It looks as though John McCain is really just a front man for a group of Republican power brokers who already pull his strings and will continue to do so if elected, hoping that they can secure the White House as puppeteers, just as they have done with George "W"orthless Bush.

Another source for a more complete list of McCain's lobbyists can be found at the link below. The individuals on this chart are all current or former lobbyists who either serve as fundraisers for McCain's campaign or senior aides or advisers. There are currently 134 lobbyists working for or raising money for McCain's campaign.

http://www.mccainsource.com/...

This Diary is a companion piece to:
"Dammit!..Tell Me The Truth!
http://www.dailykos.com/...

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.  Defense lobbying firm Robison International CEO Richard Ladd.  Former RNC Chief Counsel Jill Vogel.  Former Senator and current Holland and Knight lobbyist Ben Nighthorse Campbell.  Retired Kentucky investor Harold Doran.  Florida real estate investor Sidney Lessen.  Hearst Magazines CEO George Green.

Give up?

I'm just trying to compile a list of links to material that proves McCain's numerous flipflops and grievances... stuff not related to Obama at all but just faults of himself and his own campaign.  Feel free to suggest any and I'll try to keep it up to date.  The more the youtube links, the better.  The let man speak for himself.

The idea is that I can just copy/paste or point people to my compilation.  Hope you enjoy it in the meanwhile.

[Update 7/2/08]

Seriously, this guy's like the gift that keeps on giving.  Now you might be wondering, "Who exactly is Charlie Black, and why's he like the gift that keeps giving?"  That's a fair question, and here's one answer:

In a story today, as an aside, Markos talks about how we don't have AT&T's millions or its lobbyists.

Well, why not hire a lobbyist for the netroots?

H/T to the daily blog gang at Four Freedoms Blog for bringing this up and inspiring this diary..

For a moment, let's set aside the campaign gabbing John McCain made during his recent visit to Canada at the invitation of Tory PM Stephen Harper.  Let's set aside the false claims that he made about Obama wanting to abandon NAFTA and claiming the Democratic nominee advocates "...retreating behind protectionist walls..."  Let's set aside the words of McCain's adviser, former Cheney spokesman and known energy industry lobbyist Steve Schmidt, who has criticized Obama's choice to use the thousands of individual donations amounting to millions in TRUE public financing, instead of using what I like to call McCain's campaign welfare (another word for the capped matching tax dollars a candidate may receive to fund their campaigns)..

I did a search on this report and couldn't find any diaries.  I don't have much to add to this except that I can't figure out why the story is not getting any traction.  As far as I'm concerned:

This is huge!

My Congressman, Eliot Engel joined with a majority of Republicans and a minority of Democrats, mostly conservative Blue Dogs and members of the hawkish Democratic Leadership Council, in adopting the new FISA bill. Was this what your congressman did, too?

And are you wondering why. I may have an answer as to why did Engel vote the way he did. Was he motivated by lobbyist money?

Is this quid pro quo on my congressman's part?

Does this sound like your representative in Congress?

Let's check out what motivated Eliot Engel!

Rahm Emanuel doesn't think we are stupid. He's playing a finely tuned instrument, designed to play upon fear and terror. He thinks we are scared. Look at most of the Democrats who voted for the FISA bill. Most are in areas of the country which are unlikely to ever suffer a terrorist attack. And we all know, Republicans do not represent major metro areas.

It's the same instrument played by Bush and Cheney; they just use less rosin on the bow. The horrible screeching noises made when they play it drive even some Republicans away; people like Bruce Fein, like Bob Barr.

What happened today in Congress is a joke.
This FISA vote does not really change anything.

Much worse things have happened, and are happening right now to our Constitutional protections. Discussions and votes publicly broadcast in Congress don't even provide the slightest glimpse of reality.

My apologies if this has been diaried elsewhere on dKos, but I had not seen a comprehensive story on this issue in some time, and especially not since some very good news came down this week.  Please recommend this story so that more people become aware of it.

In February of this year, while we were obsessing over the democratic primary, a few protests in Seattle against McCain were in the news.

Al Gore endorsed Barack Obama yesterday, and in his remarks he was fairly subtle in stressing the need for a Democratic President to solve the climate crisis and mitigate the worst effects of global warming.  In fact, he gave muted praise to John McCain on this front:

...as Senator Barack Obama has said, John McCain is deserving of that respect. He has demonstrated bravery in war and as a prisoner of war, and has served in the House of Representatives and in the Senate for many years. Moreover, he has demonstrated a willingness to debate some critical issues, including the climate crisis, that many Republicans have refused to discuss at all.

But even as we acknowledge his long experience, we must and we will make our case that America simply cannot afford to continue the policies of the last eight years for another four.

This kind of statement in stuck in the mindset of the 1990s, when just "speaking out" about the environment, regardless of your policy proposals, is as important as any meaningful action.  And it's what McCain himself is hoping to capitalize on in November.  

So who is John McCain?  What does he believe in?  What should we know about him before November?

I put together a list of issues that I believe are important - issues regarding McCain and his fitness to lead this nation.  At first, I thought that there wasn't enough to write an entire diary about, but I was absolutely and utterly wrong.  

There are so many things we should know about John McCain that I will likely have to write several diaries, just to do them all justice.

The lobbying firm of McCain campaign manager Rick Davis acted in direct opposition to American foreign interests, which prompted a warning to McCain's Senate office from the United States government, according to a recent New York Times article.

Much has been reported about Rick Davis, top McCain adviser and lobbyist whose company, Davis Manafort, made its fortune in part by accepting jobs that didn't require employees to register as lobbyists. Davis has been in particular hot water for his company's work with pro-Russian Ukranian political candidates; Davis arranged for one of Putin's allies to meet with McCain during the time.

However, the New York Times  has managed to take that already embarrassing story and make it even worse:

.

McJoan published a diary today (6/10) entitled "McCain and the Lobbyists"  which discusses the connection between McCain and lobbyists paid by Airbus. It mentions, but does not dig into, the fact that

"John McCain intervened (in the Air Forces tanker selection process), which helped Airbus get that (multi-billion-dollar) Pentagon contract (instead of Boeing)."

While I think that McCain’s intervention in the Air Force’s tanker selection process is the big political story, I think McCain’s choice of campaign airplane might a major "gotcha" to be had at McCain’s expense.

It strikes me as rather amusing in how the Associated Press is continuing to  try and equate Democratic actions with Republican ones.  This becomes even more amusing when one actually looks at the facts they give you in these articles.  It's like trying to equate a nuclear bomb with an artillery round from the Civil War.  It just doesn't work.

Yet, still, they try.

By SHARON THEIMER, Associated Press Writer Tue Jun 10, 3:39 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama and John McCain are billing themselves as distant from special interests. It doesn't take a very deep look into their White House bids to see that's false advertising.

Presidential races tap into the same political circles that keep lobbyists employed and the revolving door spinning. Obama and McCain have a long way to go to free themselves of insiders and special interests.

Wow.  What a powerful introduction.  Sounds like they're both a couple of big fat hypocrites, right?

Wrong.  Very, very wrong.  Follow the jump for a breakdown.

ABC News is reporting on the tip of McCain's lobbyist iceberg.

A watchdog group is launching an advertising campaign and filing an FEC complaint questioning the McCain campaign's ties to lobbyists, as Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama spar over each other's ties to special interests....

"Seven of McCain’s staff and fundraisers lobbied for Airbus," the ad says. "And guess what? John McCain intervened, which helped Airbus get that Pentagon contract. Tell John McCain to kick those lobbyists off the Straight Talk Express."

The group is also asking the Federal Election Commission to investigate two other public reports that touch on McCain's connections to lobbyists: That a lobbying company, the Loeffler Group LLP, made payments this year to McCain's national finance director, Susan Nelson; and that a company controlled in part by campaign manager Rick Davis sliced more than $100,000 off of McCain campaign's tab, when the campaign was starved for cash last year.

While working for Loeffler, Nelson lobbied on behalf of Airbus. Newsweek reported last month that Nelson was rehired early this year as a consultant for the company, while on the McCain campaign's payroll.

Well that's just how mavericks do business in Washington, right? Of course he's going to have lobbyists running his campaign and his fundraising efforts. They know where all the money is. It's not as though they'd expect anything in return from such a straight-shooter as McCain, right?

It's not as if McCain keeps changing his tune on critical issues like telco amnesty just because his staff is full of telco lobbyists. Right? No, there must be some other reason why Mr. Straight Talk has taken half a dozen positions on the issue. After all, a maverick wouldn't let the people financing his campaign tell him how to vote.

Obama has made great promises to drum the lobbyists out of Washington and I hope he will make it his top priority in the first days of his presidency.

America needs it, the environment needs it, the climate needs it and our grandchildren and their grandchildren need it.

Its a sad state when it comes as little surprise that the Lieberman-Warner Climate Bill Voted Down by Big Oil.