John McCain's Lobbyists (the list)

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?

Follow Tom Matzzie on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Matzzie

Comments

[Relax08]

Fife Symington is still a lobbyist for McCain.
Talk about bad characters around you. This guy makes Rev. Wright look like a patsy.

Check out Fife's colorful past as an indicted and convicted ex-Governor of Arizona. Gad, and then he ends up getting pardoned by Clinton. Talk about weird.

Check out Wikipedia on Syminton:

"During his first term, Symington was the subject of an investigation over his involvement with Southwest Savings and Loan, a failed Phoenix thrift. He was later cleared, and was handilly reelected in 1994.

Later, he was indicted on charges of extortion and making false financial statements, and of bank fraud. He was convicted of bank fraud in 1997. The Arizona state constitution does not allow convicted felons to hold office, so Symington was forced to resign.

This conviction, however, was overturned in 1999 by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Six days into jury deliberations, the trial judge had granted the government's motion to dismiss a juror because she was leaning toward acquittal and the other jurors complained that she was keeping them from reaching a unanimous verdict. The appeals court ruled that the dismissal violated Symington's right to a fair trial.

He was subsequently pardoned by President Clinton near the end of his presidency in January 2001."

No wonder McCain wanted to run against Hillary.

This list is a treasure trove of bad characters who taint Mr. McBush!