Listening to the McCain campaign talk about lobbyists over the last few days I was reminded of that scene from Casablanca between Rick and Captain Renault. Renault expresses faux outrage over gambling.
Captain Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
[a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
Captain Renault: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much.
[aloud]
Captain Renault: Everybody out at once!
The McCain campaign's response to their recent McLobbyist scandals is just as fake.
To date, John McCain has 118 lobbyists either working or raising money for him. So far, he's fired only three of them:
Eric Robert Burgeson
Douglas B. Davenport
Thomas Loeffler
This is hardly even a slap on the wrist.
The remaining 115 lobbyists make millions working for special interests in Washington. They represent all kinds of industries like health insurance companies, Big Pharma, defense contractors, and Telecom. They represent foreign regimes like Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Burma. And they hold positions at the highest levels of the McCain campaign.
John McCain says he represents the American people, but the men and women Senator McCain has chosen to run his campaign have worked for years for special interests.
Here is the full list of the lobbyists working or raising money for John McCain:
Robert Aiken
Grant Aldonas
Philmore B. Anderson
Rebecca "Becky" Anderson
Stanton Anderson
Susan Auther Andres
Robert Asher
William J. Bailey III
William Ball III
David Beightol
Rhonda A. Bentz
Wayne Berman
Steve Betts
Charlie Black
Judy Black
Kirk Blalock
Carlos Bonilla
Christine Burgeson
Kerry Cammack
Kirsten Ardleigh Chadwick
Rob Chamberlin
Susan Charlton
John Clerici
Josephine "Jo" Cooper
James Courter
Bryan Cunningham
Alfonse D'Amato
Ashley Davis
Kurt Davis
Rick Davis
Mimi Dawson
John Diamond
Frank Donatelli
Melissa "Missy" Edwards
Kevin Fay
Christian Ferry
Chris Fidler
Thomas Jr. Fiorentino
Sally Furman
Samuel K. Geduldig
Ben Ginsberg
David Girard-di Carlo
Michael Glassner
Juleanna R. Glover Weiss
Phil Gramm
John Green
Janet M. Grissom
Wes Gullett
Kristen Gullott
Kent Hance
Robert Harding
Vicki Hart
Robert van Laer Hartwell
John D. Heubusch
Deborah Hohlt
Richard Hohlt
Gaylord T. Jr. Hughey
Peter Huntsman
Aleix Jarvis
Greg Jenner
Christine Jones
Nancy Johnson
Mary Kate Johnson
Ned Johnson
Charles N. Kahn III
Mike Kennedy
William Kilberg
Steve Kuykendall
William "Bill" Lesher
Jack Lichtenstein
Gail MacKinnon
Peter Madigan
Mary Mann
Paul Martino
Mary McAuliffe
John McGovern
Mike McKay
Timothy McKone
Alison H. McSlarrow
Kyle E. McSlarrow
Michael E. Meece
David A Metzner
Susan Molinari
John Munger
Ken Nahigian
Susan Nelson
Jack Oliver
Steve Perry
Nancy Mitchell Pfotenhauer
Steve Phillips
Elise Pickering
James L. Pitts
Timothy Powers
Anthony Principi
Michael Racy
Sloan W. Rappoport
James Rill
Steve Roman
Matt Salmon
Joseph Samora
Randy Scheunemann
Katie Stahl
Milly Stanges
Aquiles Suarez
Fife Symington
Jeri Thompson
Dirk W. Van Dongen
David Vennett
Raymond T. Jr. Wagner
Jeffrey Weiss
Richard "Dick" Wiley
Tony Williams
James Woolsey
Joseph Wright
Fred Zeidman
You can take a look at the people they worked for and the positions they hold within the McCain campaign over at McCainSource.com.
Does John McCain actually expect us to believe that of the 115 lobbyists left, none of them will come back to the White House looking for favors if he gets elected?