McCAIN AND THE LOBBYISTS

[laststeamtrain]

McCAIN AND THE LOBBYISTS....I'm having a hard time keeping up, but here's the latest from the John McCain campaign:

John McCain's national finance co-chairman has stepped down, the latest casualty of a presidential campaign eager to cauterize damage caused by its ties to lobbyists.

Former Texas Rep. Thomas G. Loeffler....who runs the lobbying shop The Loeffler Group, is the highest profile departure from McCain's inner circle since a summer 2007 shake-up cost McCain his campaign manager and chief strategist.

That brings to five the number of campaign workers McCain has had to fire recently. Here's the complete list:

* Thomas Loeffler, lobbyist for Saudi Arabia and various defense contractors. CEO of The Loeffler Group.

* Doug Goodyear, lobbyist for the military junta in Burma. CEO of DCI Group.

* Doug Davenport, also works for DCI Group.

* Eric Burgeson, energy lobbyist, works for Barbour Griffith & Rogers

* Craig Shirley, works for anti-Hillary 527 group that's not allowed to coordinate with presidential campaigns.

This is ridiculous. Except for Shirley, whose sins are a little different, all of the other four headed up or worked for big lobbying outfits. The press is reporting this as if it's just one embarrassment for McCain after another that he keeps finding out he's got lobbyists working for him, but that's not the story here. The real story is that McCain obviously knew these guys were lobbyists long before anyone pointed it out to him. You don't hire the CEO of the DCI group without knowing that the guy is a lobbyist.

Only a child would believe that McCain didn't know who these guys were when he hired them. The press really needs to step up their game a notch on this story...http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_05/013744.php

[KharmaTrain]

1. You Forgot The Big Fish...Charlie Black

Gramps needs $$$$$...now and fast. Where does one go? As a good bankrobber knows, you go to the bank...and these are the deep pockets (not theirs, someone elses).

The game he's playing is to sock away the cash...get what he can while he can and if the heat gets to hard on his lobbyist connections, he'll cut 'em loose (that's started already), but in the meantime the money's in the bank.

[EV_Ares]

2. Agree, the press has basically ignored this which is no unimportant matter. If

he can't do the "straight talk express", has lobbyists on his campaign who he supposedly had nothing to do with, then what else is he not telling us. The press instead focuses on his popularity and the negative side of Obama.

Kick.

[Jack from Charlotte]

14. McCain's co-chairman of his Arizona campaign also resigned....

Rick Renzi, a repug congressman was indicted on many counts and resigned as a result.

Add him to the list.

Six and counting resignations from his campaign show he's as bad as Bush was at making decent appointments.

[ColbertWatcher]

3. I wonder if McCain knows Jack Abramoff? n/t

[annabanana]

9. McCain is sitting on mountains of testimony on Abramoff.

check this out:

[Quantess]

11. Well, well, well! What have we here?

Thanks for posting that.

[ColbertWatcher]

16. Where did you get this, originally? n/t

[annabanana]

17. not sure.. maybe someone else here can remember

who published this first...

[ColbertWatcher]

19. Found it. Daily Kos, dengre diary. n/t

[annabanana]

10. read this from Feb. Huffington Post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/12/mccain-received-100000-_n_86245.html

Although Sen. McCain has long bragged of his role in the Abramoff investigation, he let Tom DeLay and the other members of Congress who were doing Abramoff's bidding completely off the hook. The sole exception was Rep. Bob Ney, who is now serving time in prison," said Melanie Sloan, Executive Director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics In Washington. "Sen. McCain knew what his colleagues were up to, he chose to take the easier path and give them a free pass."

(more)

[ColbertWatcher]

4. This is great stuff.

I've posted your list of McCain's friends (now I know why he likes to use the phrase "my friends" so much) on the truthiness encyclopedia (here) add to it as you see fit.

[laststeamtrain]

5. Good idea. Thanks.

:hi:

[NewJeffCT]

6. it's all part of his brilliant strategy

to keep all the lobbyists close to him so he can play sheriff and keep them in line.

:sarcasm:

[kentuck]

7. Who is that masked man??

Why! It's the straight shooter! The anti-lobbyist Republican himself!

[spanone]

8. the repukes are gonna do everything they can to hang on to this cash cow they've had for 8 years

[malaise]

12. It's on GEM$NBC right now

Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! # 5 out!!Isifkoff on now. I'm lovin it. :rofl:


http://www.newsweek.com/id/137522

<snip>
Stung by the news that two aides once lobbied for the Burmese junta, John McCain last week rolled out a sweeping new conflict-of-interest policy for his campaign, requiring all staffers to fill out questionnaires identifying past or current clients that "could be embarrassing for the senator." Aides say that McCain was furious over the Burma connection (which he learned from a NEWSWEEK story) and was "adamant" about banning campaign workers from serving as foreign agents or getting paid for lobbying work.

But the fallout may not be over. One top campaign official affected by the new policy is national finance co-chair Tom Loeffler, a former Texas congressman whose lobbying firm has collected nearly $15 million from Saudi Arabia since 2002 and millions more from other foreign and corporate interests, including a French aerospace firm seeking Pentagon contracts. Loeffler last month told a reporter "at no time have I discussed my clients with John McCain." But lobbying disclosure records reviewed by NEWSWEEK show that on May 17, 2006, Loeffler listed meeting McCain along with the Saudi ambassador to "discuss US-Kingdom of Saudi Arabia relations."

add link, snip.

[laststeamtrain]

13. Obama: McCain campaign "being run by Washington lobbyists and paid for with their money."

The Democratic presidential hopeful pledges to make ethics the centerpiece of his administration. Clinton camp warns rivals against declaring victory.
By Nicholas Riccardi and Johanna Neuman Times Staff Writers
11:09 AM PDT, May 19, 2008

BILLINGS, Mont. -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama assailed Republican John McCain for a campaign "being run by Washington lobbyists and paid for with their money."

Referring to a string of resignations from McCain's presidential campaign by staffers with ties to lobbying organizations, Obama said that "after nearly three decades in Washington, John McCain can't see or won't acknowledge what's obvious to all of us here today: that lobbyists aren't just part of the system in Washington, they're part of the problem."

Obama, noting that two corporate lobbyists are "still at the helm" of McCain's campaign, said the Arizona senator has been running for president for a year "but it was only in the past few days, when stories surfaced publicly about his lobbyist aides and their clients, that Sen. McCain took any action to curb their roles."

<more>

http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-campaign20-2008may20,0,3090332.story?track=rss

[ColbertWatcher]

15. Kick with the revelation that McCain suppressed Abramoff testimony. n/t

[Disturbed]

20. McLame is a Hypocrite that the US Corp. Media has shielded.

“Hypocrisy, my friends, is the most obvious of political sins —
and the people will punish it.” John McCain

[Supersedeas]

18. and yet the Media Free Ride continues