Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

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Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
by David Sirota

I’ll admit it: I used to admire John McCain.

To paraphrase the UFO poster from “The X-Files,” I wanted to believe.

Specifically, I wanted to believe the guy talking tough about campaign finance reform was committed to getting money out of politics. This was the Arizona senator who in 2002 taped a radio ad praising his state’s “clean elections” system. It provides public money to candidates so they don’t have to finance campaigns with corporate contributions-the kind given in exchange for legislative favors. McCain’s support for clean elections, I thought, proved he wanted to end corruption.

But by the time the senator showed up here in Colorado last week for a fundraiser at Denver’s Petroleum Club, I knew I had been duped.

As The Washington Post reports, McCain is now “assiduously courting both lobbyists and their wealthy clients, offering them private audiences as part of his fundraising.” He has more lobbyists as fundraisers than any other White House contender, and he allows lobbyists to simultaneously work in his campaign and represent business clients. In fact, the Post reported that his chief adviser “said he does a lot of his work by telephone from McCain’s Straight Talk Express bus.”

Such antics have run that “Straight Talk Express” into the ditch of hypocrisy. Just look at McCain’s actions on two huge issues: energy and campaign finance reform...

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/04/8083/

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1. This article may come in handy in October & November.