McCain and Gang threw a hissy fit yesterday, accusing the NY Times of being in the tank for Obama because it had reported that Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager, had received $2 million as head of an advocacy group for deregulating Sallie Mae and Freddie Mac. Hadn’t worked there for years and anyway, even though the group did lobbying, Davis never did.

Turns out, in today’s reporting, that while Davis may not have pocketed the money directly, in fact the firm he owns received $15,000 a month up until last month!

One of the giant mortgage companies at the heart of the credit crisis paid $15,000 a month from the end of 2005 through last month to a firm owned by Senator John McCain’s campaign manager, according to two people with direct knowledge of the arrangement.

The disclosure undercuts a statement by Mr. McCain on Sunday night that the campaign manager, Rick Davis, had 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’s doing much substantive work for the company in return for the money, other than speak to a political action committee of high-ranking employees in October 2006 on the approaching midterm Congressional elections. They said Mr. Davis’s firm, Davis & Manafort, had been kept on the payroll because of Mr. Davis’s close ties to Mr. McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, who by 2006 was widely expected to run again for the White House.

McCain’s Aide Brings in Big Bucks