Do John McCain’s Speechwriters Have His Researchers’ Phone Numbers?

John McCain has been making speeches and airing ads tying Barack Obama to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  He says Obama “took more money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac than anyone but the chairman of the committee they answer to.”  Here he is saying it in Ohio:

The problem (for McCain) is that Obama’s contributions were from Freddie and Fannie employees, not the corporations themselves.  Here’s a more relevant set of numbers:

The New York Times looked at contributions from Fannie and Freddie’s boards of directors and lobbyists, who are technically not employees. That analysis found Fannie and Freddie-related contributors gave $116,000 to John McCain and his related committees, compared with $16,000 to Obama and his related committees.

Another McCain problem? His campaign manager, Rick Davis, was a lobbyist for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  According to William Maloni, Fannie Mae’s Senior Vice President for Government and Industry Relations from 1983-2004,

Rick Davis was paid by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac several hundred thousand dollars early in this decade to head up an organization to lobby in their behalf called The Homeownership Alliance. …

I worked in government relations for Fannie Mae for more than 20 years, leading the group for most of those years. When I see photographs of Sen. McCain’s staff, it looks to me like the team of lobbyists who used to report to me. Senator McCain’s attack on Senator Obama is a cheap shot, and hypocritical.

And as the New York Times reports, Rick Davis isn’t the only lobbyist-turned-McCain-campaign strategist with Fannie and Freddie ties:

More than Mr. Obama, Mr. McCain’s circle of advisers and contributors includes current and former lobbyists or directors for the companies, although since July he has called for a ban on any lobbying by the two firms. Among the companies’ past advocates are Mr. McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, a longtime lobbyist; Mr. McCain’s confidant and adviser Charlie Black, whose firm worked for Freddie Mac for several years ending in 2005, and the deputy campaign finance chairman, Wayne L. Berman, a vice president for Ogilvy Worldwide and a former Fannie Mae lobbyist.

Is the McCain campaign learning how to conduct internet research from its candidate? Or has it simply concluded that facts are for Democrat [sic] Party sissies?