A June 10 Associated Press article reported John McCain's attack on a member of Barack Obama's vice presidential running mate search committee for receiving loans from a subprime mortgage lender, but did not report Obama's response that one of McCain's top advisers had lobbied on behalf of one of the largest subprime lenders alleged to have played a key role in the current mortgage crisis.

The AP noted that Jim Johnson, who was named by Obama to his vice presidential search committee, “became a subject of campaign controversy ... after a weekend report in The Wall Street Journal that he had received loans from Countrywide Financial Corp. with the help of the firm's chief executive, Angelo Mozilo” and quoted McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds' attack on Obama for “entrusting his most important decision as a presidential candidate to a man who has accepted millions in special loans from a subprime mortgage lender.” But the AP did not report the Obama campaign's response that "[i]t's the height of hypocrisy for the McCain campaign to try and make this an issue when John Green, one of John McCain's top advisers, lobbied for Ameriquest, which was one of the nation's largest subprime lenders and a key player in the mortgage crisis."

The AP reported:

Johnson himself became a subject of campaign controversy during the day after a weekend report in The Wall Street Journal that he had received loans from Countrywide Financial Corp. with the help of the firm's chief executive, Angelo Mozilo.

Obama's campaign suggested its surrogates call the story “overblown and irrelevant.”

But Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee-in-waiting, jumped in quickly.

“There is nothing 'overblown and irrelevant' about millions of Americans facing foreclosure and Barack Obama entrusting his most important decision as a presidential candidate to a man who has accepted millions in special loans from a subprime mortgage lender,” said Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for the Republican presidential contender.

In contrast with the AP, a June 9 post on washingtonpost.com's politics blog, The Trail, included the portion of the Obama campaign's response in which spokesman Tommy Vietor pointed out that John Green, McCain's congressional liaison, lobbied for the now-defunct Ameriquest, a subprime mortgage lender accused of having engaged in predatory practices:

Sen. John McCain piled on during an interview this afternoon with Carl Cameron of Fox News. “I think it suggests a bit of a contradiction, talking about how his campaign is gonna be not associated with people like that. Clearly he is very much associated with that,” McCain said, according to statement circulated by his campaign.

Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor shot back, “It's the height of hypocrisy for the McCain campaign to try and make this an issue when John Green, one of John McCain's top advisors, lobbied for Ameriquest, which was one of the nation's largest subprime lenders and a key player in the mortgage crisis. As President, Senator Obama will crack down on fraudulent lenders and bring real relief to Americans struggling in the grip of the housing crisis-the kind of change that works for the American people.”

According to a March 31 New York Daily News article, “John Green, [McCain's] chief liaison to Congress, and Wayne Berman, his national finance co-chairman, billed more than $720,000 in lobbying fees from 2005 through last year to Ameriquest Mortgage through their lobbying firm, disclosure forms reviewed by the Daily News show.” The Daily News further reported: “Ameriquest, which since has been bought out, was forced to settle suits with 49 states for $325 million. More than 13,680 New York homeowners got taken for a ride by the company, records show.”