McCain's "Karl Rove" Must Go

Following up on an earlier item, the McCain campaign has had to get rid of its convention manager, one of its national finance co-chairs, a regional campaign manager, and a senior aide, all within the last week, and all because they were lobbyists discovered to have worked for controversial clients, most notably Burma’s military junta.

But if McCain is just now starting to realize the problems associated with lobbyists with scandalous client lists running his campaign, he may have little choice but to get rid of Charles Black, McCain’s senior campaign strategist and chief political advisor. Black, in other words, is McCain’s Karl Rove. MoveOn.org’s political action fund is running a powerful and accurate ad that’s hard to respond to:

The irony, of course, is that ol’ Charlie was on Fox News this week blasting Obama for his willingness to meet with unsavory characters who run rival nations. Black hasn’t just met with a motley international crew; he’s represented them as their lobbyists and cashed quite a few of their checks.

Black’s client list includes (but by no means limited to) Iraq/Iran’s Ahmad Chalabi, Mobutu Sese Seko, Ferdinand Marcos, Somalia’s Mohamed Siad Barre, Nigeria’s Ibrahim Babangida, and Angola’s would-be dictator Jonas Savimbi.

But it’s the Mobutu connection that may be the most offensive of all.