McCain: hired Lobbyists who tried to sanitize Myanmar's Killer Regime

[amborin]

Roughly one-third of 93 "Reagan alumni" who endorsed McCain have been or are registered to lobby, though McCain never said so.

The Florida fundraising team for McCain and the Republican National Committee, announced last week, includes at least two Florida lobbyists: Fred Karlinsky is Florida counsel to the Property Casualty Insurers Association, which lobbies in Washington on consumer issues, disaster planning and insurance; the other, Thomas Panza, served on Florida business regulation and health care study commissions.

McCain's advisory committee on legal issues, announced last month, included at least nine lobbyists, but McCain didn't identify them as such. Instead, his campaign listed them with their former government positions.

In addition, the committee has members with lobbying ties, included at least five partners in Washington law and lobby firms who weren't personally registered to lobby and three former lobbyists.

McCain announced in January an ex-aide to presidential brother and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush agreed to help run "Lawyers for McCain" in Florida.

Lobbyists have made campaign appearances for McCain. They include former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, chief executive of the American Council of Life Insurers and co-chairman of "Catholics for McCain." Another is former Navy Secretary William Ball, a Washington lobbyist whose client list includes Southwest Airlines, facing a record $10.2 million fine and congressional scrutiny over safety issues.

At least 17 lobbyists are among McCain's top fundraisers, including Jack Oliver III, a former national GOP official whose Washington lobbying list includes the Financial Services Forum, a group of banks and investment firms; and corporate giants Shell Oil Co., Verizon Communications Inc. and Union Pacific Corp. railroad.

McCain's national campaign co-chairs include John Chambers, chief executive of Cisco Systems Inc., a technology company that spent $1.4 million last year lobbying in Washington on immigration, digital television, personal data privacy and security, patent legislation and trade issues.

Another is former Homeland Security secretary and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, who now runs a Washington consulting firm and sits on the boards of several high-tech companies, some of them federal contractors.

Cut to 2008, when McCain hired numerous lobbyists who were active or taking leaves of absence to fill prime positions in his campaign. When Sen. Barack Obama and other Democrats pointed out the wide gap between McCain's rhetoric and behavior, he fired at least five lobbyists.

Two of those lobbyists had tried to put a happy face on the dictators and mass murderers of Myanmar's military regime. McCain's finance co-chairman, Texan and lobbyist Tom Loeffler, had actually lobbied McCain on behalf of the autocratic rulers of Saudi Arabia.

If McCain thinks lobbyists should have no role in presidential campaigns, why did he hire so many? And if he thought he needed lobbyists' expertise, why did he hire so many who are professionally dedicated to propositions and interests that are the opposite of those McCain claims to favor?


The Houston Chronicle

May 28, 2008 Wednesday
3 STAR R.O. EDITION

Cognitive dissonance;
McCain condemns lobbyists who work on campaigns, then entrusts his own campaign to them.

BYLINE: Staff

SECTION: B; Pg. 8

LENGTH: 523 words

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The New Zealand Herald

May 12, 2008 Monday

McCain man quits over lobby work for Myanmar generals


ST PAUL - The man picked by Senator John McCain's campaign to run the 2008 Republican National Convention resigned yesterday after a report that his lobbying firm used to represent the military regime in Myanmar.

Doug Goodyear resigned as convention coordinator and issued a two-sentence statement: "Today I offered the convention my resignation so as not to become a distraction in this campaign. I continue to strongly support John McCain for president, and wish him the best of luck in this campaign."

Goodyear is chief executive of DCI Group, a lobbying firm that Newsweek reported in a story posted online was paid $348US,000 ($456,573) in 2002 to represent Myanmar's junta.