10-10-08, 12:32 pm

During the presidential debate this week, John McCain appeared to debate his own record on the question of lobbyists. At one point, McCain said, “There is too much special interests and too many lobbyists working there.' But no presidential campaign has had more ties to Washington's lobbyist culture than John McCain's.

The Center for Responsive Politics, which uses federal documents to track campaign donations, reported earlier this month that McCain’s presidential campaign has taken $841,716 from registered federal lobbyists, and $1,346,385 from PACs.

In 2005, McCain stated that he had no problems with lobbyists and that he found them a useful source of information. On the floor of the Senate in December 2005, McCain even said, 'I would like to say another word about lobbyists. Lobbying is an honorable profession. I have no problem with it. Almost all of us who I know of rely on their input on various issues. Many supply us with policy papers, with data, et cetera.'

Public documents and several investigations have linked at least 177 lobbyists to the McCain-Palin campaign as advisors, campaign surrogates, and the like. About 30 campaign advisors have worked as lobbyists for the oil industry. McCain's close relationship to Washington's lobbyist culture led the Washington Post from the very beginning of McCain's campaign to characterize it as 'guided by lobbyists.'

When Barack Obama criticized McCain in February 2008 for his ties to Washington's lobbyist culture, McCain responded defensively. “These people have honorable records, and they're honorable people, and I'm proud to have them as part of my team,” he told the Associated Press.

Some of 'these people' McCain believes are honorable include top McCain-Palin campaign advisors like Rick Davis, Randy Altschuler, Thomas Loeffler, and close friend Phil Gramm, who have made their livings in the past few years as Washington lobbyists.

Of this cadre of lobbyists, Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager, may pose the biggest public relations problem right now for McCain. In a bit of twisted irony during the debate, McCain linked Obama tenuously to a couple of former Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae officials, and blamed him for the collapse of those companies and the Wall Street meltdown. Yet, it is Rick Davis, owner of the Washington lobbying firm, Davis Manafort, who has the strongest financial ties to the twin lenders which failed in mid-September.

According to reports in various media, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae paid Davis $2 million to run an organization from 2000 to 2005 called the Homeownership Alliance whose main job was to lobby Congress against imposing stiffer regulations and oversight over the two lenders' activities. In fact, Davis helped the two companies block a change their federal status that may have required them to stop certain lending and investment practices that led to their downfall.

Another top economic adviser for McCain was a lobbyist for a European bank that is hip deep in the mortgage crisis and housing market meltdown. Phil Gramm, a former top Republican Party leader, began his tenure with the McCain campaign while lobbying for UBS, a Swiss company that 'has billions invested in the subprime mortgage market.' Like Rick Davis, Gramm essentially fought federal oversight of banking practices that led to the Wall Street meltdown. Gramm left his official position in the campaign after his remark that American's are 'whiners' made news.

Randy Altschuler, another lobbyist/advisor on the McCain campaign, founded a company based in Chennai, India called OfficeTiger, whose corporate mission was to US companies to outsource jobs to India. Altschuler's OfficeTiger has helped moved thousands of productive jobs out of the US.

McCain has always been a strong supporter of outsourcing, and his relationship with Altschuler isn't his first or only close relationship to an advocate for outsourcing. Thomas Loeffler, another top adviser to McCain, worked as a lobbyist for Airbus while working for McCain. Loeffler successfully helped France-based Airbus win a recent Pentagon contract to make refueling tankers for the US Air Force. Media reports earlier this year indicated that McCain, in apparent conjunction with his friend Loeffler's efforts, worked hard to prevent US-based Boeing from securing the contract, an 'accomplishment' McCain even boasted about in the first presidential debate. According to reports, McCain's efforts on this deal alone will cost anywhere from 28,000 to 44,000 jobs.

The people McCain considers to be 'honorable' are prowling at the heart of the financial crisis and are personally responsible for thousands of lost jobs. Working families simply can't afford to have these people run the White House.

--Reach Joel Wendland at