Even with two weeks to go until the election, yet another connection between John McCain and troubled mortgage giant Freddie Mac has come to light.

Word came out this weekend that Freddie Mac secretly paid Republican firm DCI Group to lobby GOP senators to oppose legislation that would have increased regulations on its lending.

Does DCI Group sound familiar? It might – it turns out that DCI Group’s CEO is Doug Goodyear, who was John McCain’s choice to organize this year’s Republican National Convention. And, as Newsweek reported in May, Goodyear’s firm also made money representing Burma’s brutal military junta.

As for McCain’s VP pick, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, The New Yorker has a lengthy article on the governor’s rise to prominence among the GOP elite – the very “Good Ol’ Boys Network” she so often decries. Part of that, the story mentions, was her quick desire to cozy up to powerful Washington lobbyists after she became mayor of Wasilla.

Of course, McCain spent Sunday questioning the legitimacy of Barack Obama’s staggering $150 million in September fundraising, saying on Fox News Sunday, “What’s going to happen, particularly if you’ve got an incumbent president, and we no longer stick to the … public financing, which was a result of the Watergate scandal?”

Sen. McCain might want to ask this question of himself, as “sticking to public financing” proved to be, well, a sticky point during the Republican primaries. You may remember that McCain opted into the public financing system for the primaries and then decided to change his mind once his campaign took off. Despite the questionable legality of this move, the FEC eventually let him off the hook.

Finally, The Dallas Morning News explores why an Obama administration, combined with a Democratic Congress, would likely result in new regulations on AT&T. As for a McCain administration, the story notes that “AT&T’s executives and lobbyists have longstanding ties to Mr. McCain,” including the company’s top lobbyist, Tim McKone, who has raised $500,000 for the GOP nominee. The article also points out that some of McCain’s “top campaign aides are former AT&T lobbyists, including Charlie Black and Rick Davis, Mr. McCain’s campaign manager. Some of Mr. McCain’s Senate aides later worked as lobbyists for AT&T.”

(Sorry for the late post today. We had some technical difficulties this morning.)

The “Troopergate” investigation into whether John McCain’s VP pick, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, abused her powers in pushing for her brother-in-law to be fired, and if those efforts resulted in the firing of the state’s public safety commissioner, is picking up steam. “First Dude” Todd Palin submitted a statement to the legislative investigation yesterday that indicated his efforts to get the trooper fired “started before his wife became governor and accelerated during the first 19 months of her administration,” the Anchorage Daily News’ Bill White reports.

The legislative panel’s report is expected to be released in a matter of days.

As for McCain, The New York Times reports today that a plan he floated in Tuesday’s debate – having the government buy up bad mortgages – would “would leave taxpayers to cover the losses, rather than the financial institutions that hold the original mortgages.” Of course, those are the same financial institutions that, with the help of deregulatory laws supported by McCain, played a big role in sparking the current crisis.

In an editorial today, the Times notes the “hypocrisy” of McCain for his talk about Obama’s “cronies” during the debate. After noting that McCain once called lobbyists “birds of prey,” they say the GOP nominee “is living in a virtual aviary with, among others, his campaign manager and his White House transition planner, bona fide heavyweights in the power game of lobbying and consulting.”

In the same vein, The Washington Post’s Zachary Goldfarb examines how Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae became this year’s “political hot potato,” noting how deeply entangled the mortgage giants were in Washington and the two presidential campaigns.

The LA Times’ Dan Morain and Doug Smith examine how Obama’s fundraising has, basically, been so successful that it’s rendered existing law obsolete. Campaigns don’t have to report information on donors who provide $200 or less, but Obama has raised so much money from small donors that a large chunk of his donor base is completely unknown. Basically, when the law was written, no one thought so much could be raised via small donors.

Finally, and along the same topic, the Financial Times notes that Blue State Digital, whose tools and consulting have helped fuel Obama’s record-breaking online fundraising, is taking its business international.

Another day brings another report of the entanglements between John McCain and Freddie Mac. In this morning’s Washington Post, Matthew Mosk and David Hilzenrath focus on Mark Buse. Buse is a shining example of Washington’s revolving door – he went from working for the Senate Commerce Committee (which McCain chaired) to being a Freddie Mac lobbyist and then back to Capitol Hill, becoming McCain’s chief of staff.

Buse was hired specifically for his ties to McCain, with an eye on keeping McCain’s oversight of the mortgage lender in check. Another former Freddie Mac lobbyist said Buse was “hugely successful” in doing so.

In Sarah Palin news, attempts by her attorney general to end the “Troopergate” investigation were stymied yesterday by a judge, the Anchorage Daily News’ Sean Cockerham reports. The results of the investigation are scheduled to be released Oct. 10.

In Roll Call, Joshua Spivak writes a eulogy to campaign finance reform, blaming McCain and Barack Obama equally. He warns that 2012 will be a free-for-all in terms of fundraising and spending without “radical reform” of the system.

Finally, we learned yesterday of one place McCain won’t be spending money: Michigan. However, reports indicate they will try to make a play in Maine and still have hopes of “flipping” Pennsylvania from blue to red.

The latest chapter in the story of Freddie Mac and John McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, came out this weekend, from Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff and Holly Bailey: The McCain camp claims that Davis separated from his firm, Davis Manafort, in 2006. Yet the McCain campaign started paying the firm $20,000 a month when Davis came on board, suggesting the ties hadn’t been severed at all.

This weekend, The New York Times published a lengthy report by Jo Becker and Don Van Natta Jr. on McCain’s ties to the gambling industry, especially Indian gambling. It touches on McCain’s investigation into now-imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff, saying that “McCain and a circle of allies — lobbyists, lawyers and senior strategists — also seized on the case for its opportunities,” including the chance at some revenge on the people who helped sink McCain’s 2000 bid for the GOP nomination.

Finally, the AP’s Brett J. Blackledge reports that McCain’s VP pick, Sarah Palin, looks into the favors and special treatment Palin received as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska – the latest in a series of reports that run against her reformer image. The list includes everything from winning a zoning exemption to help her sell her house to allowing a friend to speak before the city council… so he could ask for advertising business for his radio station.

Heard anything good out there? Send it to our tipline at [email protected].

John McCain may have suspended his campaign, but that doesn’t seem to have stopped the flow of stories about his money and his ties to lobbyists, especially one day after the New York Times/AP/Newsweek revelation that campaign manager Rick Davis’ firm took in money as recently as last month from scandal-plagued mortgage giant Freddie Mac.

The Los Angeles Times’ Stephen Braun writes that McCain’s image as a reformer has taken a hit due to Davis’ Freddie Mac ties.

Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff, one of the reporters to break the Davis/Freddie story, explores the McCain campaign’s contention that Davis never profited from the arrangement and had severed all ties with his old firm, Davis Manafort. But, Isikoff reports, “Davis was still listed as one of only two corporate officers and directors of the firm” as of April of this year.

AP’s Pete Yost describes Freddie Mac’s relationship with Davis as “access insurance.” Yost also goes on to note that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae both had an extensive bipartisan lobbying operation that ensured any reforms were “buried under a cascade of dollars that went to both Democrats and Republicans.” (This point is echoed by a Wall Street Journal blog post that goes into the complicated web of Fannie and Freddie’s influence.)

In other news, The Washington Times’ Jim McElhatton notes that while McCain declared a war on earmarks this campaign, some of his top congressional bundlers appear to be big fans of them. And an LA Times blog post notes the highlights of a New England Journal of Medicine article on “the millions of dollars making their way to the campaign coffers of both parties and both presidential candidates.”

Don’t forget – if there’s anything you want to see written about here, e-mail us at [email protected].

Dominating the headlines this morning is a New York Times report about McCain campaign manager and lobbyist Rick Davis’ ties to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. No, this is not a repeat. While the Times’ original reporting had Davis on the mortgage giants’ payroll until 2005, the new report finds that, after that arrangement ended, Davis’ firm received $15,000 a month from Freddie Mac until last month – when a federal takeover brought its lobbying to an end.

While the money went to Davis’ firm, it was really all about Davis himself, and his closeness to John McCain: “No one at Davis & Manafort other than Mr. Davis was involved in efforts on Freddie Mac’s behalf, the people familiar with the arrangement said.”

As recently as Sunday, McCain had claimed Davis’ connection to Freddie Mac ended years ago.

Davis isn’t the only one of McCain’s Lobbyists under the microscope. The Chicago Tribune’s Andrew Zajac has been taking an exhaustive look at Charlie Black’s ties to a Russian think tank with ties to Vladimir Putin – here’s his latest report.

A key line in Zajac’s piece quietly attacks the McCain camp’s assertion that since Black, Davis and company are former lobbyists, there’s nothing wrong with their influential campaign positions: “It beggars belief that his retirement marks a departure from the Washington influence business for Black, since he retains other business interests at the juncture of the private sector and the federal government and he remains a prince of the capital’s permanent government.

Meanwhile, the New York Times’ Michael Luo looks at the work of bundlers who once backed Hillary Clinton and their efforts to do the same for Barack Obama, even as some of those donors are feeling the impact of the recent market meltdown.

Hot on the heels of a new Obama ad on McCain’s support of insurance companies headquartered in Bermuda, the Wall Street Journal’s T.W. Farnam notes the financial support those firms have given McCain: “A few months after Sen. McCain’s visit there, top insurance executives held a fund-raiser on the island that netted an estimated $50,000. Since then, Sen. McCain has raised an additional $70,000 from employees of Bermudan insurers. Sen. Obama, in contrast, has gotten $12,500 in total from employees of those companies.”

Any suggestions on what we should be talking about here? E-mail us at [email protected].

John McCain’s extensive ties to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue to provide fodder for the media today. Bloomberg’s Jonathan D. Salant reports today that the head of McCain’s presidential transition team, William Timmons, is founder and former chairman of a firm that lobbied for Freddie Mac as recently as this month, when the mortgage giants’ lobbying operations were shut down in a government takeover. The firm took in $260,000 this year.

McCain’s biggest fundraising draw – VP pick Sarah Palin – is skipping the fundraising circuit for awhile to focus on her upcoming debate with Joe Biden, along with traveling with McCain and boosting attendance at his events, according to Politico’s Jonathan Martin.

Speaking of the fundraising circuit, the Wall Street Journal’s Nick Timiraos reports on the “delicate balancing act” Barack Obama faces as he criticizes Wall Street’s excesses while also, due to his decision to forego public financing, having to spend his evenings soliciting donations from wealthy Democrats.

Those of you with a head for statistics will appreciate an analysis by MSNBC’s Bill Dedman of presidential fundraising in battleground counties – Obama leads the way in most of them.

Finally, Newsweek’s Andrew Romano looks at McCain’s “boomerang problem” – when his accusations about Obama’s ties to lobbyists (among other things) backfire.

This morning The New York Times plays what might be the trump card in the debate over which candidate, John McCain or Barack Obama, is more tied to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: McCain campaign manager Rick Davis’ firm was paid $30,000 a month for five years (2000-05) by the mortgage giants “to defend them against stricter regulations,” the paper’s David D. Kirkpatrick and Charles Duhgg report.

Among the highlights: Democrats and Republicans both say Davis’ value was based on his “closeness to Senator McCain and the possibility that Senator McCain was going to run for president again,” according to a former Fannie Mae spokesman. Yet he also said Davis “didn’t really do anything.”

The L.A. Times’ Dan Morain reports on the details of Obama and McCain’s August fundraising. Worthy of note: Of Obama’s $66 million raised, $22 million was in small contributions. While that’s a decent percentage, it’s way down from what we saw during the heat of the primaries – a fact that underscores big money’s continuing importance to both parties. (The Chicago Tribune has more details about Obama’s fundraising obligations.)

We begin today with a lead from The Associated Press that says it all: “Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, a self-described government reformer, is dabbling in a little politics as usual.” Michael R. Blood goes on to report that John McCain’s VP running mate will headline a fundraiser later this month at the home of California software mogul Tom Siebel. For the low, low price of $50,000, you can get a photo taken with Palin and a seat at the head table.

You might have been wondering about the lobbying angle of the federal takeover of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Bloomberg’s Jonathan D. Salant has the story. One of the biggest consequences of the takeover is an end to both companies’ powerful Capitol Hill lobbying operations, which cost $7.4 million in the first half of this year alone, and $174 million since 1998 – and included McCain bundler Alfonse D’Amato.

Yet even though D’Amato has raised at least $250,000 for McCain, the candidate and his running mate claim in today’s Wall Street Journal that they’ll stand up to special interests. All while taking money from those who represent those special interests, Sen. McCain?

Finally, The New York Times takes a look at how Obama and the Democratic National Committee are dealing with the candidate’s decision to opt out of $84 million in public financing for the general election – as it turns out, that decision has come with some unintended consequences.

If you’d heard any interesting tidbits about McCain’s lobbyists, we want to know! Send them to [email protected].