For a straight-talking champion of reform, John McCain hasn’t had much trouble shifting gears and becoming a more typical Republican presidential candidate lately.
For example, reform advocates don’t usually hire aides linked to Tom DeLay’s shady deals. But that doesn’t stop McCain.
McCain’s Straight Talk America PAC signed Terry Nelson, political director for the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign, as a senior adviser on Thursday…. Nelson was working as deputy chief of staff at the Republican National Committee (RNC) in the fall of 2002 when, according to the September criminal indictment filed against DeLay in Travis County, Texas, DeLay employee Jim Ellis delivered a check to Nelson for $190,000 in corporate contributions.
The indictment alleges that Ellis provided Nelson with a list of seven candidates for the Texas state Legislature slated to receive the corporate money; under Texas state law, corporate funds cannot be used for political purposes. Less than one month later, a nonfederal arm of the RNC made contributions to the same seven candidates.
And reform advocates don’t usually try to undermine a bi-partisan effort to improve Congress’ lobbying standards. But yet, here’s McCain again.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., quietly submitted an amendment to the lobbying reform bill on the Senate floor March 9 that would cap donations to 527 groups… McCain’s move was a surprise, given that several senators had explicitly agreed to keep controversial 527 provisions out of the lobbying debate…Even pro-reform activists, who endorse tough new restrictions on 527 organizations, have testified that the 527 debate should be handled separately. They argue that dragging in 527-related provisions would complicate and undermine the lobbying reform effort.
And reform advocates don’t usually cozy up to corporate lobbyists on K Street. Once again, here’s McCain.
Good-government advocacy groups working on lobbying reform say their longtime ally Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has played a smaller leadership role on the issue than they had expected. McCain’s lower-than-hoped-for profile on the sensitive subject coincides with what prominent lobbyists describe as a quiet effort by his political team to court inside-the-Beltway donors and fundraisers in preparation for a possible 2008 presidential run.
All the while, McCain is supporting tax cuts he used to oppose, he’s hiring a neo-Confederate he used to reject, and he’s smoothing things over with a televangelist he used to dismiss as an “agent of intolerance.”
How badly does McCain want to be president? The answer is becoming increasingly clear all the time.