Biden’s campaign attorney: Washington lobbyist

While most of this lobbyist stuff is inside baseball that goes over the heads of voters, there is one way McCain can push back on it.

Which candidate has actually done something to change the lobbying culture in Washington?

**Barack Obama voted for the lobbying reform bill, but John McCain helped write it.

**John McCain busted Jack Abramoff, triggering an investigation that led to the resignation of the House Majority Leader and the jailing of one of its most powerful Republican committee chairmen. Barack Obama has never pursued a corruption investigation of any kind, and refused opportunities to take on the Daley machine in Chicago.

**John McCain has never sought an earmark, which is the source of most of the lobbyist sleaze in Washington (and Bill Oldaker is one of its most senior practitioners). Barack Obama worked with some of Washington’s biggest lobbying firms, including the one Bill Oldaker runs, to secure hundreds of millons in earmarks, including one for the hospital at which his wife works.

Don’t look at the campaign staffs. Look at the records.

rockmom on September 17, 2008 at 10:37 AM

True story – I have a friend who is very close with Charlie Black (Charlie Black is McCain’s chief strategist and a bigtime lobbyist, and his wife Judy heads the Women for McCain effort). My friend was a Mitt Romney supporter but was being badgered by Black to support McCain throughout the primary season. At one point my friend asked Black why he was working for McCain, since he was known to be such a pain in the ass to most of Washington’s lobbyists. Black told my friend that he simply believed in John McCain and thought he would be a great President, even if he might be lousy for lobbyists. This was an off the record private conversation between two longtime Republican campaign pros.

rockmom on September 17, 2008 at 10:48 AM

1. Obama is a hypocrite for crybabying about McCain’s lobbyists while he has his own lobbyists.

2. McCain is a hypocrite for shrieking he’ll change the way Washinton does business yet he has a bunch of lobbyists on his team.

Both need to stfu on this one because neither has a leg to stand on.

Dave Rywall on September 17, 2008 at 10:53 AM

Wrong. Obama needs to STFU on this because he has NO RECORD of actually doing anything on corruption. He is clearly trying to make a case that you can’t be a corruption fighter if you have lobbyists working on your campaign. But John McCain has a long and clear record as a corruption fighter, as I outlined in my post above. Barack Obama has no such record so he should STFU.

I really don’t care about Joe Biden’s attorney, as I know Bill Oldaker is a good guy and not a sleazebag. I do care that Barack Obama is the product of the most corrupt big city political machine in the country, he had several opportunities to take on that machine and change things in Chicago, and he sided with the machine every time. I do care that he got a large earmark for the hospital where his wife works and then she miraculoulsy had her salary doubled.

rockmom on September 17, 2008 at 11:06 AM

I don’t mind feeding the troll on this issue, because it’s important for our side to have the facts too and understand how completely specious this argument is from Obama and his minions.

rockmom on September 17, 2008 at 11:18 AM

Sure, McCain has some experience fighting corruption. That’s great and that should be talked about. But that doesn’t change the fact that he has big time lobbyists in his inner circle. So sorry, it is, in fact, hypocritical to complain about the Washington system when many of the very slimy and significant parts of that system are deeply entrenched in your campaign. You can’t have it both ways.

Dave Rywall on September 17, 2008 at 11:22 AM

There are over 32,000 registered lobbyists in Washington. I happen to be one myself. They are not all sleazy and slimy. There are strict rules for them and you can go on the House website and see who their clients are and how much they are being paid. Lobbying is an activity that is actually enshrined in our Constitution. It’s what you lobby FOR and how you conduct yourself that can become sleazy.

I’ve known both Charlie Black and Rick Davis for a long time. In fact I once interviewed for a job with Davis’ firm. They are honorable men and there has never been a hint of a suggestion of any impropriety or sleaze in their lobbying businesses. Yet Barack Obama is claiming that by merely practicing the profession of lobbying they are sleazy and John McCain is a hypocrite for employing them in his campaign. He is wrong.

There’s a great quote from a top mortgage industry lobbyist in an article today, saying that the industry tried for years to “get to” John McCain, and they were never able to. I know telecom lobbyists who have said the same thing. John McCain never played the lobbying game to the extent that almost every other member of Congress has, and certainly not even close to the way Barack Obama has in just 3 years in the Senate.

So why does it matter who is working on his campaign? Like I said, staffs don’t matter. Records do. And John McCain’s simply beats the hell out of Barack Obama’s when it comes to lobbying and corruption. You can twist yourself into a pretzel all you want on this, but you and your candidate just look stupid trying to make this campaign about who is working on whose campaign.

rockmom on September 17, 2008 at 11:38 AM