For the last week or so, the McCain campaign has been aggressively trying to tie Barack Obama to the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and to suggest that Obama has somehow been improperly influenced by them. First, the McCain campaign released an ad linking Barack Obama to former Fannie Mae executive Franklin Raines, a guy Obama had spoken to once in his life and who immediately denied having ever given Obama any advice.

Then the McCain campaign claimed that Obama was on the take, that he had received more money from Fannie and Freddie than anyone else in Congress. Of course, that’s only true if you count campaign donations from employees of the company, and by that standard Obama has raised more money from just about every company in America than anyone else. And here’s the kicker. If you look at donations from Fannie and Freddie’s executives, board members, lobbyists, McCain received $169,000 in donations compared to Obama’s $16,000.

But the New York Times tonight provides the ultimate coup de grace. It turns out John McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, has literally been on the payroll of Freddie Mac from 2005 until last month, when the company was taken over by the government. And not only that, he didn’t actually provide any services to the company other than access to John McCain

McCain’s lies and sleaze would be comical if there wasn’t a chance he could be President.