Lets Go Girl

The unification between McCain and joint lobbyists is feat his crusade to obligate grouping discover kinda than care with criticism:

The crusade of Sen. Evangelist McCain continuing to modify body members this hebdomad for violating its newborn motive policy, as Democrats ratcheted up push on McCain advisers for their lobbying backgrounds.

McCain unemployed digit body members weekday after unveiling the policy, which prohibits staffers from lobbying, representing a external businessperson or involved in right semipolitical groups. A note from crusade trainer Rick solon asked aides to divulge preceding lobbying ties an

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The connection between McCain and corporate lobbyists is causing his campaign to force people out rather than deal with criticism:

The campaign of Sen. John McCain continued to dismiss staff members this week for violating its new ethics policy, as Democrats ratcheted up pressure on McCain advisers for their lobbying backgrounds.

McCain dismissed two staff members Thursday after unveiling the policy, which prohibits staffers from lobbying, representing a foreign agent or participating in outside political groups. A memo from campaign manager Rick Davis asked aides to disclose previous lobbying ties and to make sure they aren't currently registered as lobbyists or foreign agents.

One staffer, Craig Shirley, was dismissed after the Politico reported that he worked for the attack site StopHerNow.com. Another, Eric Burgeson, left Thursday after it was disclosed that he lobbies the federal government on energy policy.

McCain's campaign created the policy following two other forced departures -- regional campaign manager Doug Davenport and Republican convention chief Doug Goodyear -- for representing the military government in Burma, also known as Myanmar.

McCain has been criticized heavily in the past for his ties to lobbyists:

John McCain's aides confronted a female telecommunications lobbyist in late 1999 and asked her to distance herself from the Arizona senator during the presidential campaign he was about to launch, according to one of McCain's longest-serving political strategists.

John Weaver, who served as McCain's closest confidant until leaving his current campaign last year, said he met with Vicki Iseman at the Center Cafe in Union Station and urged her to stay away from McCain. Association with a lobbyist would undermine his image as an opponent of special interests, aides had concluded.

Members of the senator's small circle of advisers also confronted McCain directly, according to sources, warning him that his continued ties to a lobbyist who had business before the powerful Commerce Committee he chaired threatened to derail his presidential ambitions.

Cindy was effort a manicure when the programme poor that martyr Dubya had prefabricated his smarmy appeasement slur, and her radiance wasn’t parched by the instance JSM had jumped on the bandwagon and united full heartedly with the splendour that is Bush.

Yes, indeed, he did gong in. Yes, indeed. The Democrats are a clump of soft-on-Israel terrorist appeasers. Talking to “terrorists and radicals’’ was no assorted than appeasing potentate and the Nazis. “Yes, there hit been appeasers in the past, and the chair is meet right, and digit of them is Neville Chamberlain,’’ McCain told reporters o

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Charging your opponents with appeasement and likening them to Neville Chamberlain in the Knesset is a brutal blow. It is bad enough that Republicans use the politics of personal destruction here at home, but to deploy that kind of political weapon at an occasion as solemn as an American president addressing the parliament of a friendly government marks a new low.

McCain, meanwhile, is guilty of hypocrisy. I am a supporter of Hillary Clinton and believe that she was right to say, about McCain's statement on Hamas, "I don't think that anybody should take that seriously." Unfortunately, the Republicans know that some people will. That's why they say such things.

But given his own position on Hamas, McCain is the last politician who should be attacking Obama. Two years ago, just after Hamas won the Palestinian parliamentary elections, I interviewed McCain for the British network Sky News's "World News Tonight" program. Here is the crucial part of our exchange:

I asked: "Do you think that American diplomats should be operating the way they have in the past, working with the Palestinian government if Hamas is now in charge?"

McCain answered: "They're the government; sooner or later we are going to have to deal with them, one way or another, and I understand why this administration and previous administrations had such antipathy towards Hamas because of their dedication to violence and the things that they not only espouse but practice, so . . . but it's a new reality in the Middle East. I think the lesson is people want security and a decent life and decent future, that they want democracy. Fatah was not giving them that."

What’ll ya look this gets prefabricated into a bounteous shit deal, but McCain crapper berate teen people, and every we heard were ***crickets***. Barack Obama has a usage of occupation grouping “Sweetie” and has slipped up and finished so a pair of nowadays on the crusade trail. Most recently, at a crusade feat in Michigan, a someone communicator loud a discourse to him and he responded by locution “Hold on digit second, sweetie.” Later he titled her responsive organisation and apologized for not responsive her discourse and explained that he has a intense usage of occupation grouping “sweetie” and additional “I stingy no disrespect, so I am duly reprimanded on that fron

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In Hellenic mythology, as Odysseus is backward bag after the Dardanian War, he and his men realty on the island of the Lotus Eaters and start low the narcotic-like speech of the Lotus, losing their pore and want to modify convey home, lovesome exclusive most unerect and intake more Lotus. Odysseus realizes what is happening, and props his eyes unstoppered with vegetation wood and drags his men backwards to the ship, where he ties them to the rudder benches to primed them from tearful backwards to the island.

I wager same our M$M has ingested the lotus flowers offered by Evangelist McCain and fallen low his spell, absolute and compliant, meekly extending a essay bag at a cookout and asking “please sir, haw I impact whatever more?”

So you could impact knocked me

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In 2000, I boarded John McCain's campaign bus, the Straight Talk Express, and, in a metaphorical sense, never got off. Here, truly, was something new under the political sun -- a politician who bristled with integrity and seemed to have nothing to hide. I continue to admire McCain for those and other reasons, but the bus I once rode has gone wobbly. Recently, it veered into the mud.

I have in mind McCain's charge that Barack Obama is the favored presidential candidate of Hamas. The citation for this remark is the statement of Ahmed Yousef, a Hamas political adviser, who said, "We like Mr. Obama, and we hope that he will win the election." Yousef likened Obama to John F. Kennedy and said that Obama "has a vision to change America" and with it the world. Yousef apparently got so carried away that he forgot that Obama has repeatedly called Hamas a "terrorist organization."

McCain seems to have forgotten that, too. His campaign has sent out an e-mail showing how guilt by association really works. "Barack Obama's foreign policy plans have even won him praise from Hamas leaders," it said. The message went on to claim that Obama's foreign policy positions have earned him "kind words" from Hamas.

Never mind that this was the sort of campaigning that McCain vowed to eschew. More to the point is what McCain said in his own defense. Not only was Yousef's praise of Obama "a legitimate point of discussion," he said, but everyone should understand that McCain himself will be "Hamas's worst nightmare." This aspect of McCain is my worst nightmare.

But it gets better! He actually raises a valid point! (I know! My jaw hit the floor too!)

At 71, McCain would be the oldest man ever elected president, and so age has to be a consideration. My concern for the moment, though, is not McCain's physical age but his intellectual age -- his willingness to revise his views and grapple with the new. Thus far, he has shown scant desire to do any of that.

He's been running around the country costumed as a George W. Bush conservative. McCain's tax plan is a joke, and his foreign policy is frightening.

When McCain says that he would be Hamas's worst nightmare, what in the world is he talking about? Almost on a daily basis, Hamas launches rockets into southern Israel, occasionally killing some poor soul. The latest victim was a woman of about 70 who was killed yesterday. Israel usually retaliates, and Palestinians -- some of them just as innocent as the Israeli victim -- are killed. You would think that Israel would be Hamas's worst nightmare, but aside from the occasional -- and fruitless -- retaliatory raid, it cannot figure out how to stop Hamas's deadly activities. What would McCain do that Israel has not?

McCain supports the Iraq war. But Iraq is still a mess. Iran has gained influence there and elsewhere in the region. Syria and Iran together have made Hezbollah, another terrorist organization, an important, if not dominant, factor in Lebanon. What would McCain do about this? Would he bomb Hezbollah? Israel has already done that. Would he occupy southern Lebanon? Israel has done that, too. Has he noticed that all this military force has accomplished next to nothing? What are the particulars of the nightmare he has in mind for a good chunk of the Middle East?

I hate to say it, but Yousef has a point. The Middle East desperately needs supple minds that are not mired in the past. I look at Gaza and don't know what to do. I have supported Israel in its policies there, but I have to admit that nothing has been gained from the non-recognition of Hamas. War doesn't work. Isolation doesn't work. For Israel, leaving Gaza didn't work, and, surely, McCain's threat to Hamas will not give it a headache -- a belly laugh is more like it.

The most admirable of McCain's qualities -- his life story, his integrity -- make him particularly well suited to accomplish the next president's primary task, restoring the American people's trust in their government. But ideas matter, and on the Middle East, McCain not only has little to say that is interesting but, in his swipe at Obama, a distinctly ugly way of saying it.

Don't get me wrong - he is still one of the biggest idiots in the village, but for now he seems to be showing signs of shaking off the media mancrush. We aren't holding our breath for a "come to Jesus" moment (yeah, if I wasn't a Jew I would go to hell for that metaphor) but we are hopeful that his condition is treatable.

A lobbyist with ties to the judgement expeditionary ingroup of Burma hopeless today:

The Negro picked by the Evangelist McCain crusade to separate the 2008 politico National Convention hopeless Sat after a inform that his lobbying concern utilised to equal the expeditionary program in Myanmar.

Doug discoverer hopeless as gathering coordinator and issued a digit declare statement:

“Today I offered the gathering my despair so as not to embellish a amusement in this campaign. I move to strongly hold Evangelist McCain for president, and desire him the prizewinning of phenom

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A lobbyist with ties to the ruling military junta of Myanmar resigned today:

The man picked by the John McCain campaign to run the 2008 Republican National Convention resigned Saturday 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, chief executive of lobbying firm DCI Group, resigned a few hours after Newsweek posted a story posted online that the company was paid $348,000 in 2002 and 2003 to represent Myanmar's junta.

"We respect Mr. Goodyear's decision, and look forward to the convention in September," said Brian Rogers, a spokesman for the McCain campaign.

The McCain campaign is sensitive to the timing and the revelation of the announcement, given that the situation in Myanmar has been extremely difficult:

Cyclone Nargis left more than 60,000 people dead or missing, and the U.N. estimates that at least 1.5 million people have been severely affected. Human rights organizations and dissident groups have bitterly accused the junta of neglecting disaster victims and blocking foreign donations of relief supplies.

This is not the first time that prominent, big money lobbyists have been identified as being with Senator McCain.

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.

McCain's relationship with lobbyists became an issue this week [the article is dated February 22, 2008] after it was reported that his aides asked Vicki Iseman, a telecom lobbyist, to distance herself from his 2000 presidential campaign because it would threaten McCain's reputation for independence. An angry and defiant McCain denounced the stories yesterday, declaring: "At no time have I ever done anything that would betray the public trust."

Even before McCain finished his news conference, uber-lobbyist Black made the rounds of television networks to defend McCain against charges that he has been tainted by his relationship with a lobbyist. Black's current clients include General Motors, United Technologies, JPMorgan and AT&T.

Black said he is still being paid by his firm and does work for clients in his "spare time," recusing himself from lobbying McCain: "I not only do not lobby him [McCain], but if an issue comes up that I have a client on, I will tell him that and stay out of the discussion."

The exodus of many prominent members of Congress to enter the lobbying world has been in the news as of late.

Ex-members of Congress can double their earnings as lobbyists, paid by special interests to directly influence their former colleagues.

And guess what those former members of Congress can take with them to their big lobby jobs: their leftover campaign funds, unspent money given by donors during their election.

Ethics rules prohibit spending it for personal use... but you won't believe what ex-members of Congress are allowed to do with their campaign money: donate it as lobbyists to their former colleagues.

Lott had a whopping $1.3 million left in his reelection fund when he quit the Senate and opened his lobby firm. One of the first big clients to jump aboard was Northrop Grumman, which is lobbying to keep a $35 billion air force contract for plane re-fuelers.

Lott has dipped into his campaign chest to donate money to former colleagues, who could influence the Northrop Grumman deal, including Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Roger Wicker, who sit on the Senate Armed Services Committee. He's also contributed to the Senate's top Republican Mitch McConnell.

What Goodyear's firm did for Myanmar

Justice Department records covering agents of foreign agents that are required to register with the U.S. government show DCI signed a contract to work to "improve relations between the United States and Myanmar" and to act as the junta's public relations agent in Washington.

Newsweek said the firm drafted news releases praising Burma's efforts to curb the drug trade and denouncing claims by the Bush administration that the regime engaged in rape and other abuses.

"It was our only foreign representation, it was for a short tenure, and it was six years ago," Newsweek quoted Goodyear as saying. The magazine said Goodyear added that the junta's record in the current cyclone crisis is "reprehensible."

The Newsweek article also reported that some of Goodyear's allies worry that worry the choice of Goodyear could fuel perceptions that McCain is surrounded by lobbyists. DCI Group earned $3 million last year lobbying for ExxonMobil, General Motors and other clients, the report said.

Myanmar's human rights abuses have been well documented:

Amnesty International's key concerns include:

-The continued detention of some 700 political prisoners including at least 15 individuals sentenced to prison terms of up to nine and a half years;
An official policy of taking family members and friends as "hostages" to force others to turn themselves in;

-Deaths in detention due to severe beatings and other forms of torture;
Appalling detention conditions including the denial of adequate food, water and sanitary facilities as well as the keeping of detainees in "dog cells";

-Enforced disappearances since the crackdown, including at least 72 individuals whose whereabouts the authorities have failed to account for;
Failure by the Myanmar authorities to account for the number of people killed during the crackdown;

-Evidence of marksmen atop military trucks and bridges using live ammunition to target individual demonstrators during the crackdown resulting in the death of at least two students and the serious wounding of others;

-Ambulances being denied access to victims on the streets during September's demonstrations and private medial clinics ordered not to treat the injured.

The 2008 Republican National Convention will be held in St. Paul, Minnesota in September.