Media Makes Shocking Discovery: McCain Surrounded by Lobbyists

By Ken Silverstein
Harper's

Over the past few weeks, the media has finally begun reporting the fairly obvious fact that there are a whole bunch of lobbyists working closely with the campaign of Senator John McCain. As a result, a number of lobbyists with embarrassing ties to foreign governments have been forced out of the McCain camp, like Doug Goodyear, whose firm lobbied for the Burmese dictatorship a few years back.

Now, the Washington Post is reporting that Democrats are calling for the firing of Charles Black, a close McCain advisor who in the past has been involved with lobbying for a number of foreign dictators and miscreants. As I noted last month, Spy magazine once ranked Black’s then-firm, Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly, as the “sleaziest” foreign lobbying entity, giving it a “blood-on-the-hands” rating of four.

Meanwhile, Harper’s has now posted my story from the May issue, which looks at McCain’s ties to the so-called “Reform Institute.” The Institute’s stated aim is to clean up Washington, which is somewhat ironic given that former top lobbyist Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager, ran the joint for a number of years.