McCain's "Revolving" Straight Talk

It's candidate Sen. John McCain's public face..... for years he has ranted against lobbyists and the influence of "special interests" in DC. His website even says he's fighting against "the 'revolving door' by which lawmakers and other influential officials leave their posts and become lobbyists...."

Well, he should know.

The Washington Post today spells it out, "The Anti-Lobbyist, Advised by Lobbyists."

"...when McCain huddled with his closest advisers at his rustic Arizona cabin last weekend to map out his presidential campaign, virtually every one was part of the Washington lobbying culture he has long decried.

"His campaign manager, Rick Davis, co-founded a lobbying firm whose clients have included Verizon and SBC Telecommunications [remember McCain chaired the Senate Commerce Committee]. His chief political adviser, Charles R. Black Jr., is chairman of one of Washington's lobbying powerhouses, BKSH and Associates, which has represented AT&T, Alcoa, JP Morgan and U. S. Airways.

"Senior advisers Steve Schmidt and Mark McKinnon work for firms that have lobbied for Land O' Lakes, UST Public Affairs, Dell and Fannie Mae."

These lobbyists are not only running McCain's campaign, but most of them aren't getting paid.... at least by McCain.... for their campaign work.

There's more.... McCain recently hired Mark Buse to be his Senate chief of staff. Buse until last fall was a lobbyist. McCain's top fundraising official is former congressman Tom Loffler (R-TX) who revolved himself into heading a lobbying law firm that counsels the Saudis and Toyota among others.

Public Citizen found that McCain has more bundlers from the lobbying community gathering checks for him than any other presidential candidate during the entire campaign from either party. By their current count, McCain has at least 59 federal lobbyists raising money for his campaign.

Of course, all these influence peddlers proclaim that they don't lobby McCain, or that they aren't currently working as lobbyists.... but how do they square that with McCain's "revolving door" rhetoric that is his crusading persona for his all-war-all-the-time no hope agenda.

In November we must stop the "revolving door" The Decider exits as McCain enters pushing the same failed policies and hackneyed ideas in the vanguard of an army of lobbyists with special influence.

Are You My Friend?

As Yogi would say, it feels like "deja vu all over again"..... "Britain Takes Case Against Iran to U.N."

Yes, following the crooked script for disaster in Iraq, the Brits have asked the U.N. Security Council for action. They want them to "deplore" Tehran's seizure and "detention" of 15 Royal Navy sailors and marines, demanding their immediate release.

This declaration of condemnation is being resisted. The dispute is over whether the Brits were operating in Iraqi or Iranian waters.... Russia and others aren't taking the Brits "proof" that they weren't operating in Iranian waters. Iran offers "proof" that they were.

Iran says the whole thing can be resolved if Britain admits it made a "mistake" and crossed into their waters. They also suggest that without such an admission, they might have to take legal action, suggesting they might put the Brit captives on trial.

Meanwhile, the buzz in Russia and much of Europe is that Bush and Blair are primed for confrontation with Iran. Perhaps coincidentally, today our head of national counterintelligence, Joe Brenner, warns that Moscow is intent on gaining insights into "the upper echelon of U. S. decision-making.... back to Cold War levels in their efforts against the United States."

Makes you wonder if Russia isn't on target about the our military buildup on the Iran border since our own counterintelligence is saying Moscow's intelligence is pretty good, a Cold-War level threat.

All of this saber rattling comes at a time when The Decider can count his international supporters on..... well, I was going to say one finger, but Blair is leaving office this July, and his successor may not be so enamored of Bush's enemy-making colonialism. They've been there, done that.

"Wait," you may say. We have other allies, especially the Saudis in the Middle East.

Think again. The Decider wanted to honor his Saudi friends, so he scheduled a mid-April White House gala for King Abdullah. But, Abdullah suddenly cancelled offering an Emily Post "prior commitment" reason.

Just another warning that the politically-weakened Bush's "friends" are distancing themselves. Jim Hoagland's "Bush's Royal Trouble" reports that "Bush and his senior advisers were not convinced" by the vague scheduling excuse, "especially since it followed Saudi decisions to seek common ground with Iran and the radicals of Hezbollah and Hamas instead of confronting them as part of Rice's proposed 'realignment' of the Middle East into moderates and extremes."

Adding insult to injury, Abdullah gave a warm welcome to Iran's President Ahmadinejad in early March. It was just a few months ago that the Saudis were championing the realignment approach.... now the Saudi's national security adviser regularly visits Tehran and Moscow.

Let's face it, Bush and much of his administration are in way over their heads.... dragging the country into incredibly dangerous waters.