Al Franken has come out with a new ad in his embattled Minnesota Senate bid:

The gist of it is responding to the question of how to deal with the epidemic of ex-politicians using their contacts and influence to make obscene amounts of money after their political careers.

Let's reflect on this.

Over at the New Mexico Independent, the online news organization for which I write, Gwenyth Doland writes about the politics of beer.

John McCain's wife, as you all know by now, is beer heiress Cindy Hensley McCain. What you may not know (or remember) is that Cindy McCain's father and uncle -- former bootleggers -- owned the Ruidoso Downs racetrack in the 1950s. Back then the Hensleys caused quite a stir with their connections to a reputed mob boss named Kemper Marley, who later was implicated in the 1976 bombing death of Arizona investigative journalist Don Bolles.

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


click to enlarge

Obama's Lobbyist Connection article from Newsweek.

"It's corporate money trying to hoodwink the public," the state's Democratic Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn said. What got scant notice then--but may soon get more scrutiny--is that CORE was the brainchild of ASK Public Strategies, a consulting firm whose senior partner is David Axelrod, now chief strategist for Barack Obama.

ASK last year proposed a similar "political campaign style approach" to help Illinois hospitals block a state proposal that would have forced them to provide more medical care to the indigent. One part of its plan: create a "grassroots" group of medical experts "capable of contacting policymakers to advocate for our position," according to a copy of the proposal. (ASK didn't get the contract.) Public-interest watchdogs say these grassroots campaigns are state of the art in the lobbying world. "There's no way with a straight face to say that's not lobbying," says Ellen Miller, director of the Sunlight Foundation, which promotes government transparency.

More after the flip

This diary is not intended to be critical of the position of either Democratic candidate or to start a debate of Clinton v. Obama. I'm looking for some insight and discussion.

What I'd love to hear from you fellow Democrats are your opinions on the topic of Lobbyists. Is it a realistic, or even desirable, goal to limit or eliminate Lobbyists' influence within politics?

Obama gets a lot of mileage from his position that he doesn't take money from Lobbyists. No mater how accurate that statement is or if he has found loopholes etc, it is clearly a message which resonates. On the other hand, Clinton gets a lot of criticism that she does and that she famously said "Lobbyists are real people".

Here's a few questions:

What is fundamentally wrong with politically active people and organizations lobbying politicians?

What is wrong with political activists, advocates and political action committees taking money from donors and passing that money onto politicians whose views align with their own?

No politician can be expert on every single issue which confronts the American people. Lobbyists and advocates play an important role as the expert opinion, the knowledgeable, experienced spokesperson. These Lobbyists are called "Cause Lobbyists" (as opposed to Corporate Lobbyists). Should the focus of eliminating Lobbyist influence be solely on Corporate Lobbyists?

"Advocacy groups lobby elected officials in a number of ways. On this list are organizations that personally contact, pressure, and/or "educate" representatives; conduct and disseminate policy-oriented research; organize grassroots citizen activism; and provide financial resources to Congressional candidates. All of these activities can affect the attitudes and actions of Representatives and Senators, which can ultimately alter public policy."

Here's a full list of Political Advocacy Groups / A Directory of US Lobbyists:
http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/kfounta in/

Look at the categories... you can click on any of these through the link above to see the full listings.

Abortion & Reproduction
Aged Population
Alcohol, Tobacco & Drugs
Animal Rights & Welfare
Business, Labor & Economics
Children
Civil Rights
Consumer Advocacy
Corporate Accountability
Criminal Justice
Disabled
Education
Environment (General)
Animal Rights & Welfare
Land Use
Water Resources
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, & Transgender
General Liberal & Conservative Groups
Government Reform
Gun Control
Health (General)
Abortion & Reproduction
AIDS & HIV
Cancer
Women's Health
Homeless & Poor
Immigration
International Affairs
Media
Peace & War
Political Parties
Public Interest Law
Racial & Ethnic Groups
African Americans
Arab Americans
Asian Americans
Latinos
Multiethnic
Native Americans
Religion (General)
Catholic
Christian
Jewish
Muslim
Social Security & Medicare
State & Local Government
Tax Reform
Think Tanks
Voting & Elections
Women & Men

Before I get to this post, I want to note my strong disapprobation of Budget Rent a Car, with which I reserved a small SUV for my drive from the Bay Area to Portland yesterday  so that I could move my musical instrument, among other things, but which did not let me rent the vehicle yesterday, leaving me in the lurch, because I am 24 years of age, not 25 -- even though they knew my age when I made the reservation. As a result of Budget's actions, I had to pay nearly twice as much for a last-minute rental from another agency. Thank you Budget Rent a Car for not only not fulfilling your promise to me but for also not treating me with respect or making any effort whatsoever to remedy your mistake.

John McCain's actions keep on getting the better of him. For months and months, McCain could see this potential mess coming: Some of the nearly innumerable lobbyists for his presidential campaign, including (indeed particularly) those within the upper echelons of the organization, creating real headaches for his candidacy as a result of some of the unsavory clients they previously and even recently represented. Yet rather than try to ensure that he was running a clean campaign -- that is to say instead of living up to the image of himself that McCain has put forth to the American public (but which he has never actually lived up to) -- McCain thought he could get away with having people who had lobbied for oppressive dictatorships like the one in Burma continue to advise him without anyone noticing. Well, people have noticed and McCain has, just in the last week, been forced to fire a fifth lobbyist.

Tom Loeffler, the national finance co-chairman for Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign, resigned yesterday because of his lobbying ties, a campaign adviser said.

He is the fifth person to sever ties with the campaign amid a growing concern over whether lobbyists have too great an influence over the Republican nominee. Last week, campaign manager Rick Davis issued a new policy that requires all campaign personnel to either resign or sever ties with lobbying firms or outside political groups.

[...]

Loeffler, a former congressman from Texas, is a close friend of McCain's and took over the campaign's fundraising last summer. He did not respond to e-mails or a message left on his office voice mail yesterday.

Newsweek reported that his firm, the Loeffler Group, had collected $15 million from Saudi Arabia and millions more from other foreign governments. He is listed as chairman and senior partner at the firm.

As the folks at First Read note, this was a problem the campaign should have seen coming a mile away:

Remember in February, following Romney's departure from the race, the assumption was that McCain was going to have plenty of time to get his house in order while the Democrats kept fighting, perhaps up until the convention. Well, we're potentially days away from the Dems officially having a presumptive nominee, and McCain's still dealing with staff issues. The latest is the resignation of national finance co-chair Tom Loeffler, the fifth person who has left the campaign due to lobbyist ties. Loeffler was a key guy. [...] One thing to keep an eye on this issue of severing ties with lobbyists is that McCain may get criticism from his own supporters for creating a policy that was doomed to cause him problems. Expect to see a lot more blind quotes reminding McCain that nobility on an issue doesn't deliver an electoral majority.

From my vantage, McCain's problem isn't necessarily that he should have seen this coming yet didn't. Rather McCain's problem is much more insidious: Believing that he is beyond reproach. Already in this nascent general election campaign (or pre-general election campaign) we've seen McCain play fast and loose with campaign finance and ethics laws and regulations, seemingly under the theory that because his name is on the law he can get away with anything. We have also seen it with McCain's lame attacks on Barack Obama regarding Hamas even though McCain himself not three years ago advocated for rapprochement with the Palestinian group. And we've seen it again and again and again and again with McCain's all-too-close relationship with lobbyists. Do Americans really want a holier-than-thou President who doesn't come close to living up to his own ideals?

Interesting article I found on the black agenda report website.  A few weeks ago here on mydd, I was told I was racist, so I started reading sites that were part of the Afrosphere; to better understand what black Americans were thinking about the primaries and the election.  

So, Obama is clean?  Obama doesn't take money from lobbyists?

I am new to the Afrosphere, so I looked at this site and saw it linked to many other progressive black sites, so I don't think it is a republican site.  How creditable is this claim?  

The candidate that claims to be the only presidential contender who doesn't take money from lobbyists is in fact the biggest recipient of lobby-related contributions. Barack Obama rakes in millions from law firms serving the interests of Wall Street, including the financial institutions that gave us the subprime lending crisis. Lawyers that work for firms that earn hundreds of millions of dollars for lobbying may technically not be lobbyists, but they share in their colleagues' earnings as influencers of Congress - a legal loophole that allows Obama to claim his hands are clean of lobby loot. "The top contributors to the Obama campaign are the very Wall Street firms whose shady mortgage lenders buried the elderly and the poor and minority under predatory loans."

So, how should we react when we learn that the top contributors to the Obama campaign are the very Wall Street firms whose shady mortgage lenders buried the elderly and the poor and minority under predatory loans? How should we react when we learn that on the big donor list is Citigroup, whose former employee at CitiFinancial testified to the Federal Trade Commission that it was standard practice to target people based on race and educational level, with the sales force winning bonuses called  "Rocopoly Money" (like a sick board game), after "blitz" nights of soliciting loans by phone? How should we react when we learn that these very same firms, arm in arm with their corporate lawyers and registered lobbyists, have weakened our ability to fight back with the class-action vehicle?

Should there be any doubt left as to who owns our government? The very same cast of characters making the Obama hit parade of campaign loot are the clever creators of the industry solutions to the wave of foreclosures gripping this nation's poor and middle class, effectively putting the solution in the hands of the robbers. The names of these programs (that have failed to make a dent in the problem) have the same vacuous ring: Hope Now; Project Lifeline.

http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.p hp?option=com_content&task=view& id=613&Itemid=1

In the past week, six lobbyists have resigned from the McCain campaign under questions about their ties to foreign regimes and corporate interests. Doug Goodyear and Doug Davenport - both high level aides - resigned over their ties to the Burmese junta. Eric Burgeson, McCain's energy and environmental advisor, left due to his ties with the White House and the energy industry - particularly the "clean" coal and nuclear industries.

These discolusures have caused the McCain campaign to begin to re-vet everyone on staff, a highly disruptive and embarrasing procedure. Today, that new policy claimed it's first victims - both Susan Nelson, a consultant, and Tom Loeffler, the national finance co-chair, have left the McCain campaign:

One top campaign official affected by the 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 and millions more from other foreign and 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 the Saudi ambassador to "discuss US-Kingdom of Saudi Arabia relations."

Of course, there are still plenty of lobbyists working for the McCain campaign. Of particular note is Charlie Black, McCain's Senior Political Advisor.

Black has made a name for himself working for foreign dictators, people who have destroyed their countries and killed their people in their quest for power. Black's client list is a veritable who's who of evil men. Charlie Black has lobbied for:

• Ahmed Chalabi, the smooth talking Iraqi exile who helped manufacture the WMD charges against Saddam Hussien that led the U.S. to invade.
• Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, found guilty of torture, executions, disappearances, and human rights violations, who hired Black to "improve" his image in the U.S.
• Somali dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, who's army massacred between 40,000 and 50,000 civilians in two years.
• Dictator Mobuto Sese Seko of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), who amassed a vast personal fortune and repressed rival political parties while his country's children starved.
• Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi of UNITA, an ally of apartheid-era South Africa, who started a civil war which claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and ordered the torture and murder of countless opponents.
• Nigerian Dictator Ibrahim Babangida ran a one-party regime, who arrested his opponents, and murdered journalists.

Black made millions burnishing the images of these evil men, selling them as worthy allies for Washington politicians to befriend.

John McCain has repeatedly said to judge him by the company he keeps. This is the company he keeps. McCain needs to fire the men who take money from dictators.

Sign the petition and tell him so (and cause his campaign more than a little bit of trouble in the process).

Six lobbyists down...dozens more to go?

J Ro's opinions are his own and do not represent the opinions of any other person or organization.