officials.

"He was positioning himself with Palin at the expense of John McCain's campaign message," said one of the aides.

In contrast, what bad news did we ever hear from the Obama campaign? What "leaked information" from campaign insiders bad talking the campaign did we hear? The answer is none - something that might be a first in presidential politics.

Today's Washington Times has an article talking about a battle going on between the Ohio GOP and John McCain:

In Ohio, long-boiling friction between the McCain campaign and the state Republican Party on a variety of issues reached a new intensity over a complicated local gambling question. The state Republican Party's central committee had voted to oppose a proposed state constitutional amendment to permit a casino in Clinton County. The state party included its "vote no" view on the "slate card" of recommendations it sends to early voters.

The McCain campaign unilaterally removed that recommendation from the mailer, overriding Ohio Republican Party Chairman Bob Bennett and threatening to block funds to pay for the printing and distribution. Mr. McCain favors legalized gambling, and his campaign did not want to appear to support it some states and oppose it in others.

The state party worked with the opponents of the amendment to send another mailing, using the pictures of U.S. Sen. George V. Voinovich, Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted and Mr. Bennett, along with their words of opposition on the gambling question.

"Why in the world would anyone want to amend the Constitution of Ohio and put a monopoly in for one individual to build one casino in the state of Ohio?" Mr. Voinovich asks in his statement.

Joe Sudbay brings up the fact that McCain has serious ties to the gambling industry, which could be his reason for breaking with the Ohio GOP. That is most likely only part of the reason though.

If the NYT's reporting about Rick Davis is so wrong, then why is he running?

John McCain campaign manager Rick Davis--under the spotlight because of his work for mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac--is skipping a Wednesday lunch with reporters sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor.

Do the innocent run, or do they try to prove their innocence? Perhaps someone should ask Rick Davis that question - if he can be found.

And John McCain does nothing but lie to the American people about it - the same American people expected to bail out these companies.

One of the giant mortgage companies at the heart of the credit crisis paid $15,000 a month to a firm owned by Senator John McCain’s campaign manager from the end of 2005 through last month, according to two people with direct knowledge of the arrangement. The disclosure contradicts a statement Sunday night by Mr. McCain that the campaign manager, Rick Davis, had no involvement with the company for the last several years. Mr. Davis’s firm received the payments from the company, Freddie Mac, until it was taken over by the government this month along with Fannie Mae, the other big mortgage lender whose deteriorating finances helped precipitate the cascading problems on Wall Street, the people said.

They said they did not recall Mr. Davis doing much substantive work for the company in return for the money, other than speak to a political action committee composed of high-ranking employees in October 2006 on the coming midterm congressional elections. They said Mr. Davis’s his firm, Davis & Manafort, was kept on the payroll because of Mr. Davis’s close ties to Mr. McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, who was widely expected by 2006 to run again for the White House.

Mr. Davis took a leave from Davis & Manafort for the duration of the campaign, but as a partner and equity-holder continues to share in its profits.

So even though Davis took a "leave", he still profited from the company. If this isn't criminal, it sure as hell should be. John McCain should also be publicly flogged for this.

Rick Davis on the line up of speakers for the GOP convention:

"I think one of the things that is important, especially for John McCain, as unique a politician as he is, is to demonstrate the diversity and differences of ideology I would say of our party," Davis said. "I think one of the things that people forget about is we are not a very monolithic as a party. We really want to show some of that."'

Let's see this melting pot of "diversity" Davis is talking about:

Looks like a bunch of old white guys to me. And what about the differences in ideology? The only ideology these guys have is wanting more wars. Yeah this is a shining example of the GOP platform - kill everyone in the name of whatever excuse they can make up!

McCain's here in Ohio campaigning and fundraising today. Actually McCain was in Wilmington, Ohio this afternoon on a campaign stop. This is the town that McCain and his campaign manager, Rick Davis, :may be destroying.

Think Progress has more on this. As someone who has been to Wilmington numerous times, and even done work at DHL, this serves as a huge blow to the community, and state. Once again McCain and his strong love of lobbying has screwed the American people. When will everyone realize what a fraud this guy is?