McCain targets another Obama vetter, but will questions backfire?

June 13, 2008

For a few weeks in May, there was considerable focus on John McCain’s campaign staff, stacked with corporate lobbyists, many of whom had some very unsavory characters (read: tyrannical dictators) as clients.

In June, McCain hopes to turn the tables, going after some advisors Barack Obama picked to work on his VP search committee. It’s an approach that’s had some success, with James Johnson having stepped down from his volunteer role a few days ago.

There is, however, such a thing as going to the well once too many times.

The day after Jim Johnson resigned from Barack Obama’s vice presidential candidate vetting committee, John McCain set his sights on Eric Holder — one of the two remaining members of the committee.

“I think people in the media and observers will make a decision as to whether these people, individuals, should be part of Senator Obama’s campaign,” McCain told reporters in Boston. “I think it is a matter of record that Mr. Holder recommended the pardoning of Mr. [Marc] Rich.” […]

“All those things will be taken into consideration by the media and the American people, especially when you are entrusting individuals with one of the most important decisions that a presidential candidate can make before that individual is elected and that is who the running mate is,” McCain added.

All of this strikes me as a little over the top. Members of the VP search committee aren’t even paid, and whether Obama vetted the vetters seems largely inconsequential. For that matter, this is hardly comparable with McCain’s predicament of having controversial lobbyists actually running his entire campaign operation.

But, fine. If McCain really wants to go there, we can go there.

Obama has answered questions about his VP search team, and maybe McCain can now do the same.

Democrats on Thursday pounced on the lobbying background of Arthur B. Culvahouse, the former presidential counsel currently leading a quiet search for Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) running mate, and its similarity to that of Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) top VP vetter who resigned Wednesday.

Culvahouse and his firm, O’Melveny & Myers, have lobbied for troubled mortgage firm Fannie Mae, defense giant Lockheed Martin, and Occidental Petroleum, the U.S.’s fourth-largest oil and gas firm.

Culvahouse is not listed as a current lobbyist with the Senate Office of Open Records, but has retained his position as chairman of O’Melveny & Myers, working out of the firm’s D.C. office.

According to Opensecrets.org, O’Melveny & Myers is being paid $100,000 from Occidental Petroleum this year, along with $30,000 from gas giant Hess Corp. In the past decade, the firm has received $120,000 from Fannie Mae and $220,000 from Lockheed Martin in 2000.

Democratic attorney Jim Johnson, Fannie Mae’s CEO from 1991 to 1998, resigned from Obama’s VP selection team this week after The Wall Street Journal reported he had received unusually generous loans. Johnson is still a paid consultant to Fannie Mae.

The lobbying disclosures mean Culvahouse was lobbying for Fannie Mae during at least one year when Johnson was leading it.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), co-chairman of Obama’s campaign, said Culvahouse’s background is as relevant as that of Johnson.

“What happened to Jim Johnson is an indication that they have to be prepared to live by the same standards,” Durbin said of the McCain campaign.

All things being equal, the associations of unpaid volunteers working on a campaign’s search committee don’t seem especially important. But the McCain campaign raised quite a fuss, pushing this onto the front-page this week.

I can’t help but wonder, though, if McCain & Co. really thought this through. For one thing, I really doubt voters are going to care. For another, if Johnson is so scandalous, how does McCain explain Culvahouse?

All things being very far from equal, McCain can cock a snoot at any suggestion of impropriety since his standards are so much lower than Obama’s. He’ll pay for it in the end, which is the part of the game, but right now it compromises the usefulness of a tit-for-tat strategy.

  • I fail, once again, to see the conflict of interest with Holder. He once represented a man seeking a pardon. Does Mark Rich have some continued interest in an Obama presidency? For that matter what would vetting VP candidates do to further that goal? Same question about Johnson. McCain, Clinton and Obama now all three have (or had) links to the subprime market. If there is a common interest, why aren’t they backing the same person.

    Current links between oil, defense contractors and subprime investment banks to the party that created so many related problems strikes me as much more problematic.

  • This is attack for the sake of attack. Why the hell should John McCain care who Obama has on his Veep vetting team? And to be honest, vice versa? I think this is a peanut issue — as CB says, inconsequential.

    Sigh, but I guess it must be dealt with. The Clinton pardon of Marc Rich was really beyond the pale, and there was certainly a bipartisan outcry against it.

    http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2004457941_apholderobama.html?syndication=rss

    Holder should probably go to avoid a big teapot tempest and for Obama to keep clean hands when he needs them clean..

  • We already know the vp will be Hillary Clinton. Just have a party and make the announcement and watch what happens to the poll numbers as Grandpa Simpson becomes totally irrelevant.

  • Getting rid of Johnson may have been important for other reasons. TPMM is reporting that Countrywide has also given these discount loans to Dodd, Conrad, Alphonso Jackson and others. If these discounted loans qualify as gifts, it could be a bigger problem, not for Obama himself, but for others, more Dem than Rep.

  • Patrick at 5 – we don’t “already know” any such thing – in fact, quite a few of us “already know” that there’s no way Ms. Clinton is going to be the VP candidate. Anything can happen – I’m getting used to the idea of Wesley Clarke, although he’s pretty far down the list of my preferred candidates…

  • It’s time Obama start making an issue of Carly Fiorina. She’s out there as the face of both McCain’s economic argument, and as his attempt to lure Hillary voters. Yet she was FIRED as a CEO, both after pushing a merger with Compaq that seriously set-back HP, and for being a terrible manager. The companies value dropped by half under her, while thousands of jobs were cut. To boot, two years ago, two big investors sued HP for the sweetheart $21 million severance deal the company gave her because it violated company policy. The Obama campaign needs to make an example of her.

  • Forget Culvahouse, go for the real thing: Phil Gramm, McCain’s top economic advisor, the man responsible for creating the gas crisis AND the housing crisis by deregulating financial markets and purposely allowing them to engage in the activities that are now creating the most pain for average Americans of any of the far right’s financial bullshit.

    “I think people in the media and observers will make a decision as to whether these people, individuals, should be part of Senator McCain’s campaign,”

  • It is very interesting about the bru ha ha for volunteers. When McCain backs an administration that has proven to have commited high crimes and misdemeanors. Where is the bru ha ha to make the Bush Administration cabal accountable and charged with offenses.

  • this is why i was disappointed Obama cut Johnson loose so quickly. these are volunteer advisors with not policy portfolio and a short-term assignment; Johnson has done this for years, and the Countrywide loan, while contrary to Obama’s policy statements was (a) legal and (b) not at all related to the task he was performing for Obama (contra Phil Gramm, for example).

    it looked weak, and all but begged for continued nitpicking. there aren’t enough “virgins” in the areans where one gets relevant experience for high-level government service to staff an administration. the standards should be high, but still realistic, and enforcement should not be at the demand of an opposition with very impure motives.

  • More typical rethuglican tactics. Accuse the other side of that which you are far more guilty.

    Obama will fight back by telling the truth, no doubt.

  • The more they change the more they stay the same,both sides back biting(DEM &REP)and nothing solved.Great acting by DODD ,why didnt both sides start to find a solution to our oil problem back in 1973. The Senate and house should do things for the COUNTRY and stop this idiotic posturing like teenagers(take tim to check what the public thinss about all of you not what some close YES people say and think.THE COUNTRIES IN TROUBLE JUST DO THE RIGHT THING FOR ONECE. TO THOSE WHO THINK IM WRONG,REMEMBER THEY INSULT EACH OTHER THEN HAVE LUNCH OR DINNER AND TELL THE WORLD HOW GREAT THEIR OPPONENT WAS ,GIVE US ALL A BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • I think Obama should just say: “John, it’s your turn to fire a corrupting Lobbyist”.

  • I have to say I’m dissappointed that McCain is bringing up nonsense like this. I have no interest whatsoever in who their vetters are. I want to know who the VP canidate is, and thats it. I started out this year thinking that McCain was going to keep his promises and run a clean campaign. So much for wishfull thinking! It’s tough that I’ve lost so much respect for a man known for striding the “middle” in congress. Next will come the big buisness windfall plans along with looser gun regulations. Why can’t these canidates make up their own minds?

  • For a host of reasons, it IS important to vet the VP vetter. It’s unpaid? Hardly! Access like that you can’t put a dollar figure on. And what about process- all things being equal (though they never are), I don’t want someone whose in the pocket of this or that corporate interest to be deciding who’s a good candidate and who isn’t. And I don’t want a high administration official remembering exactly how and when his or her bread was buttered. Shouldn’t that go without saying?

  • I really can’t believe that McCain is so stupid. He finds something sinister in a person who recommended a controversial pardon for Marc Rich working in a volunteer position vetting possible VP choices for Obama, but doesn’t seem to have any problem with Rich’s actual attorney who lobbied for the pardon (“Scooter” Libby) being the Chief of Staff for an actual VP and getting a nice pardon of his own? Is he kidding???!!! Where is the MSM when you need them? This is like some Saturday Night Live sketch.

  • It has truly become a sad place we live in that when it all comes down to it that these guys have to dig up BS about the advisors working for the competition because they can’t come up with anything negative to say directly about the other party’s candidate at the moment.

    But what is most disturbing to me is that all these campaigns turn in to everyone slinging crap about each other instead of doing what they should and letting us all know what good points about themselves should make me want to vote for them.

    Damn I wish More people had brains in their heads and Ron Paul had made more of an impact…

  • With all that is required to select a VP for one’s political party, why is Senator McCain spending so much time on who is on Senator Obama’s VEEP committee. I would think that he would use the time more wisely to make sure that his own people are squeaky clean, which I doubt. I seriously doubt that he is as clean as he is trying to portray himself in the run for the Republican candidate for President. Senator McCain should spend his time preparing for all of the meetings he has proposed so that he will be able to give the people at the meeting logical, sound answers that make sense.

    I for one am interested in hearing about our economy and the war in Iraq and just when our soldiers are coming home. It is important to American citizens that the troops come home safe as well as when they come home. Senator McCain said it is “not” important about when they come home. This is not so.

  • What McCain is ultimately trying to achieve is this:
    http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/analysis/toons/2008/06/11/mitchell/

    As for the Johnson story… The loans are being talked about front and centre but, to me, another aspect was more important, long-term. Johnson sat on about 5 compensation committees for several big firms, negotiating multi-million stock-option deals (using all the “creative” accounting techniques possible, including back-dating) for their CEOs. At about the same time, Obama is introducing legislation to curb such wild overpayments to CEOs… That sent a bad “message” to electorate. At best, Obama’s a fool and his campaign is in the situation where the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. At worst, he looks like a hypocrite.

    So, Johnson had to go.

    Read this article inn yesterday’s NYT:
    http://tinyurl.com/58n3cy
    It’s towards the end, the last few paragraphs. And there was another article, on Wednesday, which had more info on those committees.

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  • The latest attempt by McCain et al to shift the focus from discussing real issues to who is helping Obama vet his potential VP candidates is one more insult to the American people.
    How stupid does McCain think we are? What about the War in Iraq? (4,000+ US soldiers killed). What about skyrocketing gas prices? (up approx.150% since Bush moved into the White House). How about a tanking economy led by a mortgage and credit lending crisis that is still in free fall?

    I thought the Navy taught men not to whine.

    andelew – New York

  • Actually, this seems to be the tactic that Obama used on previous elections. Disqualifying supporters or staff from the competitors can weak them so badly that Obama becomes “the only option in the ballot” (refer to “Alice in Chicago-land”)

    And in regards to the comments about his wife and friends and supporters… well, I only would say that if he (or his campaign) didn’t want that to happen… they shouldn’t have started namecalling and aiming at Clinton’s husband.

    You cannot request or demand a fair game when you are using dirty tricks. Right?

  • What gives McBush the moral high horse. His wif was gunding the genocide in Darfor, Sudan until recently. His staff is the corporate lobbyist staff. So what is he talking about?

  • Who was pardoned from the current White House staff for the Valerie PLame issue and lying to Congress? Libby.
    Who should be impeached for the blatant lies that took us to war in Iraq? Bush.
    And who is on those coat tails supporting failed attempts to stablize Iraq? McCain.
    As I read the news, it comes to mind that no one in Washington has a sparkling reputation. We can find fault in all. So if your guy has a better record of the bad things he has done than the other guy, then he is a good guy. HA! Political Logic at its finest!!

  • McCain needs to stop throwing Rocks at Obama’s House and tend to his own. Yet here he is and he is just as guilty of having questionable People in his own Party searching for his VP Running Mate.
    Guess he thinks he is without sin and can cast the first rock but he better stop and take a look around and see who he has standing next to him. There is so much mud slinging in the Campaigns today it makes me sick. The Media is to blame too!! Get a grip and take a look around you. There is so much pain and grief in this Country right now with People losing their homes and businesses to flooding and fire I really don’t think they want to hear the crap about who is fit to be on Committees to pick the VP and You Senator McCain I dare you to say ONE bad thing about Caroline Kennedy!!!! You will see such a display of anger you could never have dreamed of from the American People.don’t you dare pick on our Little Princess. I will write to every American I can to tell them not to vote for you if you do this and I will ask others to do the same.Get back to the real Issues and tell us what the HELL you are going to do to help all of us. This is what America wants to hear not who scratches who’s Butt or Picks their noses. We want to hear the Issues.
    So Get to the Real Campaign and get done with the smear tactics.

  • You almost have to feel sorry for McCain. He has so little to offer and has been in the old style political world for so long that he doesn’t get that ‘it’s the issues, stupid.’ He’s deflecting attention away from his lack of anything fresh and new and different and inspiring by attacking a member of Obama’s vetting team. Why sould he care? He is running for President, right? He’s not running for a seat on Obama’s vetting committee? I like to think I keep up with current events, but perhaps I missed something.

  • I think what is important here is that we the people can keep the politicians on message with the real issues if we speak up, cry out and denounce these ugly political tactics. This is old politics as usual and we need and want change in this country. I agree, Obama gave in too quickly, but then he is trying not to have any controversy in his campaign. I just hope and pray that McCain is not elected. I have been so worried about our country for the last 7 years and if he does get in, I am afraid we will not survive. The middle class is going down as it is, standing in bread lines. Wages have fallen, while CEO pay has increased 400%, with the majority of the wealth going to the upper 10% on the backs of the workers. We are in a period much like the 20’s.

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