A Swarm of Lobbyists Would Run McCain's White House

The political media establishment is enraptured by John McCain. Mainline media sparklies, as well as the blatherers on the Fox channel, routinely buff up his image as a straight-talking, maverick foe of Washington's special interests. "The press loves McCain. We're his base," gushes MSNBC's Chris Matthews. But if the senator really is the feared reformer of business-as-usual government, why does his presidential campaign look like the back alley of K Street?

Many a president has had certain supporters behind him whom he should have moved out in front in order to keep an eye on them. McCain, however, isn't even bothering to keep his self-interested backers in the shadows--he has literally put them in charge of his campaign. "Tell me with whom you walk," goes the old adage, "and I'll tell you who you are." Candidate McCain is walking cozily with a coterie of corporate lobbyists, executives, and fund-raisers who are shaping his policies... and expecting to walk right into the White House with him.

There was a hilarious dustup in May when two of the campaign's key operatives were publicly fingered as lobbyists for the totalitarian military thugs who rule Burma. Bad image. To patch over this embarrassing exposure, the campaign dumped the duo and loudly proclaimed a new internal ethics rule barring lobbyists from paid positions on the "Straight Talk Express." Bold! Decisive! Laudable!

Except that it was a crock. Here's the hilarious part: the announcement was made by the top campaign staffer, Rick Davis. Guess what he is. A lobbyist! His clients range from such telecom giants as Verizon to undies-maker Fruit of the Loom, and most have had business before McCain's Senate committees.

The trick is that the new rule bars "active" lobbyists from being "paid" to work "full time" on the staff. These highlighted terms are carefully contrived loopholes. Lobbyists can simply go on leave from their active influence peddling for a few months to work on the campaign (as Davis is doing); they can work part-time for McCain's election while still lobbying up a storm; or they can take no pay from the campaign, working pro bono while being retained by their corporate clients. No matter their guise, they are lobbyists, and SourceWatch counts more than 100 of them working in McCain's camp (only five had to step aside under the ballyhooed new rule).

So many lobbyists swarmed McCain's presidential team that he felt compelled to defend them earlier this year. "They're honorable people," he vouched, adding that "the right to represent interests or groups of Americans is a constitutional right. There are people that represent firemen, civil servants, retirees, and those people are legitimate representatives of a variety of interests in America."

Sure they are, Straight Talker, but, as you know, none of the lobbyists on your team are being paid to serve the interests of firefighters and retirees. Let's meet a few of them:

Charlie Black. Known as "the Republican party's quintessential company man," Black has been McCain's top strategist for more than a year while also heading a powerhouse lobbying outfit that represents a menagerie of special (and sometimes shady) interests. Until forced by the "clean house" rule to step aside from his firm in May, Black's corporate clients included Blackwater, Lockheed Martin, AT&T, GM, GE, Rupert Murdoch, and Philip Morris. While working for McCain and representing AT&T last year, Black was the principle mover in a then-secretive lobbying campaign to win retroactive immunity for telecom corporations that helped Bush spy illegally on millions of us Americans. Charlie conceded that he has done a lot of his lobbying chores by phone from McCain's campaign bus, which is named the Straight Talk Express. He's also been a hired gun for the heads of repressive regimes in Angola, Somalia, and Zaire. Most infamously, Black was the chief Washington escort for Ahmed Chalabi, the Iraqi huckster who worked with Cheney, Rummy, and the neocon ideologues to drum up false information that led to the disastrous occupation of Iraq. Charlie became a multimillionaire lobbyist through his tight political connections with the Republican right wing. He was a crony of Lee Atwater and Karl Rove in developing the GOP's style of slime politics, and he began his electioneering career in 1972 as political director of Jesse Helms' first Senate race.