GOP Minority Debate Avoiders Raked in Cash From Firms Accused Of Racism

While the four top GOP presidential posers missed the Sept 27 debate at Morgan State University in Baltimore that was organized to address minority issues, that didn't preclude them from raking in the dough from dozens of business and professional elites, including a top Wall Street banking firm that was sued that same week for racial discrimination.

Overall, it was a grand and enriching week for the four white males most likely to represent the Republicans in the 2008 presidential race. Among them, they amassed over $9 million while they were too "busy" to attend the debate at Morgan State.

The most egregious case is that of Morgan Stanley, who gave money to three of the four during the week of the minority debate they chose to miss. The NCRC filed a civil rights complaint against Morgan Stanley and its mortgage lender subsidiary Saxon Capital just three days before the debate, in one of the first challenge against a Wall Street mortgage bundler to allege redlining in minority communities throughout the United States under the Federal Fair Housing Act.

But Romney, McCain, Thompson and Giuliani weren't a bit inhibited from passing the hat at a company that saddled the gullible with sure-fail housing loans while bypassing qualified minority borrowers. While they didn't feel up to engaging black and Latino questioners at the debate, all but McCain eagerly vacuumed up a total of at least $40,000 that week from Morgan Stanley employees, according to campaign finance reports filed with the FEC (Morgan Stanley executives have given to McCain on other occasions.)