That the McCain campaign thought it would be wise to bring in high-priced Washington lobbyists to run the entire operation is bizarre. It’s considerably worse, however, that neither McCain nor anyone around him thought about checking to see who these lobbyists worked for before<\/i> they took over the campaign operation. For a candidate running as a less incompetent version of Bush, these stories really aren’t helping.<\/p>\n
In the latest humiliating development, the McCain campaign dumped one of its national finance chairmen over his Saudi lobbying work. Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff, who’s been doing great work on this story, reported yesterday<\/a>:<\/p>\n One top campaign official affected by the new policy is national finance co-chair Tom Loeffler, a former Texas congressman whose lobbying firm has collected nearly $15 million from Saudi Arabia since 2002 and millions more from other foreign and corporate interests, including a French aerospace firm seeking Pentagon contracts. Loeffler last month told a reporter “at no time have I discussed my clients with John McCain.” But lobbying disclosure records reviewed by NEWSWEEK show that on May 17, 2006, Loeffler listed meeting McCain along with the Saudi ambassador to “discuss US-Kingdom of Saudi Arabia relations.”<\/p>\n Another potential problem: Loeffler’s firm started paying $15,000 a month last summer to one of its lobbyists, Susan Nelson, after she left to become McCain’s full-time finance director, said a source familiar with the arrangement (who asked not to be identified talking about sensitive matters). Campaign officials were told the payments were “severance” for Nelson and that they ended by November. But in “February or March,” Loeffler rehired Nelson as a consultant to “help him with his clients” while she continued on the McCain payroll, according to a campaign official who asked not to be identified talking about personnel matters. Federal election law prohibits any outside entity from subsidizing the income of campaign workers. McCain’s officials say they have been assured that Nelson did actual work for Loeffler’s lobbying clients — and that the payments were proper. But after NEWSWEEK posed questions about the matter, they confirmed Loeffler’s resignation and the termination of Nelson’s consulting contract.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The McCain campaign seems to be timing these decisions to lessen the blow — a Saturday morning confirmation of Loeffler’s resignation is designed to keep things quiet — and the strategy has been at least partially successful. Newsweek is all over the story, but most news outlets have downplayed the problems posed by McCain’s legion of lobbyists.<\/p>\n That said, it’s clearly a hard-to-explain embarrassment for the Republican nominee (you know, the one who’s been railing for years against the influence of lobbyists in the political process). Seven days ago<\/a>, McCain had to get rid of Doug Davenport, a regional campaign manager, because he’d been the lobbyist responsible for managing the Burmese junta’s account.<\/p>\n
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\nFor those keeping score at home, eight days ago<\/a>, John McCain had to get rid of Doug Goodyear, the man he tasked with managing the Republican National Convention, when we learned he’d run a lobbying firm that represented Burma’s military junta. (McCain’s second choice Paul Manafort, a DC lobbyist who’d been passed over due to his controversial client list.)<\/p>\n