A Fifth Top Aide To McCain Resigns

[napi21]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/18/AR2008051802212.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter

Tom Loeffler, the national finance co-chairman for Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign, resigned yesterday because of his lobbying ties, a campaign adviser said.

He is the fifth person to sever ties with the campaign amid a growing concern over whether lobbyists have too great an influence over the Republican nominee. Last week, campaign manager Rick Davis issued a new policy that requires all campaign personnel to either resign or sever ties with lobbying firms or outside political groups.


So, McNut can't raise $$, and he's losing his campaign staff! This sure is getting interesting!

[Happyhippychick]

1. The wheels are coming off the Straight Talk Express.

[goclark]

2. So what about HC's top aid that had some type of connection

What is the name of the one that was running her campaign and now is just "advisory?"

[Alexander]

6. Mark Penn. Her pollster and campaign strategist.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. It's a little late to be severing ties with lobbyists, Maverick.

An audacious act of political expediency.

[tnlurker]

4. I think that something will happen to McCain

That he will not be the GOP candidate running in the GE. I think he is too weak and has too many flaws to be allowed by the republicans to remain the nominee.

[Mist]

8. I agree. What scenes of desperation to find another candidate are going

on behind the scenes? Which Rethug is actually "presidential" in this most adverse of times for the Rethugs? They can't risk most of their senators--gotta keep those seats.

[napi21]

11. Well, there's always Huck or Mittens! Maybe that's why they're

still hanging out in the media.

[goclark]

12. I agree, he won't make it through the summer

I think he is just a place holder for Huckabee or Rmney.

Maybe they can dig up Reagan and bring him back.

[Occam Bandage]

5. Fifth? Wow, what a maverick! He's such a straight-talker, he's positively

infested with lobbyists!

[kerry-is-my-prez]

7. I was watching tv w/my Repub neighbor and after hearing this he said "McCain is going to lose."

yee-hah!

[ErinBerin84]

9. haha.

The campaign is saying that there has been a "perception" problem over the past week? Ok...It reminds me of how McCain admitted in his book that the "straight talk express" idea was a pure PR move to get past the "perception" of his involvement in Keating 5...

""The campaign over the last week or so obviously had a perception problem with regards with this whole business of lobbyists and their work," spokesman Brian Rogers said. "This is really all about setting a policy so that we can just get through that perception problem and the issues that come up with regards to lobbyists affiliated with the campaign and move on."



Despite the McCain campaign's efforts to clean up its image, its Chief Strategist, Charlie Black, sees little problem with his firm's involvement with some of the worst dictators.

"I'm not ashamed of anything the firm did," McCain adviser Charlie Black says of his days as the principle in one of Washington's most influential lobbying firms. "If they want to use it to fire up the left wing, well, that's fine."


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/19/mccains-lobbyist-problem_n_102393.html

[kentuck]

10. The Fifth !!! Wow!!

<snip>
McCain has built his reputation in Congress on fighting special interests and the lobbying culture, but he has been criticized for months about the number of lobbyists serving in key positions in his campaign. Until recently, his top political adviser, Charles R. Black Jr., was the head of a Washington lobbying firm. Black retired in March from BKSH & Associates, the firm he helped found, to stay with the campaign. Davis ran a lobbying firm for several years but has said he is on leave from it.

Black, in particular, remains in the cross hairs of McCain's critics. Campaign Money Watch, a nonpartisan watchdog group in Washington, yesterday praised Loeffler's departure but renewed its call for Black's departure. The group has launched a Web site, http://www.firethelobbyists.com, to urge McCain to rid his campaign of their influence. Loeffler's lobbying for Saudi Arabia and other foreign governments was revealed over the weekend.

McCain has steadfastly defended Black and Davis. "Charlie Black and Rick Davis are not in the lobbying business; they've been out of that business," he told reporters. "Charlie Black has been involved in every presidential campaign going back to President Reagan's first campaign. He has severed his connections with the lobbying group that he was with. Rick Davis has not been involved in any lobbying for years."