AZ BlueMeanie Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Senator John McCain struggled down the primary stretch to appeal to the conservative base of the Republican Party who instinctively distrust him. Even as the presumptive nominee of his party and the only candidate on the ballot in the later primaries, McCain averaged only about 75% of the vote, with a quarter … Read more
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The Washington Post published a front page investigative report on Saturday suggesting possible unlawful coordination between the McCain campaign and an independent political committee:
"For weeks, Republican presidential candidate John McCain had been hammered for supporting the Air Force’s February decision to award a $40 billion contract for refueling tankers to Northrop Grumman and its European partner. Democrats, labor unions and others blamed the senator for a deal they say could move tens of thousands of jobs abroad.
McCain’s advisers wanted to strike back against key Democratic critics. But they did not mount an expensive advertising campaign to defend the candidate’s position. They called a tax-exempt nonprofit closely aligned with the senator from Arizona, seeking information and help.
Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) partnered with Northrop and one of its consultants to produce a vitriolic advertising campaign defending the tanker deal.
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Although the campaign and the group deny any cooperation, CAGW’s willingness to jump into the tanker controversy illustrates what some experts describe as potentially improper political activity by nonprofits, an issue that is gaining attention as the presidential contest heats up.
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CAGW’s advertising campaign falls into a murkier space. The group’s work on the Northrop deal offered indirect support of McCain on a highly controversial issue while costing his campaign nothing. It never explicitly mentioned McCain’s name.
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Because of their tax-exempt status, nonprofits, or 501(c)3s, are not supposed to engage in political activity. They are allowed, however, to set up a separate political arm — known as a 501(c)4 — that may donate money to candidates and lobby on policy issues as long as political activity is not its primary purpose. The Internal Revenue Service is charged with enforcing the rules.
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Formed in 1984, CAGW has long promoted McCain’s image as a taxpayer advocate. Since 2006, the nonprofit’s board of directors has included Orson Swindle, who also works on veterans issues as a volunteer for the McCain campaign.
CAGW has a lobbying arm, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste, that has twice supported McCain for president. Its PAC has donated $11,000 in cash to McCain or a PAC under his control since 2004 — 20 times as much cash as it has given any other candidate, records show.
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A new McCain policy on lobbying activity by his aides prohibits campaign officials from participating in any political group known as a 527, "or other independent entity that makes public communications that support or oppose any presidential candidate." The campaign did not respond directly to a question about whether the policy applies to Swindle, who is on the boards of CAGW and its lobbying arm, which endorsed McCain."
This follows closely on the heels of the reported possible unlawful coordination between McCain campaign advisers Sens. Joseph Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, and another "independent" political committee, Vets for Freedom, from which Sens. Lieberman and Graham requested leave from their positions as directors last week after the group aired attack ads against Senator Barack Obama.
The McCain campaign conflicts of interest policy actually requires these individuals to resign from the McCain campaign, not to take a leave of absence from the independent political committee.
This again demonstrates what I have previously said: "Mr. Campaign Finance Reform" is a complete and total fraud. McCain’s campaign finance reforms applied to everyone else but him; he is somehow exempt from his own rules. And the McCain campaign’s so-called zero tolerance (sic) conflicts of interest policy is so chock full of loopholes for his favored advisers that it is meaningless.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Jon Stewart of The Daily Show demonstrates the hypocrisy of John McCain and the GOP for saying they “support the troops,” but actually vote against them when it comes time to take care of veterans when they return home. McCain opposes the Webb-Hagel G. I. Bill amendment.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
John McCain has had at least 118 lobbyists running his campaign and raising money for him. For a partial list see: McCain Has Had At Least 118 Lobbyists Running His Campaign & Raising Money For Him Nearly all of his advisers, fund-raisers and top staffers have worked on K Street. McCain’s Team of Lobbyists | The New York Observer
The national news media have latched onto McCain’s lobbyist connections, largely because McCain has portrayed himself as a "reformer" against special interests over the years. If you are going to be a self-righteous reformer, you had better be a saint and not a sinner. The media loves nothing better than exposing a saint as a sinner.
"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."
This may explain why McCain recently adopted a McCain campaign conflicts of interest policy. Unfortunately for him, the policy has already resulted in at least five of his top campaign aids resigning over the past couple of weeks. A Fifth Top Aide To McCain Resigns – washingtonpost.com
"More than a few Republican lobbyists in Washington are scratching their heads these days, asking: So this is the thanks we get?" Lobbyists: This is our thanks? – Jeanne Cummings – Politico.com McCain’s lobbyist supporters are expressing their consternation with him:
“If it was OK to have these people working for you in February, why is it not OK today?” asked one Republican lobbyist who counts a friend among the new McCain outcast class.
“McCain’s self-righteous [expletive] has caught up with him. Now he’s got himself in a jam,” said another Republican lobbyist who asked to remain anonymous because he is a campaign volunteer.
Said another McCain supporter: “I find it a little offensive. It was good enough to get my $2,300 donation. If we’re not good enough, then send my check back. It pisses me off.”
“I frankly don’t understand the policy, and what parts of it I do understand actually don’t make sense,” said Jan Baran, a Republican campaign finance legal expert. “Even though someone has been a lobbyist for the last 30 years, if they are not a lobbyist for the next five months, they are OK for the campaign?”
But McCain’s conflicts of interest policy is not zero-tolerance. It comes with convenient loopholes (like his private jet loophole in McCain-Feingold) which allows his top two advisers, Charlie Black and Rick Davis – both long-time Washington lobbyists – to stay on. Campaign manager Rick Davis in 2006 took a leave of absence from his lobbying firm, Davis Manafort & Freedman, but his name is still a big draw on its shingle. Chief political adviser Charlie Black, is the founder of another of Washington’s biggest lobbying houses.
"Black provides a private voice and a public face for McCain, he also leads his lobbying firm, which offers corporate interests and foreign governments the promise of access to the most powerful lawmakers. Some of those companies have interests before the Senate and, in particular, the Commerce Committee, of which McCain is a member.
Black said he does a lot of his work by telephone from McCain’s Straight Talk Express bus." The Anti-Lobbyist, Advised by Lobbyists
Posted by AZBlueMeanie: Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary defines "demagogue" as "a person, esp. an orator or political leader, who gains power and popularity by arousing the emotions, passions, and prejudices of the people." Or as H.L. Mencken said, "A demagogue is one who will preach doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows … Read more