McCain caught in bed with a female lobbyist: I'll be honest here--I really don't care if Arizona Senator and GOP presidential nominee John McCain was bopping a female lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, eight years ago. McCain can bop as many female--or male--lobbyists and interns (Think Monica Lewinsky)as he wants. Sex or marital affairs are private matters for presidential candidates, and the president. But the New York Times story does raise some interesting questions about the relationship between the lobbying group and John McCain. What else is McCain giving to Iseman's clients, in terms of political favors? Going in to the New York Times story;
A champion of deregulation, Mr. McCain wrote letters in 1998 and 1999 to the Federal Communications Commission urging it to uphold marketing agreements allowing a television company to control two stations in the same city, a crucial issue for Glencairn Ltd., one of Ms. Iseman’s clients. He introduced a bill to create tax incentives for minority ownership of stations; Ms. Iseman represented several businesses seeking such a program. And he twice tried to advance legislation that would permit a company to control television stations in overlapping markets, an important issue for Paxson.
In late 1999, Ms. Iseman asked Mr. McCain’s staff to send a letter to the commission to help Paxson, now Ion Media Networks, on another matter. Mr. Paxson was impatient for F.C.C. approval of a television deal, and Ms. Iseman acknowledged in an e-mail message to The Times that she had sent to Mr. McCain’s staff information for drafting a letter urging a swift decision.
Mr. McCain complied. He sent two letters to the commission, drawing a rare rebuke for interference from its chairman. In an embarrassing turn for the campaign, news reports invoked the Keating scandal, once again raising questions about intervening for a patron.
Mr. McCain’s aides released all of his letters to the F.C.C. to dispel accusations of favoritism, and aides said the campaign had properly accounted for four trips on the Paxson plane. But the campaign did not report the flight with Ms. Iseman. Mr. McCain’s advisers say he was not required to disclose the flight, but ethics lawyers dispute that.
This is a serious problem with the McCain campaign. You bring in a lot of lobbyists into your political career, these lobbyists are going to expect you to give them political favors. The lobbyists who are working on the McCain campaign are not there because they believe in McCain, or think he's a great guy. They are working for McCain because they expect a President McCain to side with their clients on business and policy issues. This shows a serious lack of ethical judgment on John McCain's part, where he is allowing himself to be corrupted by the special interest of lobbyists. We've already seen enough corruption with this current Bush administration--we don't need to have the corruption continue with a McCain administration.
The anti-lobbyist, advised by lobbyists: This Washington Post story really shows just how much influence the lobbyists have with John McCain's campaign;
For years, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has railed against lobbyists and the influence of "special interests" in Washington, touting on his campaign Web site his fight against "the 'revolving door' by which lawmakers and other influential officials leave their posts and become lobbyists for the special interests they have aided."
But 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. 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, JPMorgan 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.
[....]
Public Citizen, a group that monitors campaign fundraising, has found that McCain has more bundlers -- people who gather checks from networks of friends and associates -- from the lobbying community than any other presidential candidate from either party.
By the group's current count, McCain has at least 59 federal lobbyists raising money for his campaign, compared with 33 working for Republican Rudolph W. Giuliani and 19 working for Democrat Clinton.
"The potential harm is that should Senator McCain become elected, those people will have a very close relationship with the McCain White House," Sloan said. "[That] would be very helpful for their clients, and that would give them a leg up on everybody else."
There are 59 lobbyists working for the McCain campaign--that is three times as many lobbyists that are working for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. These lobbyists are not working for the McCain just because they think he's a nice guy. These lobbyists are working for McCain because they expect President McCain to give them special favors for their clients--special political and business favors that will give them a leg up on everybody else.
Let us look at the list of McCain's volunteers that are lobbyists in the WaPost story;
Tom Loeffler--Former GOP congressman (R-Tex.), who is McCain's top fundraising official. Loeffler heads a lobbying firm called The Loeffler Group. The Loeffler Group's clients include Southwest Airlines, AT&T, Toyota, the Pharmaceutical Research, and Manufacturers of America.
Rick Davis--McCain's campaign manager. Davis co-founded a lobbying firm whose clients have included Verizon and SBC Telecommunications.
Charles R. Black--McCain's chief political advisor. Black is the chairman of the top Washington lobbying firm BKSH and Associates, which have represented AT&T, Alcoa, JP Morgan, and U.S. Airways. Black's current clients include General Motors, United Technologies, JPMorgan and AT&T. Black is the most powerful lobbyist working for McCain--having known McCain for almost 20 years, having worked with McCain on Senator Phil Gramm's 1996 presidential run. According to the WaPost;
But even as 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.
Just consider the power that Black could have within a McCain administration.
Mark Buse--McCain's Senate chief of staff. Buse was a lobbyist for ML Strategies, which represented eBay, Goldman Sachs Group, Cablevision, Tenneco and Novartis Pharmaceuticals.
Steve Schmidt & Mark McKinnon--Senior McCain campaign advisers who have worked for lobbying firms that represent Land O' Lakes, UST Public Affairs, Dell and Fannie Mae.
Vicki Iseman--Lobbyist working for Alcalde & Fay, which represents the telecommunications industry. Iseman has been romantically linked with McCain in this NY Times story.
And what does presidential candidate McCain say about the links between his campaign and the lobbyists? Going back to the WaPost:
McCain has long sought to defend his associations with lobbyists, stressing that friendships with them do not influence his independent judgment when it comes to legislative action. In comments to reporters yesterday, he acknowledged those friendships.
"I have many friends who represent various interests, ranging from the firemen to the police to senior citizens to various interests, particularly before my committee," McCain said. "The question is . . . do they have excess or unwarranted influence? And certainly no one ever has in my conduct of my public life and conduct of my legislative agenda."
What a frickin' hypocrite!
John McCain's Lobbyist Friends: This is a great YouTube video that just shows the influence of lobbyists within John McCain's campaign. From YouTube;
Wonder if we could make this McCain campaign into an NBC sitcom?
GM exec stands by calling global warming a 'crock:' This Reuters news story just shows the ignorance of American business executives;
DETROIT, Feb 22 (Reuters) - General Motors Corp (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Vice Chairman Bob Lutz has defended remarks he made dismissing global warming as a "total crock of shit," saying his views had no bearing on GM's commitment to build environmentally friendly vehicles.
Lutz, GM's outspoken product development chief, has been under fire from Internet bloggers since last month when he was quoted as making the remark to reporters in Texas.
In a posting on his GM blog on Thursday, Lutz said those "spewing virtual vitriol" at him for minimizing the threat of climate change were "missing the big picture."
"What they should be doing in earnest is forming opinions, not about me but about GM and what this company is doing that is ... hugely beneficial to the causes they so enthusiastically claim to support," he said in a posting titled, "Talk About a Crock."
Bob Lutz doesn't even get it. He claims that Americans should not be attacking him for calling global warming a 'crock,' but rather they should be praising what GM is doing that is "hugely beneficial to the very causes they so enthusiastically claim to support." And yet, for all of Lutz's talk, GM is sinking as a car company. Toyota has already overtaken GM as the world's top automaker, providing an impressive selection of quality, fuel-efficient cars that consumers want. At the same time, GM is reporting huge losses of $38.7 billion in its auto manufacturing, and will not report a profit until 2010. Finally, let us look at this quick story where gas prices are, again, heading upwards to "2.9 cents overnight to a national average of $3.115 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. That was the highest since June 8." The sad thing is that GM has been making crappy, gas-guzzling cars for decades. When gas prices were low, Americans were happy snatching up big GMC Suburbans and SUVs, giving GM fat profits in the 1980s and 90s. Those days are over. American consumers are now turning their attention over to the Toyota Prius, and Camry. Regardless of whether global warming is a 'crock,' or not, Lutz is going to have to force GM to start producing environmentally, fuel-efficient cars because that is what consumers are demanding. Unfortunately, Lutz is too blind to see that stark reality, and GM will continue to sink into a potential bankruptcy.
Fidel Castro resigns as Cuba's president: This New York Times story reports that longtime Cuban ruler Fidel Castro has resigned, handing over power to his brother Raul, after health problems are making it impossible for Castro to continue on as president. While Castro's stepping down as the leader of Cuba is a major story in itself, it will not signal a change in the U.S. non-relations, or the trade embargo, with Cuba--The Bush administration will never consider opening up any sort of dialog with Cuba. And that is sad. Because this is an incredible opening for a thawing of US-Cuban relations. The NY Times story reports that Raul Castro "is more pragmatic and willing to admit mistakes than his brother. He has given signals he might try to follow the Chinese example of state-sponsored capitalism." If Raul Castro is willing to open Cuba to some mixed form socialist government with free-market capitalism, then the U.S. government should provide some encouragement and dialog in moving Cuba towards a more productive, and stable, post-Fidel era. I'm not sure how, or where, that encouragement and dialog should be. But we need to be ready for it, and take advantage of this opportunity.
Olbermann calls President Bush a fascist: This was Keith Olbermann's Special Comment on February 14, 2008, criticizing President Bush with playing up the fears of terrorism on Americans in order to get his telecom immunity bill passed in Congress. In this comment, Olbermann calls President Bush for what he is--a fascist. From YouTube:
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