RNC Fundraising Underbelly

The D.C. lobbyists have been taking all the blame for the distorted campaigns against the Obama administration... especially health care reforms that would start to bring the insurance industry to heel and benefit millions of U.S. citizens.

But it's not only the lobbyists.... they're just the employed messengers.

The lobbyists are, after all, openly, blatantly, in the pay of big insurance, big pharma, big oil. They don't work for the little guy, the working middle-class.

But, our elected representatives aren't supposed to be paid lobbyists, aren't supposed to act like a big legislative wood-mulcher, taking in principled reform and spitting out dirty chips.

But they are. And we now can see how the GOP is fueling that chipper.... the RNC's marching orders linked to Kevin Huffman's "Tweaking the GOP's fundraising strategy," in today's Washington Post.

The Republican National Committee in its zeal to keep its fund-raising troops in perfect goose-step, gave this presentation at its February RNC Finance Meeting. Here is a page from their 72-page blueprint for fundraising success for the upcoming elections. At it's heart, literally, are the motivating factors to be used to raise money from evidently clueless donors:

The image of a heart usually brings to mind thoughts of love, caring.... warm and fuzzies. But this is a rock-hard heart that divides GOP donors into two classes, the average knee-jerk Joes, and the heavy-hitter big shots, or wanna-be big shots, the major ego-driven donors.

What are the RNC's recommended fund-raising strategies? The number one tactic is "FEAR!!!" Number two? "Extreme negative feelings toward existing Administration." And there is the tried and true... SOCIALISM charge. This is so important a tactic, it got a page all to itself:

The red-alert type trumpets a Chicken-Little-sky-is-falling approach .... "Save the country from trending toward Socialism." Woooooo.... the "S" word. And it works too, haven't you noticed?

But perhaps the saddest statement of the GOP fund-raising mindset is the attack mentality of reducing your opponent to an agent of the Evil Empire.... wonder what Ronald Reagan would think of the misuse of that phrase. The GOP is into Evil BIG TIME! You know like the "Axis of Evil." Here are the RNC's evil suggestions:

Obama in white-face as the Joker is something we've seen before... oh yes, as a big placard at the "grass-roots," "spontaneous," Tea Parties. It's a PARTEEEE... but the GOP isn't a party to be proud of.

McCain's Ethics Have No Clothes

Candidate Sen. John McCain had better check his back pocket, the conservative vote still isn't there. Even with the help of the ham-fisted New York Times report on his appearance of inappropriate behavior with a lobbyist that temporarily rallied the faithful to his banner.

Conservative columnist George F. Will makes the case in "McCain in A Glass House." (WaPo) He calls McCain "a situational ethicist" regarding "big money" in politics. Plainly put, McCain showboats while shadowboxing.

For example, while chairman of the Commerce Committee, McCain "founded the Reform Institute to lobby for his agenda of campaign restrictions. It accepted large contributions, some of six figures, from corporations with business before the Commerce Committee (e.g. Echosphere, DISH Network, Cablevision Systems Corp., a charity funded by the head of Univision).

"The Reform Institute's leadership included Potter [general counsel of McCain's campaign] and two others who are senior advisers in McCain's campaign, Rick Davis and Carla Eudy."

While McCain judges the behavior of others, and their corrupt appearances, Will points out, "Such is his towering moral vanity, he seems sincerely to consider it theoretically impossible for him to commit the offenses of appearances that he incessantly ascribes to others.

"Such certitude is, however, not merely an unattractive trait. It is disturbing righteousness in someone grasping for presidential powers."

There is a world of meaning in Will's use of "grasping." It says McCain's grab for power doesn't match the reach necessary for our next president.

McCain's Real Deal

Most media and conservative talking heads seem bent on giving GOP candidate Sen. John McCain a pass on his dealings with lobbyists because the New York Times gave it a whiff of sexual overtones that McCain firmly denied.... "I did not have relations with that lobbyist."

In the rush to condemn the Times and kill the story.... McCain says he had his press conference and won't talk about it anymore.... the underlying question lies buried beneath his campaigns' sweeping denials, is McCain too cozy with lobbyists?

Today E. J. Dionne, Jr. brings McCain's special-interest relationships into focus in "House of Cards" (WaPo).... pointing out that McCain's carefully constructed reformer-image may be on the verge of collapse.

Much will depend on whether journalists continue to explore how McCain's strong words about lobbyists and special interests square with his actions.

The window the Times opened may bring the scrutiny that demolishes McCain's shaky "Straight Talk" house of cards.... a house populated by top officials of his campaign and staff who are powerful lobbyists with long client lists.

McCain's "Bent Talk"

Ah, those pesky little facts.

Responding to the recent New York Times article on his ties to a particular lobbyist, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) denied meeting with broadcaster Lowell "Bud" Paxson or his lobbyist Vicki Iseman before sending two controversial letters to the FCC on Paxson's behalf while McCain was chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.

Letters the FCC chairman called "highly unusual."

A statement issued by the McCain campaign Thursday said that he had not met with Paxson or Iseman on the matter.... "No representative of Paxson or Alcalde and Fay [the lobbying firm where Iseman is a partner] personally asked Senator McCain to send a letter to the FCC regarding this proceeding."

Well.... "Paxson Contradicts McCain Campaign on Meetings." (WaPo)

It turns out... Paxson talked with McCain in his Washington office before the letters were sent and Iseman attended the meeting and most likely set it up.

Pshaw, was the reaction of McCain's attorney-to-political-polecats, Robert Bennett, ".... Now it appears he did speak to him [Paxson]. What is the difference?"

The difference?

If there is nothing to hide, why lie about it.

"Statements from McCain's office said Iseman met only with staff and indicated that a staff member was involved in drafting and sending the letter..... and, "Thursday's statement went to lengths to say why McCain could not have met with Paxson." Untruths.

At the time McCain wrote those letters, he had flown on Paxson's corporate jet four times to appear at campaign events and received $20,000 in campaign donations from Paxson Communications and its law firm.

The second letter came a day after the company's jet ferried McCain to a fundraiser aboard a yacht in West Palm Beach attended by Paxson, arranged by Iseman's lobbying firm, and hosted by a cruise line her company represented.

Cozy.

We're reminded of a statement by the Republican Party chairman in McCain's home district before the recent primary there.... he said that McCain's Straight Talk Express campaign bus should be renamed.... "We call it the Forked Tongue Express around here. He'll lie about anything."

Which should be the lesson of the current hoopla.

Thus far, it appears all the Times article about McCain and Iseman really accomplished was to galvanize the GOP conservatives to McCain's defense.... the Times is rabidly reviled by conservatives.... and clouded the bigger issue of McCain's ethics.

Since McCain's involvement in the Keating Five savings and loan scandal, he has carefully cultivated his anti-corruption, anti-special interests "Straight Talk" persona.

The Democratic National Committee sums up this latest peek behind that facade.... "John McCain's 'do as I say, not as I do' approach to ethics and lobbying reform can be called a lot of things. 'Straight Talk' isn't one of them."

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.