This Washington Post piece suggests former Senator Phil Gramm, a McCain economic adviser, could be a liability to the McCain campaign because of his role in deregulating Wall Street during the 1990s and because of his current position at a major investment bank.
To that list of reasons I'd add a third: Gramm is apparently a colossal liar. According to the Post:
Gramm, UBS's vice chairman, said yesterday he was "totally unaware" of his bank's massive holdings of securities tied to subprime mortgages, but, he added, "I'm confident we'll recover."
Really? "Totally unaware"? It's not like subprime mortgage securities were the trendiest asset on Wall Street over the last five-to-seven years. It's not like investment banks would crave the high, seemingly risk-free returns these securities promised. And, even if these things were the case, it's not like the vice chairman of a major investment bank would have any reason to be interested in them. I'm sure he was off worrying about far more important things like--well, like what I can't say. But I'm sure they were important, and incredibly time-consuming...
--Noam Scheiber