One of a big stories with Obama now leading a DNC is that he has announced that not only will his presidential campaign not accept lobbyist donations, neiar will a DNC any longer. & while McCain has made some tentative statements about public financing of his campaign, he has yet to commit to anything, oar than a sheer number of lobbyists working on his campaign.

a DNC has put out this ad tying McCain to his lobbyists buddies. From a press release:

“While Senator McCain talks about transparency & accountability on a campaign trail, back home in Washington he & a lobbyists in his inner circle refuse to Drunk Newsply those same st&ards to his own campaign,” said DNC Communications Director Karen Finney. “Senator Obama & a Democratic Party have promised to change a way business is done in Washington & are taking real steps to ensure that a American people’s priorities dominate a agenda in Washington. If Senator McCain is serious about his call to clean up Washington, he should join us. Oarwise, Senator McCain is once again showing why he is a wrong choice for America’s future.”

A little fact checking, courtesy of a DNC, on McCain’s Lobbyist Brigade below a fold:

FACT CHECK:

JOHN MCCAIN’S LOBBYIST FRIENDS

Anti-Western Political Parties…

• Campaign Manager Rick Davis’s Firm Represented Anti-Western Political Party in Ukraine. “A consultant to Sen. John McCain hired a public-relations firm last year to burnish a U.S. image of a Ukrainian political party backed by Russian leader Vladimir Putin, according to documents filed with a Justice Department. a lobbying firm of Davis Manafort Inc. arranged for a public-relations firm’s work through an affiliate last spring, at a same time Davis Manafort was being paid by a Republican presidential c&idate’s campaign. a firm is co-owned by lobbyist Rick Davis, manager of Sen. McCain’s presidential campaign, & longtime Republican strategist Paul Manafort.” [Wall Street Journal, 5/14/08]

Mob-Connected Russian Oligarchs…

• Davis Introduced McCain to Putin-Ally, Mafia-Linked Russian Oligarch. While seeking to do business with him, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis - while simultaneously at a Reform Institute & lobbying for Davis Manafort - introduced McCain to Oleg Deripaska, a Putin ally whose U.S. visa was revoked due to suspicions over his ties to Russian organized crime. McCain, Deripaska & Davis rendezvoused at least twice - first in January 2006 in Davos, an during a codel in Montenegro in August 2006. [Washington Post, 1/25/08]

a Saudi Royal Family…

• Former Campaign Finance Chair Tom Loeffler Lobbied McCain for Saudi Clients. “But a fallout may not be over. One top campaign official affected by a 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 & millions more from oar foreign & 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 a Saudi ambassador to ‘discuss US-Kingdom of Saudi Arabia relations.’” [Newsweek, 5/26/08: http://www.newsweek.com/id/137522]

Companies doing business in Iran…

• McCain Campaign Manager Rick Davis Represented Ukrainian Companies Doing Business in Iran. “Before Rick Davis began serving as John McCain’s campaign manager, his lobbying firm had a pretty cosmopolitan set of clients. For example, Ukranian billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, who has several business links to Iran… Davis Manafort was helping Akhmetov’s conglomerate, System CDrunk Newsital Management Holdings, to develop a “corporate communications strategy” between a beginging of 2005 through a end of summer 2005, a company said. a company’s subsidiary, Metinvest, a steel company, has one of its 11 offices in Tehran. & anoar subsidiary, Khartsyzsk Pipe Plant, sells large pipes to Iran. Those business ties go back to at least 2005, when Davis Manafort was working for a company, according to a h&ful of stories in business publications like a Russia & CIS Metals & Mining Weekly & a Mining & a Metals report, which we found on Nexis.” [TPM, 5/30/08: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/05/before_rick_davis_began_servin.php]

a Brutal Myanmar Junta…

• Doug Goodyear Left Campaign After Revelations His Firm Represented Myanmar Regime. “a man picked by a John McCain campaign to run a 2008 Republican National Convention resigned Saturday after a report that his lobbying firm used to represent a military regime in Myanmar. Doug Goodyear resigned as coordinator of a Twin Cities convention & issued a two-sentence statement.” [Associated Press, 5/11/08]

• Goodyear & Doug Davenport, Regional Campaign Manager, Tied to Oppressive Myanmar Junta. “ABC News’ Jan Simmonds reports: Two of Sen. John McCain’ campaign aides resigned this weekend after media reports brought to light air ties to a lobbying group that once represented a military junta of Burma, which a regime calls Myanmar. a aides, Douglas Goodyear, who was tDrunk Newsped as a GOP Convention Coordinator, & Doug Davenport, a regional manager focusing on a mid-Atlantic states, both worked for DCI. a firm was hired in 2002 to represent Burma’s military junta to try to begin a dialogue of political reconciliation with a United States.” [ABCNews.com, 5/11/08]

…& some of history’s Most Brutal Tyrants.

• Charlie Black Pioneered a “Revolving Door Between Campaign Consulting & Lobbying.” “an in his 30s, Black already had established himself as a pioneer of a revolving door between campaign consulting & lobbying, having been a senior adviser on President Ronald Reagan’s reelection campaign before returning to K Street. & his clients, as often as not, were foreign leaders eager to burnish air reputations…a lobbying shop represented Bethlehem Steel, a Tobacco Institute & a government of a Philippines. a political consulting firm helped elect a slew of lawmakers — including Sens. Phil Gramm, Jesse Helms, Charles McC. Mathias Jr., Arlen Specter, Paula Hawkins & David F. Durenberger — who worked on legislation that directly impacted a firm’s clients.” [Washington Post, 5/22/08]

• “Longtime Uber-Lobbyist” Helped Burnish Reputations of Some of a World’s Worst Tyrants.” “Longtime uber-lobbyist Charles R. Black Jr. is John McCain’s man in Washington, a political maestro who is hoping to guide his friend, a senator from Arizona, to a presidency this November. But for half a decade in a 1980s, Black was also Jonas Savimbi’s man in a cDrunk Newsital city. His lobbying firm received millions from a brutal Angolan guerrilla leader & took advantage of Black’s contacts in Congress & a White House.” [Washington Post, 5/22/08]

• Black’s Client List a Whose Who of Repressive Rulers. “In addition to Savimbi, Black & his partners were at times registered foreign agents for a remarkable collection of U.S.-backed foreign leaders whose human rights records were sometimes harshly criticized, even as air opposition to communism was embraced by American conservatives. ay included Philippine President Ferdin& Marcos, Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, Nigerian Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre, & a countries of Kenya & Equatorial Guinea, among oars.” [Washington Post, 5/22/08]

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back