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The ‘birds of prey’ have landed at McCain campaign headquarters

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Oddly enough, when I started going through the news this morning, I noticed a story about John McCain criticizing lobbyists, and thought that would have to be the big political story the day. That, of course, was before I noticed that McCain couldn’t keep track of all the houses he owns.

Nevertheless, overshadowed or not, this really is pretty crazy.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called lobbyists “birds of prey” Wednesday and vowed to enforce a lifetime ban on lobbying for members of his administration.

“Whenever there’s a corrupt system, then you’re going to have these birds of prey descend on it to get their share of the spoils,” McCain said in a half-hour interview with Politico following a town-hall meeting in the southern part of this swing state. […]

The senator went so far as to say: “Lobbyists don’t come to my office. Because they know they’re not going to be an earmark. They know they’re not going to get a pork-barrel project.”

Even by McCain standards, this is transparent nonsense. Putting aside the fact that McCain, like every other senator, has sought and received earmark, the reality is lobbyists do come to McCain’s office, and as a rule, once they get there, they’re given influential jobs in the McCain campaign.

McCain’s campaign manager is a lobbyist. His chief strategist is a lobbyist. His top foreign policy advisor is a lobbyist. The man he tapped to run the Republican convention is a lobbyist. His top two senior advisors are both lobbyists. His campaign is being financed by donations from lobbyists

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, bundled by other lobbyists.

In one rather dramatic anecdote, McCain actually had a corporate lobbyist conducting business directly aboard his campaign bus.

Of all the lobbyists involved in the McCain campaign , the most prominent is [Charles] Black, who has made a lucrative career of shuttling back and forth between presidential politics and big-time Washington lobbying…. [E]ven as Black provides a private voice and a public face for McCain, he also leads his lobbying firm, which offers corporate interests and foreign governments the promise of access to the most powerful lawmakers. Some of those companies have interests before the Senate and, in particular, the Commerce Committee, of which McCain is a member.

Black said he does a lot of his work by telephone from McCain’s Straight Talk Express bus.

By one count, McCain has at least 159 lobbyists

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, on leave from their firms, running his campaign operation. It’s why McCain has defended lobbyists and the lobbying industry over and over again.

“Whenever there’s a corrupt system, then you’re going to have these birds of prey descend on it to get their share of the spoils.” It sounds like the corrupt system McCain is describing is his own presidential campaign.

Comments

  • JRD

    says:

    Not to be a biological pedant, but I think he’s confusing “birds of prey” with “scavengers.” Birds of prey do their own hunting and don’t descend on dead carcasses to pick off a share of the meat, which seems to be the metaphor he’s going for there.

  • The Answer is Orange

    says:

    Now listen here JRD, the O in POW stands for Ornithologist.

    Seriously, he could have meant raptor’s habit of swooping down on poor defenseless bunnies and birdies and all right I’m cracking up at the thought of some ReThuglican congresscritter as a bunny.

  • Steve

    says:

    Given that McCain is both corrupt and a bird of prey, the comments about lobbyists are actually compliments.

  • Nashville_fan

    says:

    Pardon my french, but John McCain is full of sh!t.

    P.S. Could this really be the last day of the Carpet Bagger Report?

    I’m getting all sad.

    Seriously.

  • JRD

    says:

    “Seriously, he could have meant raptor’s habit of swooping down on poor defenseless bunnies and birdies and all right I’m cracking up at the thought of some ReThuglican congresscritter as a bunny.”

    Yeah, he could have meant that, but it sounds to me more like he’s going for a metaphor of buzzards descending on a carcass, which is the more commonly used rhetorical image.

  • Jurgan

    says:

    Vultures are actually classified as raptors (birds of prey) along with hawks, eagles, falcons, etc., even though they don’t do their own hunting.

  • Lance

    says:

    Do we really need another president who can’t use the English language?

    Gosh, are there lobbyists in McC*nt’s campaign staff? How did they ever get there? Why did they decide to leave their presdigous and well paying jobs to go to work for a man who claims they have no influence on him?

    They must be real Americans, if rotten lobbyists, as they are working for the man who will put their industry out of business.

    Or are they??

    How hard is it to make a commercial on this?

  • Bubblebutt Chad

    says:

    Are you trying to tell me that John McCain a former prisoner of war doesn’t know his birds?

  • Racer X

    says:

    I guess when you’re morally incapable of being bad (because you were a POW) then it’s OK to have lobbyists working in your bus.

  • Rick

    says:

    Just put my info into the political animal comment section. Looking forward to that becoming a real blog. Go Steve! ORANGE, ORANGE, ORANGE. Just had to type that a few more times. I hope to see you all there tomorrow! The comments are what make this blog rock (yeah Steve had alot to do with it too)

  • Homer

    says:

    Are you trying to tell me that Jesus Christ can’t hit a curveball?

    PS I’ll be traveling tomorrow. My last post ever on CBR….and this is all I could come up with??….sheesh…

    Reminder: add Political Animal to Favorites

    Steve, see you on the other side!

    What color is an orange?

    Homer

  • Racer X

    says:

    Maybe the problem is that McCain doesn’t know how to tell a lobbyist from a hole in the ground…

    McCain followed his young, millionairess wife back to Arizona. Not long after settling in, the former POW newlywed was introduced to Darrow “Duke” Tully, publisher of the conservative and powerful Arizona Republic and the Phoenix Gazette.

    Tully, who quickly became a close friend of McCain, wasted no time in using the power of his newspapers to jump start McCain’s political career. His newspapers endorsed McCain’s first run for Congress and touted him as successor for retiring Sen. Barry Goldwater.

    Described as “equal parts cowboy, commando, swashbuckler and elegant tycoon” by the Chicago Tribune, Tully was “a George Patton who drove a Corvette, a Randolph Hearst who flew an F-16, a John Wayne in aviator glasses and Air Force dress blues.”

    Tully appeared to have a lot in common with his close friend, former Navy combat pilot and war hero McCain. Tully boasted of his 100 missions over Vietnam, retiring from the Air Force as a lieutenant-colonel. Tully’s military service, according to Tully, included air combat in Korea, where he once was forced to crash land his P-51 Mustang fighter and spent time in a hospital as a result–so he said. His smashed front teeth were replaced with stainless steel, he also said.

    Tully, just like his friend McCain, claimed he had received the Purple Heart, Distinguished Flying Cross and the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry.

    Tully painstaking groomed McCain for public office. He introduced him to the influential and gave him guest column space in The Arizona Republic. He manipulated endless favorable references from the paper’s other columnists. McCain, in turn, honored Tully by asking him to be godfather of one of his children

    However, the day after Christmas 1985, it was revealed in the Chicago Tribune, that McCain’s close friend Duke Tully had “an imagination as big as his ego.”

    Tully had never even been the military.

    http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnmccain.com/cin_betrayal.htm

    Got that? Mr. POW was either too stupid to realize that the guy was a total fraud, or didn’t care.

  • Stevio

    says:

    Arlo Guthrie in his sonnet “Alice’s Restaurant”, remarked: “What rhymes with orange? Why door hinge, of course”. Nice to have been able to blog here. Once Salon went Billary it became too much to bear.

    To quote another “Old sage” , we’ll follow you all the way to the gates of hell, where we’ll be meeting you, bin Laden and that mother of all liars John McAce. Make sure you pack an asbestos suit…

  • Anonymoose

    says:

    Line of attack:

    “If McCain was serious about his lifetime ban on lobbying, he would immediately remove all campaign staff and advisers who have served as a registered lobbyist. I look forward to McCain replacing his entire presidential campaign staff.”

  • William

    says:

    Once Salon went Billary it became too much to bear.

    No shit, I would never have gone back except for one of yesterday’s links here, yuck! Poor Glen Greenwald is doomed to mediocrity.. Steve Benen, you rule!.

    I will follow too and bring my hip-boots for the next McCain quote. The end of CB is really a bummer, I just got here not long ago and the comments are the best! Break a leg.

  • bcinaz

    says:

    So what’s he sayin’; they don’t come to his office? They have to stay on the bus, wait out in the hall, of try to find him at home (1 in 10 chance)?

  • Michigoose

    says:

    TAiO: Congressbunnies!!

    ROTFLMAO–and here at work. Good thing it’s a liberal bastion of elitism. I wonder if congressbunnies eat arugula??

  • joey

    says:

    The carpetbagger takes all its spoils to the political animal and a new era begins. This was not just a one man show but was a collective experience between one man and his collected group of interested parties. First site I ever commented at and a daily feeder of the enormous amount of material Benen supplied on a daily basis. Will move on but will be nostalgic over the carpetbagger experience. Thanks for such a rich experience TCR.

    I hope McCain’s nonsense about the lobbyists gets a lot of play since it is well known, even by his supporters, that lobbyists virtually control and run him. He is basically every lobbyists “pet senator on a leash” and if he is incapable of seeing or realizing this it demonstrates how effectively these lobbyists control him that he doesn’t realize it is their policies he represents or that he is too ignorant or stupid to know they are all lobbying him.

    How dumb and out of touch can you be. Like watching some young gigolo at work on some elderly benefactor who believes they are still so appealing and loved that money has no influence over their suitor. Is McLame that dumb or just that old.

  • joey

    says:

    btw…I believe McCain is a willing participant in pushing the agendas of these lobbyists knowing full well what he is doing and is a manipulator of every opportunity that will make him more powerful and rich and that might help him gain the presidency.

    McCain does not have the interests of the American people at heart and has admitted as much by his personal ambition speech. He merely seeks a promotion with more power and access to wealth.

  • MW

    says:

    Exactly how would McCain enforce a lifetime ban on a former administration official becoming a lobbyist?

    BTW Vultures are not “birds of prey”. They were once classed with the raptors, but that classification was changed long ago.

    So long, Carpetbagger Report. (sniff, sniff blows nose)

  • slappy magoo

    says:

    in related news, the Wicked Witch of Oz held a press conference today bemoaning the use of flying monkeys for Oz-ian business, claiming that flying monkeys will have no place in her castle.

  • Used2bdemocrat

    says:

    McCain is going to go down as one of the greatest Presidents of all time. His proven track record of eradicating corruption is a sure sign he means what he says, unlike the black racist/supremacist socialist/marxist fraud obama. America is awakening, and when they look at this black fraud they do not like what they see. Funny to see the panic taking over in his campaign. CNN just reported that two thirds of the 18 million who voted for clinton will never vote for an obama ticket, no matter the VP nominee selected. The democrat party with its underhanded corrupt politics will pay the price for selecting this obamanation!

    Used2bdemocrat

  • gspears3

    says:

    when mcpops wakes up from his nap, try to get him to the bathroom before he soils his ancient butt. it was bad enough when bushy threw up on the premier, but shitting on putin? I wouldn’ do it, he’ll break your ancient scrawny neck…

  • Hannah

    says:

    TAIO: “Seriously, he could have meant raptor’s habit of swooping down on poor defenseless bunnies and birdies and all right I’m cracking up at the thought of some ReThuglican congresscritter as a bunny.”

    OK, sorry, this reminded me of the scene in “Jurassic Park” where the TRex eats the lawyer who is hiding in the outhouse.

    Hannah, who lives in an area where raptors do swoop down on little critters, in fact one day while looking out her front window saw a hawk dive bomb a poor little songbird in her front garden and promptly start eating it on her wood fence!

  • SickofBushMcCainLiebermann

    says:

    So does this mean Rick Davis, Charlie Black and all the others are nnow banned? HAHAHAHAHA….good one Johnny.
    McCain is such a cartoon politician.

  • SickofBushMcCainLiebermann

    says:

    #26 change your name to “use2bintelligent” please. Says he wants to get rid of lobbyists while a score off them have key jobs in his campaign.
    “Proven track record”, like taking 100g from Charles Keating?

  • james k. sayre

    says:

    Mean Mister McMustard seems to be confused again (what a surprise…). I read a few days ago, that he claims to enjoy birdwatching. If that is so, then he has no excuse for confusing birds of prey with vultures and other scavengers. Methinks that McMustard is too far gone mentally to run for President. Let McMormon have a go!

  • idlemind

    says:

    Although I’d hate to see it, “Used2bdemocrat” will fit right in with some of the other trolls at Political Animal. It’s sad how pathetic Republican trolls have become recently — self-parodies, every one. Well, they’ve got the candidate they deserve, now — a faded hero who has sunk so far into corruption that he, too, has become a self-parody.

  • Holly B.

    says:

    Whoops! Whoever Used2BDemocrat is, he let his racism slip. Calling Obama a “black fraud” kinda says it all, doesn’t it? So I guess McCain, being a “white fraud” is okay, right?

    And just WHERE did this dude find any facts whatsoever to label Obama a “black racist/supremacist socialist/marxist fraud”??? You Republicans still haven’t got it through your heads that throwing out labels is not offering any facts. To you, the label is enough. It MUST be accepted, simply because someone went into a hissy fit of namecalling. That’s GOP logic, and no self-respecting Dem indulges in it.

    Your Limbaugh connection is showing, pal. You’re like lots of Republicans these days, having a whee-fest at pretending to be Democrats. Don’t you realize yet that your methods are transparent? If you used to be a Democrat, you were there spying for the GOP. You don’t talk like a Dem, walk like a Dem and probably don’t look like a Dem either.

    The kind of language, the kind of “reasoning” you use are pure, unadulterated Republican stuff, and we Dems recognize it, usually. We Dems don’t sink to those tactics. It’s a clear-cut giveaway.

    I’m calling you the biggest fraud of all, pretending to be a Dem when you hate everything the Dems stand for. Like honesty. Like integrity. Like democracy.

    Go back and tell your guru, Limbaugh, that Operation Chaos is, itself, a fraud, that it takes dishonest people with no integrity at ALL to go along with it, and be sure to tell him that it doesn’t work, because it’s so patently obvious when people try to do it.

    Which is it? Your faux absolutist Christian faith? Your mania to put an AK47 in every (Republican) home? Your status in the New World Order of the neocons? Your fiancial stake in a lobby-controlled government? Come on, be straight with us.

    You don’t have to admit your flat racism, because you just did that. Anything else, my “fellow Democrat?” (GAGCHOKEHEAVE). With Dems like you, chum, they don’t need enemies, do they? Aren’t you also masquerading as a Democrat and joining those PUMAs? Now THERE are some real clear thinkers – McCain is better than Obama, even though they were rabidly in favor of Hillary Clinton. Since Obama’s and Clinton’s basic platforms were virtually identical, your ONLY reason, as a “genuine Democrat” for choosing McCain over Obama is…tada…drumroll…racism.

    You just don’t want a “N” in the WH. Why not be straightforward about it? You’re an admitted racist, even though you don’t realize you revealed it. So take that extra step. Come clean. You’ll feel SO much better.