{"id":15856,"date":"2008-06-13T09:15:17","date_gmt":"2008-06-13T13:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/15856.html"},"modified":"2008-06-13T09:15:17","modified_gmt":"2008-06-13T13:15:17","slug":"mccain-targets-another-obama-vetter-but-will-questions-backfire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/mccain-targets-another-obama-vetter-but-will-questions-backfire\/","title":{"rendered":"McCain targets another Obama vetter, but will questions backfire?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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<\/a> from his volunteer role a few days ago.<\/p>\n

There is, however, such a thing as going to the well once too many times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“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.” […]<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n

But, fine. If McCain really wants to go there, we can go there.
\n
\nObama has answered questions about his VP search team, and maybe McCain can now do the same<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The lobbying disclosures mean Culvahouse was lobbying for Fannie Mae during at least one year when Johnson was leading it.<\/p>\n

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

“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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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<\/a> this week.<\/p>\n

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?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15856\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}