BILLINGS, Mont., May 20, 2008
Candidates Vie To Be The Anti-Lobbyist
Washington Post: Attacks And Retorts From Obama, McCain Show How They Plan To Take Aim At Lobbyist Influence
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Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., have exchanged attacks on each other's ties to lobbyists. (AP)
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Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., points to audience members before giving remarks on Columbia Free Trade and Cuban Independence Day on Tuesday, May 20, 2008, in Miami. (AP)
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Sen. Barack Obama accused Sen. John McCain on Monday of running a presidential campaign bought and paid for by lobbyists and criticized the presumptive Republican nominee for waiting more than a year to address the conflicts of several key advisers.
During a speech at a high school here, Obama said voters should be concerned that "after nearly three decades in Washington, John McCain can't see or won't acknowledge what's obvious to all of us here today -- that lobbyists aren't just part of the system in Washington, they're part of the problem."
McCain's campaign shot back quickly, challenging Obama to "shed light on the long list of federal lobbyists advising him on policy issues" and accusing him of diverting attention from more serious matters.
(Read About McCain calling on the Obama campaign to disclose its lobbying ties in the From The Road blog.)
"Every moment that Senator Obama spends attacking individual volunteers on our campaign is time he's not using to address issues of real importance in the lives of Americans," said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds.
Over the past week, McCain has publicly purged his ranks of several advisers who have lobbied for countries and corporations in an attempt to retain his reputation as a reformer on questions of ethics and influence in Washington. But several former lobbyists, including campaign manager Rick Davis and political strategist Charles R. Black Jr., remain as top advisers.
Obama's attacks on Monday -- and the McCain campaign's fast retort -- underscore how both candidates plan to take aim at K Street lobbyists and the influence they peddle at the White House and in Congress. The two men are essentially competing to be known as the anti-lobbyist candidate.
"Lobbyists have become a popular piņata of late," said Carlos Bonilla, a Washington lobbyist who has been advising McCain on economic policy. "Everyone likes to swing at piņatas."
Bonilla said he disclosed his clients to the campaign and promised not to lobby McCain or his staff, as required under a new conflict-of-interest policy that covers all such campaign volunteers. The policy, put into force last week, requires all paid staff members to either quit the campaign or cease all lobbying connections.
On Sunday, the new rules ensnared McCain's top finance chief, former congressman Tom Loeffler (Tex.), who became the fifth adviser to publicly leave the campaign because of ties to lobbying or outside political groups. Former senator Phil Gramm (Tex.), another top McCain adviser, officially delisted himself as a registered lobbyist on April 18 so that he could stay with the campaign, records show.
The policy leaves in place Davis and Black, both of whom have had lucrative careers as lobbyists and campaign operatives. Black said he has retired as a partner at BKSH & Associates, a Washington lobbying firm. A spokeswoman said Davis has taken a complete leave of absence from Davis Manafort, his lobbying firm. Both are "in compliance" with McCain's new policy, the campaign said.
McCain's policy leaves the door open to lobbyists who serve as volunteers as long as they do not lobby him or his staff. Several who were contacted Monday said they are "in compliance" with the policy, including Bonilla and fundraiser Wayne Berman, a lobbyist with Ogilvy Government Relations.
Top aides said the idea is to ensure that McCain is not distracted by controversies surrounding his advisers and fundraisers.
"Senator McCain wanted to set a higher standard than any presidential candidate ever had about conflict of interest and lobbying," Black said. "The next question is: Will Obama do the same and enforce it?"
Some of McCain's advisers said Monday they are mystified by the new policy, which they said gives Obama an opening to attack their candidate.
"The most interesting thing in every campaign is the self-inflicted wound. This is a great case," said one GOP fundraiser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss McCain's campaign decisions candidly. "When asked to name the 10,000 things people think are the most important issue, this doesn't make the list."
Another adviser said: "There's scratching of heads. What is going on? Why are we doing this?"
Democrats seized the opportunity to hammer McCain by calling for more departures. Several groups focused on Black, who recently quit his lobbying practice to work on the campaign full-time. In an e-mail to members, the liberal group MoveOn.org called Black's role as a McCain adviser a "moral issue" because of Black's work as a lobbyist representing controversial foreign leaders. Black and his firm have represented the governments of Zaire (now Congo), Somalia, Angola and Nigeria.
Black, who has served on several presidential campaigns, said he has no intention of leaving. "Of course not," he said in an interview.
He told reporters on McCain's campaign plane that Obama's comments about him were "nonsense." And several campaign aides pointed out that the Democrat's pledge not to take money from lobbyists was not as ironclad as it may seem. Obama does accept money from the spouses of lobbyists and from many of the interests that lobbyists represent.
Obama's campaign does not allow paid staff members to be lobbyists, according to a spokesman. But it does allow volunteers to lobby the federal government while donating their time to Obama.
The Democrat's remarks Monday were his sharpest to date on a subject that has put McCain on the defensive. Obama first waded into the discussion Sunday, when he questioned McCain's judgment on the topic. That brought a pointed response from McCain aides, who said in an e-mail to reporters: "If Barack Obama is going to make associations the issue, we look forward to the debate about Senator Obama's associations and what they say about his judgment and readiness to be commander in chief."
They noted that "just a few years ago when Barack Obama was beginning his career in politics he was launching it at the home of William Ayers, an unrepentant domestic terrorist who his chief strategist said Senator Obama was certainly friendly with."
Obama, in turn, sharpened his comments, telling the crowd here that one of McCain's advisers had been lobbying for big energy companies, and two others had done work "for the military regime that's stopping aid from getting into Burma."
"I'm glad Senator McCain is taking these steps," Obama told the crowd. "But it's noteworthy that two of the most influential corporate lobbyists in Washington have taken time off to run his campaign. And they are still at the helm today."
Shear reported from Washington. Staff writer Paul Kane in Washington contributed to this report.
By Matthew Mosk and Michael D. Shear
© 2008 The Washington Post Company
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See all 114 CommentsU.S. Sen. Barack Obama%u2019s race and inflammatory racial remarks made by his former preacher negatively affect how likely voters view the candidate, according to a new Herald-Leader/WKYT Kentucky Poll.
More than one in five likely Democratic voters surveyed said being black hurts Obama%u2019s chances of winning an election in Kentucky, compared to 4 percent who said Obama%u2019s race helps him.
Although more than half of respondents said his race isn%u2019t a factor in the election, many of those surveyed also said racially charged remarks by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright will play an important role as they decide whom to support in the May 20 primary.
Wright%u2019s remarks are important or very important to 43 percent of those polled. Among white voters, his statements were important to 46 percent, compared to only 11 percent of black voters.
%u201CRace is still the elephant in the room, and the Rev. Wright issue hits at remaining racial prejudices and fears that people here might have,%u201D said Saundra Ardrey, head of the political science department at Western Kentucky University.
What Barack Obama has said is that he would meet without precondition with Ahmadinejad, the leader of the largest state sponsor of terror in the world, along with Castro, Assad, Kim Jong-Il. It''s a naive statement. Hillary Clinton called it for what it was when they were debating on this very issue."
....................It''s really great to see someone "report" what the issue really is.
Now if we can get the most corrupt institution in America, our mostly liberal MSM wolfpack press to present these facts the way they really are.
I guess that''s asking a lot for our "in-the-tank" for Obama wolfpack press..........................sad.
McSame said that lobbyists have no influence in his campaign. Then it''s revealed that most of his top advisers are, in fact, lobbyists.
John McSame....the best President money can buy.
lol!
do you know what makes me so angry ?
is we cann`t even dig up any dirt on these guys anymore !
you people are just no fun !
you have made Tuesday Morning blogging just another day at the keyboard.
you could at least try to pretend to be upset at the politics in this country.
like I said, your just no fun anymore.
I`m beginning not to like you CBS
sincerely really bored Bear
Fuzzy
Obama hasn''t had much of a chance and refused to take large donations from corporate lobbyists. His money comes from the millions of people who donate $50 (me), $75 or even $500. But certainly not the $50,000 to $500,000 a lobby can donate.
I know dinosaur McCain''s supporters will howl and say Obama is the corrupted one, not their precious John. They cannot let the something like facts get in the way of their visions!
Just ask for a list of campaign donators and the truth will be evident for all to see, but not to believe.
Let them teleconference from their home states and districts, and use the ''net for all its worth.
That will isolate them from the "K-street Mafia" - unless those crooks are willing to risk getting lynched for beeing seen to be hanging out in front of the local office of your''s and mine''s elected officials.
And it will certainly help our legislators to remember who elected them to represent who...
It always comes down to picking the lesser of two evils.
Posted by jh6379 at 10:10 AM : May 20, 2008
What taxes....
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows John McCain earning 46% of the vote while Barack Obama attracts 43%.
McCain is viewed favorably by 50% of voters nationwide and unfavorably by 46%.
Obama%u2019s numbers are 49% favorable and 49% unfavorable
....................I guess our corrupt liberal MSM wolfpack press is either going to have to "prop up" Obama better or attack McCain more often.
Something tells me that the wolfpack will continue to do both..................................sad
So Whats New, These Lobbyists have been running this country for years, and certainly during the Clinton reign. They don''t care who is in power, the only allegiance they have is to those who pay them and those who take their backhanders. Time we shot the whole bunch of''em.
By MICHAEL WINES,
Published: May 5, 1993
But anyone who wagered that Mr. McCain would favor United States intervention in Bosnia''s war would lose his shirt. As President Clinton and lawmakers ponder the prospect of air strikes to counter Serbian aggression or the dispatch of thousands of American troops to enforce a cease-fire, Mr. McCain has been sounding the Senate''s most persistent and most urgent alarms on the question of involvement in a European war. Far Too Many Ifs
"We need to be honest about one central fact: We have no way to predict the size, length and casualties of a peacemaking effort," he told the Senate on April 21, 1993.
"If we find ourselves involved in a conflict in which American casualties mount, in which there is no end in sight, in which we take sides in a foreign civil war, in which American fighting men and women have great difficulty distinguishing between friend and foe, then I suggest that American support for military involvement would rapidly evaporate."
For now, Mr. McCain says, he prefers leaving the dirtiest work of peacemaking to those whom the war threatens most -- Europeans.
"I think it''s time to hold their coats instead of them holding ours," he said in an interview.
You can hear the flip-flop...
Posted by Questionnews
Uh-huh. This is true if you listen and believe CBS News and the rest of the corporate controlled conservative dominated media.
Read the story. The headline implies that Obama and McCain are somehow equally guilty of being unduly influenced by lobbyists but the story says McCain is the one whose campaign is RUN by lobbyists. This has nothing to do with Obama other than that he (rightly) points this out McCain''s dishonesty.
The story here is the lapdog media who won''t report on how corrupt McCain is and tries to make it a "he said, he said" argument when it isn''t. On the other side, when it''s Obama under the spotlight (the Reverend Wright thing) they endlessly harp op on his connection to Wright (even though Obama repudiated him) and NEVER report on the anti-Catholic comments from Reverend Hagee even though McCain SOUGHT OUT this bigot''s endorsement.
No, it''s quite clear which is the better candidate, and it''s also quite clear that the media doesn''t want you to know who it is.
Crux of most political mishaps seems to linger around simple straightforward honesty. Taxpayers deserve nothing less than a government operated by candor not slander or sleaze.
Lobbying is not a new phenomenon in politics.
Voluntary grassroots lobbying by members of the general public to communicate their own views on an issue to elected officials or to encourage other members of the general public to do the same is a healthy expression of a working democracy. Please participate.
However the scale and aggressive nature of professional lobbying in todays politics is one of the identifiable toxins poisoning our entire political system. All candidates please resist the alluring power of the lobbyists ring. Please banish these public purse parasites and fumigate the government.
The proliferation and misery of paid career lobbyists is spreading like venom.
Total Lobbying Spending.
1998 $1.45 Billion
1999 $1.44 Billion
2000 $1.54 Billion
2001 $1.63 Billion
2002 $1.81 Billion
2003 $2.04 Billion
2004 $2.17 Billion
2005 $2.41 Billion
2006 $2.60 Billion
2007 $2.80 Billion
2008 $0.70 Billion
Source. Center for Responsive Politics
http://www.opensecrets.org
flip flop mccain
The Good, Bad, and Ugly balance in politics has been deplorably tilting towards the later two depraved traits. Any small nugget of good gold dust on scale of integrity to counterbalance transgressions of lobbyist influence is welcome. I yearn its not fools gold.
Intrigue and desirability of any candidate from any party that executes actions vs words toward invigorating a lobbyist purge is to the point.
Paid professional career lobbyists are eroding and weakening the by now fading influence of voters and ordinary citizens.
Any action by any candidate from any party who takes on the responsibility of holding anyone to account and by putting into practice any ethics code is worthy of praise for the greater political good which transcends all parties.
Sanctioned by scrupulous voters everywhere; let the lobbyist witch hunts commence.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Posted by Credibility2 at 10:46 AM : May 20, 2008
I will take Obama''s volunteers over Mccain''s paid lobbyists who earn thier money from arabs and dictators.
Obamas campaign is run by people, regular americans, old and young. Its been a team effort, WE unlike campaigns who keep on saying I. Thats the difference.
He should have been the nominee in 2000, but the idiot right wing neocon nutjob bible thumpers thought Bush would outlaw abortion, throw *** in prison, and make Christianity the official U.S. Religion. I hope they stay home this year.
Instead of struggling to match the fundraising prowess of either Democrats Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, Republican John McCain will accept public funding. "McCain''s decision to bow out of the campaign money race upends the conventional thinking at the start of the 2008 season. At that time, most political players - including McCain - expected any serious candidate to forgo participating in the taxpayer financed system because of the spending limits imposed by it," The Politico reported. McCain will face a spending limit of $85 million in the general election. McCain supporters can instead give to his compliance fund to help him maneuver the federal funding system.
Just the facts folks.
Atlantic Online
May 12,2008
Goldman Sachs is one of Wall Street%u2019s most prestigious investment banks. Like others in the securities industry, it advises and invests in nearly every industry affected by federal legislation. The firm closely monitors issues including economic policy, trade and nearly all legislation that governs the financial sector. It has been a major proponent of privatizing Social Security as well as legislation that would essentially deregulate the investment banking/securities industry. In August 2002, following months of corporate scandals, congressional investigators launched a probe into whether stock analysts at Goldman Sachs issued biased investment advice in order to protect corporate clients. The firm tends to give most of its money to Democrats. Goldman Sachs'' former chief executive, Jon Corzine, served in the U.S. Senate as a Democrat from New Jersey. He''s now the state''s governor.
Who is one of Obama''s largest contributors?
Smart. They are keeping old John away from live mikes. He is having a hard time putting two words together without miss speaking.
Posted by demslie
LOL...And the republicans are so upstanding. Not a sinner among em.
You do not even know how to be civil and articulate your point, claiming that all democrats are atheist, excuse me as a independent who will not be voting for any of the three top contenders for the presidency. Take a look at history and your neighbors, was Truman,JFK,Rooselvelt atheist? Not hardly.
Posted by ByeNeocons
Why don''t you ask Obama how he got that house he lives in. Obama is just as shady as McCain. They all are. They are politians.
youtube.com/watch?v=jm-VduN-FVc
That''s the kind of arrogance and stupidity that got us into this mess. All because of "Vote for me and I''ll send you a check."
That''s the kind of arrogance and stupidity that got us into this mess. All because of "Vote for me and I''ll send you a check."
I''m votin'' McCain for more o'' the same.
Oh yea Obama is fond of talking about Kennedy meeting with the Soviets. But he doesn''t tell you a year later the Cuban missile crisis blew up as direct result.
Vote McBush for a third term!
obama needs HRC''''S supporters and he wont get it.
SIMPLE DEDUCTION???? McCain wins hands down.
Posted by fenner at 12:06 PM : May 20, 2008
How naive!!
You really think that 17 million+ people are all not going to vote, or vote for McCain - NONE of them are going to vote for Obama?
That''s absurd!
HRC''''s votes + McCains guarantees his presidency.
no matter how you cut it..... like him or not... hes got this by default.
Posted by fenner at 11:42 AM : May 20, 2008
You and the rest of the fools in congress really do under estimate the swing voter. We made it clear that we wanted out of Iraq, that we wanted health care for kids and we wanted to fix our own health care. But you and your political buddies still think you can pull it off.
Okay keep that in mind when you are wishing we weren''t around.
Oh yea Obama is fond of talking about Kennedy meeting with the Soviets. But he doesn''''t tell you a year later the Cuban missile crisis blew up as direct result.
Posted by cbscrash07 at 12:07 PM : May 20, 2008
What an idiot!!
As individuals, they are only allowed to donate $2300 a piece - just like me, you, and everyone else. Are you realistically going to say that the big wigs at big oil didn''t give $2300 to EACH of the candidates in order to hedge their bets?
Please.....
And as for the Kennedy discussions with the Russians, you might be surprised to learn that the discussions were ABOUT the cuban missile crisis, which defused the whole situation. The crisis didn''t happen because of the discussions.
"The climax period of the crisis began on October 15, 1962, when United States reconnaissance photographs taken by an American U-2 spy plane revealed missile bases being built in Cuba, and ended two weeks later on October 28, 1962, when President of the United States John F. Kennedy and United Nations Secretary-General U Thant reached an agreement with the Soviets to dismantle the missiles in Cuba in exchange for a no invasion agreement and a secret removal of the Jupiter and Thor missiles in Turkey."
Oh yea Obama is fond of talking about Kennedy meeting with the Soviets. But he doesn''t tell you a year later the Cuban missile crisis blew up as direct result.
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