McCain lobbyist controversy intensifies, Obama piles on
By Steve Benen Monday May 19, 2008 11:50am
When the McCain quietly acknowledged on Saturday that Tom Loeffler, the national finance co-chairman of the presidential campaign, had resigned over his lobbying ties, advisors probably hoped it would go by largely unnoticed. Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff ran with the story, and blogs picked up on it, but would five key campaign resignations in a week become a major headache for the McCain gang?
It sure looks like it. The Washington Post ran a front-page item this morning, with a headline the campaign won’t like at all: “A Fifth Top Aide To McCain Resigns; Finance Co-Chairman’s Lobbying Ties Are Cited.”
[Loeffler] is the fifth person to sever ties with the campaign amid a growing concern over whether lobbyists have too great an influence over the Republican nominee. Last week, campaign manager Rick Davis issued a new policy that requires all campaign personnel to either resign or sever ties with lobbying firms or outside political groups. […]
McCain has built his reputation in Congress on fighting special interests and the lobbying culture, but he has been criticized for months about the number of lobbyists serving in key positions in his campaign. Until recently, his top political adviser, Charles R. Black Jr., was the head of a Washington lobbying firm. Black retired in March from BKSH & Associates, the firm he helped found, to stay with the campaign. Davis ran a lobbying firm for several years but has said he is on leave from it.
Black, in particular, remains in the cross hairs of McCain’s critics. Campaign Money Watch, a nonpartisan watchdog group in Washington, yesterday praised Loeffler’s departure but renewed its call for Black’s departure. The group has launched a Web site, http://www.firethelobbyists.com, to urge McCain to rid his campaign of their influence. Loeffler’s lobbying for Saudi Arabia and other foreign governments was revealed over the weekend.
This follows up on developments the weekend, when we learned there have been five resignations in eight days within the McCain camp, and the fact that Black’s client list will continue to dog the campaign.
It’s especially helpful that Barack Obama is helping elevate this controversy, taking advantage of the opportunity.
From the campaign trail yesterday in Oregon:
“It appears that John McCain is very much a creature of Washington and one of the things that we’ve said from the outset of this campaign is that if we’re gonna change policies, if we’re gonna deliver on universal health care or have an energy policy that over the long term can bring down gas prices that we were gonna have to change how Washington works,” Obama told reporters Sunday at an ice cream shop in Milwaukie, Ore. “We can’t have special interests dictating what’s happening there and that’s why I said at the beginning I wouldn’t take PAC money and I wouldn’t take money from federal lobbyists. And it does appear that over the last several weeks John McCain keeps on having problems with his top advisers being lobbyists, in some cases for foreign governments or other big interests that are doing business in Washington that I don’t think represents the kind of change that the American people are looking for.”
The McCain campaign responded with a strange attack:
Just a few years ago when Barack Obama was beginning his career in politics he was launching it at the home of William Ayers, an unrepentant domestic terrorist who his chief strategist said Senator Obama was certainly friendly with. If Barack Obama is going to make associations the issue, we look forward to the debate about Senator Obama’s associations and what they say about his judgment and readiness to be commander in chief.
Hmm. McCain’s high-priced lobbyists are running his campaign, despite their ties to authoritarian dictatorships. William Ayers has no role in the Obama campaign whatsoever, and has no ties to authoritarian dictatorships. McCain knew about his lobbyist buddies’ client work, but put them on the payroll anyway. Obama is probably familiar with Ayers’ background, but has no formal relationship with the guy, and certainly never paid him for his political advice.
There is, in other words, no reasonable comparison here.
That said, I certainly understand why the McCain campaign is starting to feel antsy. McCain benefits from a public perception that he’s a “reformer” who disdains the influence and access given to high-priced DC lobbyists. Now, people are starting to get a peek behind the curtain, finding a candidate who’s surrounded himself with these same high-priced DC lobbyists, many of whom worked for some of the world’s most unsavory thugs. And now it’s on the front page of a major daily.
With the pressure picking up on Charles Black, this may still get worse for the McCain campaign.
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Primerrrrrrro! Pendejos!
I think McBains campaign will wither under the light of day. Once Obama can focus on McBain, and not have to worry about Hillary snipping at his heels...McBain will fall apart.
Stay on the offensive, BO!
Better be careful, Mr. Hope and Change.
The whole lobbyist thing could comeback to bite you in the ass.
Rookie.
Senator Obama's premise and credibility of not taking money from federal lobbyists hangs on a carefully crafted distinction: he is taking money, lots of it, from owners and employees of firms registered as federal lobbyists but not the actual individual lobbyists. But is that dealing honestly with the American people?
McCain forgot that we now have the internets to share this information with the world. Welcome to the 21st century GOP!!
If McSame had rejected these lobbyists originally, he would have never gotten to the nomination in the first place.
He has sold his soul to the devil in exchange for the nomination.
Now, he has to live with this and hope no one notices.
McCain’s campaign manager’s name still on lobbying firm’s letterhead.
Johnny2Bad @ 4:
Yeah OK Mr. Cognitive Dissonance. You mean, as a legislator, he had to work with lobbyists! Oh my! Lobbyists, and unfortunate side effect of a democracy, worked with Obama to compromise a health care bill! Jesus H. Christ! That's worse than having bank-rolled dictator lobbyists WORKING FOR YOUR CAMPAIGN. Give me a f*cking break buddy lol.
obama would be best served keeping his mouth shut, lest it become apparent that he is an estab candidate too, like hillary and mccain. as our rulers and overlords wouldn't have it any other way.
on that note: dear obama campaign, please stop using the 'si se puede' slogan, it harkens to the GCS (greenberg, carville, shrum) attempt to subvert democracy.
One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter... I consider Ayers in the second category.
BREAKING NEWS:
Ted Kennedy has a brain tumor!
3 Blue Lensman
Exactly correct. OFFENSE OFFENSE OFFENSE.
The left has been playing defense for 20 years, having to apologize for their record on social programs, worker benefits, public education, etc.
Well, the GOP is the one with the record now, and John McCain is attached at the hip to it.
A war, our economy in disarray, prices through the roof (and yet there is no inflation! LOLOLOL!). Attack McCain, attack the right, attack the GOP...respond to their rhetoric with FACTS.
StevePam @ 12:
Fuck. I hope it isn't a GBM.
That's a shame about Kennedy. I hope & pray the tumor is not malignant!
John McCain! [Deleted-Sitemonitor]
It never ceases to amaze me how men in this country continually refuse to grow up and stop screwing people around. McCain proves everyday he nothing but a little boy whore with a sugar momma.
[Deleted-Sitemonitor]
Evil is relentless.
Darrell stop ranting like that.
Dr. Acula @ 15:
It's malignant.
Dr. Acula @ 15:
msnbc is reporting: Tests reveal Sen. Ted Kennedy has malignant brain tumor
They're all on the take. Our out-dated political system has created this corrupt system. Neither republicans nor demos are going to want to fix it though, as they benefit. Obama is the lesser evil though.
Is "pork barrel" a racist term?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pork_barrel
There are more sources than wiki but I will only post this one.
Walter Sobcek @ 20:
It's fixed alright.
LA @ 5;
Look at the premise.
Why do we expect any presidential nominee to deal honestly with the American people, when American election laws don't deal honestly with the American people?
Liberal AND Proud @ 13
Staying on the offensive when momentum is your side should be the lesson we've learned. But time and again, commenters at C&L that I respect instinctively cling to the "don't throw stones" approach to politics.
The time for showing mercy to these rethugs is past.
Ted Kennedy has a malignant brain tumor. I'm crying now.
That's truly sad about Teddy K. My dad had a brain tumor about 13 years ago -- thankfully it was benign. Busholini, King of All Scumbags, will probably live to be 100.
Obviously, these reports are patently false. I remember McCain very clearly stating several months back that he doesn't have lobbyists in his campaign. He just doesn't. He was very adamant about that. So how can they be resigning if they never existed? Really, it's just simple logic. To even question his divine right to govern is foolish. Doesn't everyone understand that John McCain can't lie because he's a maverick who loves America with every fiber of his being?
HOW TO BE A REPUBLICAN
Step 1. At all times lie your ass off. No matter what. If you get caught in a lie, lie some more. Never stop lying. Ever.
Step 2. There is no step 2.
The end.
To suffer the loss of five top-tier hired staff people because of their lobbyists ties to dictators and repressive regimes is much more reflective of a candidate's values than a fire-up pastor in a pulpit.
But we were never going to get endless loops of their chicanery from the MSM anyway. And now w/ the sad, unfortunate news of Sen. Kennedy being diagnosed w/ a malignant brain tumor, the MSM will bury McSame's skulduggery in no time.
(Goes without saying our thoughts are with the Senator and the entire Kennedy family - who have suffered through more than their share of tragedies and born them with grace that we all admire and could learn from.)
Is there any possible way to create a Separation of Corporation and State?
Some people just don't get it. You know - the meaning of "no". That it's over. We never had much of a relationship - so stop clinging. But McLame doesn't get it. We had but a brief fling back in the old days. Before the Straight Talk Express turned into the Flip-Flop Depress. It's over Mac. Get it? Here, read my "Dear John" - maybe that will help. http://angryafrican.net/2008/05/20/dear-john/
I just wish we had laid low until after the Republican convention and then blasted the Republicans with this info. Surely that was a consideration before this anti-McCain lobbyist attack began but I still wonder what was the hurry.
Hm. So much for a "positive campaign" Barack
Welcome to the dark side =>
Although you've been here all along I see, when you went after Hillary trying to say she was hiding something, when it turns out she wasn't.
Things that make you go "Hm"
Woah, surprising. This type of stuff always comes up. I don't think Obama did it at the right time.
has anyone else noticed this recent rove like ploy of the talking repube heads.. accuse your opposition of what you in fact are doing so the stigma of the act ataches to the opposition before it sticks to you. we have been seeing this trick for 8 years now. they have been all over the airwaves and cable speaking out about the "free pass" obama is geting from the media.
this story proves that the media has been giving mcsame the free pass. maybe if we would be hearing about the lobbyist ties to his campaign, americans might be better informed about who to vote for, or against. msm's silence, yet again, is deafening.
Dr. Acula;
Please stop telling me how to talk or rant or not to rant. I have every right to be pissed off and express my displeasure with the disgusting way our supposed leaders and possible future leaders will continue to run this country into oblivion.
[OK. I'll tell you how to talk and act on this site. Do NOT advocate violence. Do NOT wish illness or catastrophe on others-while you are commenting here. Thank you-Sitemonitor]
McCain is fucking idiot who can barely remember his fucking name and it has reached the point of utter lunacy which is why I often comment like lunatic fringe.
Our world leaders are all fucking insane.
Its insane to try to make it sound like its not.
besides I don't correct you when you are being obtuse and nor do I try to mold a tin foil hat for your thick headed commentaries. So kindly correct yourself with your own red pen- when the communists take over- then you can tell me what to say and how to say it and to whom I can say it to.
Thanks for caring though!
When will Charlie Black resign? He goes back to 1980 period with his buddy Jack
Abramoff who is now serving time in a federal pen.
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