The One And Only

"I'm the only one the special interests don't give any money to," said John McCain in what I guess was a lie designed to be so ridiculous that he's supposed to get away with it. Or something. Anyway, Brave New Films has a nifty video on the fact that an awful lot of McCain's best friends, campaign managers, major donors, etc. seem to work for the special interests full time:

Intriguing stuff, though of course lies don't count as lies when they're told by John McCain.

Comments

Pretty weak that they can't use the actual Friends theme song.

Posted by John | February 24, 2008 5:17 PM

OK - he has a lot of lobbyists working for him. How does that prove that he's taken money from them. My basic understanding of people who work for you is that you pay them, not they pay you.

Sure - it looks bad, but I don't by any means see proof yet that McCain has lied about this.

Posted by Matt | February 24, 2008 5:24 PM

After McCain's nose was bloodied as a member of the Keating Five, he changed his rhetoric and sponsored the McCain-Feingold Act, assuming that would be enough to launder his reputation. And he was right, until now. But his actual practices and pro-corporate instincts never evolved, and they're finally on full display once again.

The danger is the widespread perception that everyone, including Barack and Hillary, is equally culpable in this familiar D.C. game. Otherwise this might be a fatal blow to McCain's prospects.

As for the video, I expect a common reaction will be: "So what else is new?"

Posted by Geaghan | February 24, 2008 5:31 PM

He's actually taken the second-most in the entire Congress from lobbyists (behind Hillary Clinton).
http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.asp?Ind=K02&Cycle=2008&recipdetail=A&Mem=N&sortorder=U

Posted by Samuel Brainsample | February 24, 2008 6:03 PM

Actually, I suspect that the biggest problem with McCain is that he may just be too stupid to recognize the obvious contradiction between his words and his actions. Which is why he says such silly things. Didn't he graduate in the bottom 1% of his Academy class, and also crash a bunch of planes for silly reasons.

Similarly, I tend to doubt that most of Bush's "lies" are really lies in the regular sense. I think if his aides just handed him a statement to read which was complete and total gibberish, he'd just bear down and read, so long as it had "phonetic clues".

Really, really stupid leaders who tend to totally accept the last contradictory thing which their last adviser just told them make me pretty nervous...

Posted by RKU | February 24, 2008 6:06 PM

In McCain's case, the fact that lobbyists are essentially running his presidential campaign -- most of them as volunteers -- seems to some people to be at odds with his anti-lobbying rhetoric. "He has a closer relationship with lobbyists than he lets on," said Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "The problem for McCain being so closely associated with lobbyists is that he's the candidate most closely associated with attacking lobbyists."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/22/politics/washingtonpost/main3862268.shtml

Posted by lauren | February 24, 2008 6:10 PM

A "Straight Talk Express" requires rails. Who has McCain left as signal masters?

Posted by Revamp | February 24, 2008 6:33 PM

I think Lauren raises one of the most important points, which I'd take a bit further, with the example of Charlie Black.

Black is listed as McCain's senior advisor, and is accompanying McCain on his tour full-time. Meanwhile, he continues to draw full pay from his lobbying firm, and is an "unpaid volunteer" on the McCain campaign - essentially meaning that Charlie Black's professional services are an unregulated donation from a lobbying firm to the McCain campaign. In what I suppose to be partial mitigation of this Black continues to lobby Congress on behalf of his corporate clients by cell phone from the back of the Straight Talk Express - a bus that happens to be the very focus of Republican hopes for power next year.

The whole situation with Black is emblematic, and it's massively corrupt. The so-called 'Straight Talk Express' should pull over on the side of the road; then, before the bus continues on its way, either the name should be removed from the bus or Black should be.

Posted by Warren Terra | February 24, 2008 7:06 PM

And I guess his top money wrangler, Mercer Reynolds, III, doesn't "ask" for "donations" from Big Defense, Big Pharma, Big Oil, and Big Ag? Does McCain think that faux journalism from FOX and Talk Radio is real journalism? He'd better be prepared for the real thing. Charlie Black, Mercer Reynolds, III, and the other bundlers are all part of the "Beltway Bacchanal" that Ken Silverstein writes about in the new "Harper's".

Posted by fougasseu | February 24, 2008 8:01 PM

McCain is on his way to becoming a parody of what he pretends to be.

Posted by Rich | February 24, 2008 9:07 PM

BTW, who exactly qualifies as a "special interest"? Is this simply a term of art that means everyone other than those who give money to John McCain?

Posted by Tim | February 24, 2008 9:51 PM

I have to say, as bad as these people are, I'm much less radical than I used to be. Now I think that (after proper trials & full due process, of course - I'm all about the rule of law) we should execute only the worst of the worst war criminals - say a mere 10 to 20 thousand people, starting with Bush and Cheney, of course. Sadly, I expect that, after a full trial, Mr. McCain would be one of the (relatively) few who would pay the ultimate price for his crimes.

Posted by patriot | February 24, 2008 10:26 PM

And, yes, it would give me enormous pleasure if 10 to 20 thousand of the worst of our politicians, intelligence agents, and soldiers were hanged by the neck until dead.

Posted by patriot | February 24, 2008 10:32 PM

As someone who DOES NOT support McCain, I gotta say: Is this the best you got?

This doesn't even show that McCain does deals with lobbyists. It only shows that (former?) lobbyists work for his campaign.

Posted by Kuros | February 24, 2008 11:24 PM

This doesn't even show that McCain does deals with lobbyists. It only shows that (former?) lobbyists run his campaign.

Fixed.

Posted by Rich | February 24, 2008 11:35 PM

"It only shows that (former?) lobbyists work for his campaign."
They're not "former" lobbyists. Some of them are even conducting business from aboard the Straight Talk Express Bus (which is just a funny image).

Also, the campaign contributions from lobbyists show that he's lying when he says "I’m the only one the special interests don’t give any money to." I don't see how you could call that anything but a "lie."

Posted by Samuel Brainsample | February 24, 2008 11:58 PM

Lame.

Should have begun with a solid McCain quote proclaiming, Special Interests And Their Lobbyists . . . "I"M THE ONLY ONE THEY DON"T GIVE MONEY TO!"

Then, go through the Friends schtick.

Posted by ferd | February 25, 2008 12:05 AM

"...Brave New Films has a nifty video on the fact that an awful lot of McCain's best friends, campaign managers, major donors, etc. seem to work for the special interests full time"

In this McCain is the prototypical republicratic whore, indistinguishable from the 99 others in the Senate and the 435 in the House of "Representatives".

This is the best Republicratic Congress money can buy, and McCain doesn't change that one way or the other. His biggest campaign contributors are the same as everyone else's.

Posted by kafka | February 25, 2008 1:08 AM

They do not give him money because he is already completely paid for?

Posted by catclub | February 25, 2008 10:15 AM