Hypocritical Ties Between Lobbyist Groups and John McCain Exposed

The Huffington Post is pointing out an interesting fact about the campaign of Presidential hopeful John McCain that could be damaging. John McCain has been standing against special interest groups while having many special interest groups standing behind him. This contradiction of thought and action could prove deadly with some voters.

McCain has made it a point throughout his campaign to stand against any candidate that he believes is giving in to special interest groups. He has stated that he does not listen to lobbyists, and will not if he is elected as President of the United States.

The Huffington Post has uncovered that 11 of the high-ranking officials in the McCain campaign are either former lobbyists, or are currently lobbyists. This examination will cause many to question some of the campaign promises that have been made by McCain.

McCain has been loading his campaign offices with lobbyists from both the Republican and Democratic Parties. It has to be assumed that since they hold prominent positions in his campaign offices, these lobbyists must have some kind of influence over the thoughts of John McCain.

Former Texas Representative Tom Loeffler is the campaign co-chair for the campaign. Loeffler's law firm represents PhRMA the drug industry association, Southwest Airlines, and Toyota. Loeffler is also considered to be one of the top lobbyists in Washington for tax breaks to be given to offshore auto companies.

Former Washington Senator Slade Gorton was named as the honorary chairman for the State of Washington's campaign for John McCain. Gorton is known around Washington DC as a heavyweight lobbyist for such companies as Weyerhaeuser, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp, and Fidelity National Financial. He also has strong ties to Toyota.

Charlie Black is another interesting person in the fact that he has become one of the major voices for the McCain campaign on both television and radio. He is the one that has represented the views of McCain after the debates on TV.

Black is the chairman of BKSH & Associates. They politically represent J.P. Morgan, Occidental, and General Motors.

I made an attempt to contact representatives in the Michigan chapter of the campaign about this issue. To this point, they have not sent back a reply.

The point of my inquiry was to find out what internal policies the McCain campaign has for the placement of lobbyists. There are many Presidential campaigns that have banned the placement of lobbyists or former lobbyists in high-ranking positions.

Another purpose for the inquiry was to find out why someone who was so unspoken against lobbyist groups and special interest groups would surround himself with so many of them. As of the writing of this article, it appeared that there was not any interest in the campaign offices to answer my questions.

There are many political blogs and forums that are buzzing about all of the lobbyist connections that John McCain has. Many of the other names that were listed in the report are also being mentioned and debated over in the forums. This is not news that the McCain campaign needed with the slouching numbers that have been put up for their candidate in recent weeks.

Source:

Huffington Post, Thomas B. Edsall, Huffpost Exlusive: More Lobbyists on McCain Staff Than Any Other 08 Candidate, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/06/23/huffpost-exclusive-more-_n_53456.html