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 McCain’s Shocking DiscoveryPosted on May 21, 2008By Joe Conason Disturbed by troubling connections and unflattering publicity, John McCain has just purged several prominent Washington lobbyists from his presidential campaign. Surely his intentions are laudable, but if Sen. McCain is consistent in ridding his campaign of such compromised people, he will find himself riding lonesome on the Straight Talk Express. That’s because nearly all of his advisers, fundraisers and top staffers have worked on K Street, starting with his campaign manager, Rick Davis, and his senior adviser and spokesman, Charles Black. From the beginning, the McCain team has been thoroughly infested with representatives of corporate special interests, from the campaign’s national co-chairs, finance chairs, policy and political directors, and deputies of all descriptions down to the chairman of Young Professionals for McCain, who just happens to lobby for Airbus, the European aviation firm that benefited from the Arizona senator’s long inquest against Boeing. Perhaps the senator hasn’t been paying attention for the past few decades, for he somehow seems to have surrounded himself with exactly the kind of Washington hustlers he professes to despise. How this happened is a question that McCain must answer for himself. What must be truly impressive to anyone glancing over the résum&ecute;s of Davis and Black, as well as the lesser members of the McCain entourage, is their magnetic attraction for the most questionable clients in the world. Consider Charlie Black, a longtime Republican operative, whose lobbying activities first drew negative attention during the Reagan administration, when he represented such august figures as Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire and Angolan rebel Jonas Savimbi. Marcos and Mobutu were infamous despots with a penchant for looting their own nations’ economies, as well as any American aid that came their way (presumably as a result of Black’s assistance). The theft of funds from taxpayers by those two crooks eventually mounted into the billions, and they savagely repressed democratic forces with U.S. arms. As for Savimbi, he was merely an authoritarian thug, a Maoist ideologue and, according to some reports, a sometime cannibal. We safely can assume that Black never returned any of the stolen blood money that paid for his services. Recently, he has suggested that U.S. government support for those dictatorial regimes somehow justified his profiteering, as if he weren’t involved in shoring up that support. Meanwhile, Davis was toiling in the Reagan White House as a Cabinet functionary, where his jobs included liaison with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, site of a major domestic looting scandal during those years. When he testified about his role in those events, his recollections of the influence peddling that had given housing contracts to well-connected Republicans were dim at best. But when he left the public payroll, he landed at the lobbying firm of Paul Manafort, who had gotten one of the most profitable of the HUD sweetheart deals, for a $30-million development in New Jersey. Aside from the usual roster of deep-pocketed corporations paying to have their way with Congress, the White House and the federal agencies—which horrifies Sen. McCain, lest anybody forget—the McCain advisers have attracted a number of particularly noisome accounts. For several years, Davis represented GTech, the lottery and gambling conglomerate that has been embroiled in bribery scandals in several countries, including the United States. During that same period, his firm also represented the government of Nigeria, among the most flamboyantly corrupt regimes in the world, at the time under the boot heel of the murderous Gen. Sani Abacha. More recently, he has cultivated the business of Oleg Deripaska, the Russian mega-billionaire, who made his fortune by seizing control of Russia’s aluminum industry during the violent “Aluminum Wars.” That history earned him a reputation as an unscrupulous mafioso and put him on the State Department’s visa watch list until certain American lobbyists fixed the problem. According to The Washington Post, Davis arranged at least two meetings in Europe between Deripaska, a close ally of Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, and Sen. McCain, a critic of Putin’s oligarchic and undemocratic government. These episodes scarcely begin to describe the careers of Davis, Black and their colleagues on the McCain team. They’ve put lipstick on a lot of pigs. But the question is why, at this late date, the Republican nominee-in-waiting is pretending to be shocked by “conflicts of interest” in which he stands neck deep and why he dismisses four or five lobbyists while keeping dozens of others, including his top advisers, because they claim to be “retired” or on “leaves of absence” from their businesses. He knows that a press release won’t change the habits of a lifetime in Washington’s corrupt corporate culture, but apparently he hopes we will think so. Joe Conason writes for The New York Observer (www.observer.com). To find out more about Conason, visit the Creators Syndicate Web site at www.creators.com. © 2008 Creators Syndicate Inc. TAGS:
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By AT, May 26, 2008 at 1:52 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Republican operatives are not about ideology but pays.
Report thisAt the end of a jail sentence, there’s a pot of gold. No wonder they are so eager to break the laws and go to jail. If you take away the pot of gold dangling at the end of prison, see what happens.
By 911truthdotorg, May 25, 2008 at 11:37 pm #
Phoenix 911 Truth
Hunger strike for 9/11 truth, Memorial Day, 5:00PM,
May 26, 2008 at the office of Senator John McCain,
5353 N. 16th St., Phoenix, AZ
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Phoenix 9/11 Truth Activist to Start Hunger Strike at McCain’s Office
Phoenix, AZ, May 21, 2008 - In an effort to bring national attention to the 9/11 truth issue, Phoenix activist, Blair Gadsby, a professor of Religious Studies, plans to start a hunger strike on Memorial Day, at the Phoenix office of Senator John McCain. Gadsby is putting the spotlight on McCain because of McCain’s avowed support for the official account of 9/11. McCain is the author of the foreword to the 2006 Popular Mechanics book, Debunking 9/11 Myths: Why Conspiracy Theories Can’t Stand Up to the Facts.
Report thisBy Magginkat, May 23, 2008 at 8:52 am #
Why is anyone surprised by this? Did you really believe that “straight talk express” ‘bullschitt’?
McCain showed you what kind of person he is when he dumped his crippled wife & children to marry the rich b*tch.
In this campaign he ‘married’ whoever he thought would get him to the White House bed. Just yesterday his ‘marriage’ to Hagee ended in a nasty divorce! Will he ‘divorce’ Parsley next? Or another of his lobbyist advisors?
And don’t forget that ‘loving’ hug from King George.
McCain looks as though he wanted to vomit on the front of Bush’s shirt at that time but he seems to have overcome his gag reflex and can kiss George without flinching now.
The Democrats should post that thing on billboards all over the country. I’m thinking of starting a collection to put one up in my neck of the woods…. my only contriubtion to the Democratic party.
If the dems make their usual apologetic speech, I can ‘divorce’ too!
Report thisBy i,Q, May 23, 2008 at 1:47 am #
So much for the STEx.
i bet MSM will give the Hagee renunciation more air than this, more critical issue. i do hope that the issue will be properly framed by the election factions so that McCain will be perceived with great dis-ease about his career long pattern of being overly friendly with wealthy interests in a manner which fails to pass the conflict of interest smell test. It’s a double whammy: make the hard working white American resent McCain’s chummy world of access and privilege, and also raise the question of propriety. These people are McCain’s colleagues and friends, they think in similar ways, so it’s not technically a lie for McCain to say that all the special treatment doesn’t influence his vote. He’s a slam dunk. But it does open the door on the central question of McCain’s continued associations with unscrupulous influence peddlers.
Does one hand wash the other? These advisors who are disembarking now from the McGravy Train Express certainly were well compensated for their time; up to a year or more in the employ of someone whose comfort they may have increased in years past. And he’s had to give Hagee the boot as well. Why does McCain do business with people whose nefarious clientele backgrounds would be readily available to the senator, and why seek out the endorsement of someone who certainly must be amongst those McCain was referring to as “Agents of Intolerance” only 8 long years ago.
The Obama camp better start its engines on this front too. It’s time to get all the cobwebs out of the corners. The Republicans will want to reduce him to an “ordinary politician” very much with the quotes emphasized. Any evidence of Obama having a similar lobbyist problem will be held up as evidence of Obama’s “normality.” i think it would be a brilliant response if the Obama camp is able to embrace positively the identity of being a politician:
“Yes, of course I am a politician. That is what you are when you run for public office.. And I want to be the best politician I can be. .. Because a good politician listens to their constituency.. and carries those concerns with him.. and fights for them as if they were his own. .. But a good politician hears the dissenters as well. A good politician is reasonable and finds ways to construct solutions in the face of opposition, maximize the benefit to both sides and minimize friction. .. A good politician wins elections because people want to vote for him, and the best way to get people to vote for you, is to show them results they can rely on.”
Report thisBy i,Q, May 23, 2008 at 12:34 am #
Let’s make no mistake, politics is all about making deals; but not all deals are bad deals. Isn’t it more useful to see it as a sliding scale of attitude between virtue and deceit, with no one falling entirely into one extreme or the other?
Some come awful close though.
Report thisBy Tree-Hugger, May 22, 2008 at 10:58 pm #
Why a strategy? Why can’t candidates simply discuss what they plan to do when in office instead of having a strategy for defeating the enemy? What is politics, chess? Oh, yeah. I forgot. This is America, where lying and deceit and the almighty dollar rule. Maybe McCain will yell at a pep rally and get lynched in the ‘media’ like Howard Dean. Fat chance. Conservatives own most of the ‘media’. Hagee doesn’t exist. Neither does Charles Keating. Or Joe Bonano. And the cheating on his wife-doesn’t exist, either. McCain will get a free ride!
Report thisBy ocjim, May 22, 2008 at 7:32 pm #
I know you really don’t want to know, but your description is as good as what I am providing.
The firm, a part of the Burson-Marsteller family, is led by Charles R. Black, Jr., who is best known as one of America’s leading Republican political strategists, having served as senior advisor to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and as a spokesman for the Republican Party. The firm’s lobbyists, lawyers, communications professionals, foreign affairs specialists and researchers design and execute programs to help shape public policy.
BKSH & Associates Worldwide was formed in May 1996 as a result of the merger of Black, Kelly, Scruggs & Healey (BKSH) with with another lobbying firm, Gold & Liebengood.[1]
Report thisBy purplewolf, May 22, 2008 at 6:04 pm #
OCJIM, does BKSH & Associates stand for Butt Kissing Sh-T Heads & Ass-ociates? Just wondering.
Report thisBy KYJurisDoctor, May 22, 2008 at 5:29 pm #
... his Achilles Heel!
Report thisBy ocjim, May 22, 2008 at 2:29 pm #
McCain’s appeasement smears get public notice through the spectacle-bound media. How much will McCain’s conflict-of-interest aides and advisors be played in the media?
McCain has tried to define a pristine morality for himself by calling for the reduced influence of special interests in Washington. Are we to believe that McCain could not see the gross conflicts of interest among his own campaign aides and advisers. Many were licensed lobbyists, some even while advising McCain and many for foreign governments. Such hypocrisy from a man constantly polishing a maverick image is breath-taking.
Charlie Black, who is now serving as a senior adviser to Mr. McCain, had stepped down as chairman of his lobbying firm, BKSH & Associates Worldwide, but only after he had advised McCain for months. Even more sinister is Blacks history of lobbying for dictators and mass murderers like Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines.
Getting a clue about the appearance of hypocrisy, McCain decided to write and enforce a new conflict-of-interest policy. He duly appointed Rick Davis, who was himself a lobbyist until he took a leave of absence from his firm, Davis Manafort two years ago.
Curiously in recent years Davis Manafort has developed a specialty of engaging in a type of lobbying for which firms do not have to register namely, representing the interest of foreign politicians and businessmen.
Last week, after Mr. Davis issued the new conflict rules, two advisers resigned, including Tom Loeffler, the campaigns general co-chairman, whose lobbying firm had represented leaders from Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, and Myanmar.
Then there is McCains chief foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann. Scheunemann, a registered foreign agent until March, lobbied on behalf of foreign governments over the past seven years.
During this period, Scheunemann met several times with McCain to discuss his clients interests, introducing McCain to foreign ministers of Albania, Croatia, and Macedonia, all interested in winning admission to NATO. Other foreign leaders variously lobbied for favors such as free trade with the U.S.
Report thisBy Aegrus, May 22, 2008 at 11:14 am #
Gee, I would have thought McCain’s shocking discovery would be that he’s running for President.
Report thisBy SamSnedegar, May 22, 2008 at 11:03 am #
Let him speak for himself, but my own take is that if they weren’t crooked to the core, they never would have gotten where they got in the first place, and that includes McCain himself along with Obama and both Clintons.
Report thisBy Leefeller, May 22, 2008 at 9:36 am #
One of my many pet peeves about our great government, is the special interest lobbies, running the halls of congress like rats at a New York Taco Bell. Our toothless or gumming approach to addressing the lobby issue is a case point of why we need to start special ear addressing of lobbies, who actually have undue influence over the decisions made in Washington.
From the White House placing special interest people in charge of different bureaus and departments, to Congress accepting them as part of the good old boys club. We the people have no representatives in Washington.
We know Bush and cronies are high up on the lobby sucking scale, McCain seems to know where to get his support. What about the rest? Hillary and Obama, I feel Hillary is quite the bed fellow with the lobbies, now Obama talks the talk against lobbies, but is it real?
Report thisBy Conservative Yankee, May 22, 2008 at 8:58 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
So as I read this, Mr. Conason is attempting to say “everybody does it”? or is he saying that McCain’s campaign staff is “more connected” than the staffs of the Democratic candidates?
Report this