Gramm Resigns McCain Co-Chairman Title
The McCain campaign has released the following statement from Phil Gramm, as part of a continuing effort to distance itself from the controversies caused by Gramm's "Nation of Whiners" remark:
"It is clear to me that Democrats want to attack me rather than debate Senator McCain on important economic issues facing the country. That kind of distraction hurts not only Senator McCain's ability to present concrete programs to deal with the country's problems, it hurts the country. To end this distraction and get on with the real debate, I hereby step down as Co-Chair of the McCain Campaign and join the growing number of rank-and-file McCain supporters."
This came in the wake of a few days of reports from Robert Novak, indicating that Gramm and McCain were still on good terms and that the candidate was telling his adviser not to worry about the controversy -- despite public declarations by economic adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin that Gramm wasn't advising them anymore.
One question still unanswered: Gramm may have abdicated his honorary co-chair title, but will he still be giving McCain economic advice, or not?
Late Update: Jonathan Martin asked the McCain camp whether Gramm will stop advising the candidate, and reports that spokesman Tucker Bounds "only said that it was Gramm's decision to step down from his co-chair post."
He got tossed since he was going to be quite the headache with the UBS investigation.
July 18, 2008 10:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
You win the prize. The "whining" commentary was just an excuse. The bigger story the Dems should have jumped on was his involvement with UBS and his role in dismantling the safeguards that led us directly into the horrific mortgage meltdown.
July 19, 2008 11:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
UBS-Gramm-McCain: A story with legs.
The public was recently informed that UBS financial has been caught systemmatically setting up secret accounts offshore for wealthy Americans and other individuals. Apparently, a former employee of a bank in Lichtenstein received more than four milliion pounds in payment by the government of Germany for the list. Germany then published the list of German nationals with accounts and provided the complete lists to the governments of Italy and the United States.
I want to see the lists. Many Americans want to see the lists. Why? Because:
- Thousands of Americans lost their jobs and life savings in the dot-com bust in 2000
- Thousands of Americans have lost their lives and loved ones in Iraq
- All Americans are losing income because we must pay record high prices for energy
- The entire world is losing sacred wetlands, ocean health and wildlife due to global warming and pollution
- The truth in medical science has been manipulated - research into medical problems facing women and homosexuals has been cancelled, left unfunded and dismissed
- Agriculture has been kept under wraps, so that Americans no longer know what we are buying and how adulterated it is - basic definitions have been changed "organic" has been redefined to include chemically changed and hormone enriched
- Energy - Who did Dick Cheney talk to, why and when?
- Financial - Did the Administration deliberately allow the mortgage catastrophy to happen in order to privatize Freddie and Fannie? If not, why did they let it happen? In my community, a disaster was obvious and I refused to do business with those engaged in it.
Much of the stuff that's happened was so blatently wrong that it was a head scratcher until the whole thing fell apart. Yeah, the doom was impending and we were all wondering just when the s would hit the fan. Could this Administration be so incompetent or were they permitting it to happen in order to re-order?
July 20, 2008 12:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know why they "brought him back" in the first place as it just brings the quotes back to the forefront again. I wonder if he was connected to the Liechtenstein banking scandal.
Maybe the scapegoated him to make it the story rather than McCain disclosing Obama's Iraq travel plans.
July 18, 2008 10:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain's revelation of Obama's travel plan was just another demonstration of his Kreskin like
ability to predict the future. It was first demonstrated when he revealed the Pittsburgh Steeler "Steel Curtain" lineup to amazed Vietnamese interrrogators 10 years in advance.
July 19, 2008 2:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
The more I see of Phil Gramm, the more I become convinced that Gramm is the most Cheney-esque figure among the McSame inner circle.
July 18, 2008 10:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Phil Gramm and Wendy: the couple from Hell.
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/68401
July 18, 2008 11:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
obama could play this hand well and demand mccain to change his economic policy and if mccain wont then obama can argue gramm is still part of mcsame campaign ........................
July 19, 2008 12:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
The real story here is that he returned to the porn film industry. The next film he was producing was called.."Girls gone wild on K street"...
July 19, 2008 12:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
Rumor has it that Phil was not thrown off the bus. He got off voluntarily when he spotted him some of them "Truck Stop Women."
July 19, 2008 2:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
Its a shame that all the focus was on the "whiner" comments, and not that fact that his outrageous claim of a "psychological recession" was in lockstep with McCain's outrageous views.
The real story is how out of touch Republicans are, period. Chances of that ever getting reported on?
ZERO.
July 19, 2008 1:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
Why is the McCain economic plan so ugly. Because
it's father is Phil Gramm.
July 19, 2008 1:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
somebody said yestiddy: "I didn't know goldfish could talk ......"
July 19, 2008 9:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
Mr. Gramm,
Please do us all a favor and shut the f*ck up. We're tired of your two-bit bitch whining and Enron loopholes. Good riddance, you evil greedy bastard.
July 19, 2008 2:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Isn't this the same game Hillary tried to play with Penn: supposedly firing him but not actually getting rid of him? That didn't work out so well for her, but then the media were hardly in love with her the way they are with McCain.
July 19, 2008 3:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
Phil Gramm: Whiner In Chief
Voltaire: Please! let him talk! he's a megaphone reminder for one of the most important things wrong with the GOP.
July 19, 2008 9:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sometimes I get the impression that McCain really doesn't want to be president. No presidential candidate or campaign has shot itself in the foot more than McCain.
July 19, 2008 11:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh he wants it all right. It's just that he is a confused, not very bright incompetent.
July 19, 2008 1:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
"It is clear to me that Democrats want to attack me rather than debate Senator McCain on important economic issues facing the country. "
Who's whining now?!?
July 19, 2008 11:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ba-bye Gramm. We'll miss the highlight on the criminal actions you bring to Senator Wackadoo's long, erring stumble towards the White House. McCain will never be as lame without you!
Pssst. Pssst. Phil . . . baby . . . Don't you listen to us. You hang in there. Your best boy buddy neeeeeeds you. Pretend to leave the scene then double back . . . No one works the mouth on McCain's 'Weekend at Bernie's' act like you do baby . . . 'Ho' Lieberman is great at moving the legs but has to consantly run clean up when he is on mouth patrol . . .
PLUS! It is the Republican economic plans that's going to WINce this thing for the Republicans, not the oversea's bull crap. Play to your and McCain's stength! They NEED you. Don't let fascist plutocrats everywhere down.
- - - - -
Hmmm. Truth is the only media play McCain deserves is the gaffs and malfeasence of him and the idiots he surrounds himself with.
July 19, 2008 1:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just interesting that Gramm chose to make his outrageous remarks on the day that all of this came to light in America. Gramm's remarks completely overshadowed reports of his involvement in this huge case of international bank fraud and tax evasion.
Smart move. The dispicable ant overshadowed the horribly diseased elephant in the living room.
Timing is everything. The Bush Administration has known about the list and Gramm's involvement since February '08. . . . knew it was a bomb and waited for the perfect time.
What other bombs do they have up their sleeves, just waiting for a bigger GOP disaster to divert?
July 19, 2008 10:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
To be clear . . . back in February, the government of Germany turned over the names of more than 12,000 Americans for whom UBS and its affiliates had set up secret accounts in order to hide billions of dollars and thereby avoid US taxes, audits and seizure. At that time, Phil Gramm was and had long been its VP of foreign client accounts. UBS operates under a US Charter that prohibits it from engaging in tax fraud, and generally, practices that undermine US law. UBS flouted that and enabled its clients to avoid millions of US obligations . . . all under Gramm's watch.
Suprisingly, the Huffington Post blocks all posts referencing USB.
I don't care if a cheat is a dem or repub . . . post the discussion . . . post the names. Germany has posted the names of all of its citizens on the list.
July 19, 2008 10:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oops, that should be UBS, not USB.
Post script, Germany paid the Lichtenstein clerk more than 4 million pounds (more than $9 million, given him a secret identity and sanctuary) This is very serious business.
Why is Huff in such a snit? Even if Soros is on the list, the Administration has a great deal more to worry about. It's well worth the pain to expose the names.
July 19, 2008 10:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain’s national campaign general co-chair was being paid by a Swiss bank to lobby Congress about the U.S. mortgage crisis at the same time he was advising McCain about his economic policy, federal records show.
“Countdown with Keith Olbermann” reported Tuesday night that lobbying disclosure forms, filed by the giant Swiss bank UBS, list McCain’s campaign co-chair, former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, as a lobbyist dealing specifically with legislation regarding the mortgage crisis as recently as Dec. 31, 2007.
Gramm joined the bank in 2002 and had registered as a lobbyist by 2004. UBS filed paperwork deregistering Gramm on April 18 of this year. Gramm continues to serve as a UBS vice chairman.
July 19, 2008 10:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Curious,
I believe that the "whining" comments were a deliberate attempt to deflect attention from the greater UBS issues . . .
How do we get the list?
How do we bring the UBS litigation to the top?
UBS will be huge, but we must frame it first. Unfortunately, he who frames it first generally wins.
I;m not a dem, but I am an American. Lets catch this tiger by the tail before Karl Rove twists it into a dem nightmare.
July 20, 2008 2:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
UBS is chartered in the US, it must file reports. Gramm must register as a lobbyist and file reports. Surely, between the two, their interests in oil and gas, finance, and healthcare issues must be disclosed. They must file expense reports, travel plans, etc. Heck, I have neither the time, resources or geographic availability to investigate these issues, but there must be bored law students or journalists willing to "follow the money" who could unearth the dirt.
July 20, 2008 3:03 AM | Reply | Permalink