It's "Money-Mad Monday" With John W. McBush!

In an otherwise reasonably intelligent opinion column in the Philadelphia Inquirer today, Harold Jackson dumped some of what James Wolcott might call “the ripest fertilizer” here…

There are plenty of Democrats who can find something to like about McCain if they search hard enough. He's a fiscally responsible, frequently anti-lobbyist war hero who offered the most comforting words to women Tuesday night when it became clear that Hillary Clinton had lost the Democratic nomination to Obama.

Phew!

I cannot understand how anyone could actually believe that “Senator Honor and Virtue” would be “anti-lobbyist,” because, as noted here…

Charlie Black, McCain’s senior counsel and spokesman, began his lobbying career by representing numerous dictators and repressive regimes.

Peter Madigan, a leading McCain fundraiser, lobbies on behalf of the king of Dubai.

Tom Loeffler, the national finance co-chairman for Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign, resigned (on May 18th) because of his lobbying ties, a campaign adviser said.

And this HuffPo story tells us that a prominent Republican consultant, Craig Shirley, left McCain’s official campaign role after a Politico inquiry questioned Shirley's dual role consulting for the campaign and for an independent "527" group opposing the Democratic presidential candidates.

Also from HuffPo…

(McBush) inserted $14.3 million in a 2003 defense bill to buy land around Luke Air Force Base in a provision sought by SunCor Development, the largest of about 50 landowners near the base. SunCor representatives, upset with a state law that restricted development around Luke, met with McCain's staff to lobby for funding, according to John Ogden, SunCor's president at the time.

Kind of interesting behavior for someone who is “frequently anti-lobbyist.”

And as far as “fiscally responsible” goes, McBush wants to make Dubya’s infamous estate tax cuts permanent (here). And since, by his own admission, he “doesn’t really understand economics,” he keeps former Texas senator Phil Gramm as a financial confidant, who, as noted by Wikipedia here, worked as a lobbyist (another one!) for UBS to lobby Congress during the mortgage crisis, and in so doing…

"the mortgage industry pressed Congress to roll back strong state rules that sought to stem the rise of predatory tactics used by lenders and brokers to place homeowners in high-cost mortgages."

Of course, Gramm was also consulting with McBush at the time – of course.

And Sam Stein of HuffPo tells us the following about Gramm…

During his 18 years in the Senate, Gramm helped spearhead the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which allowed commercial and investment banks -- like Citigroup-- to more easily merge. The Texas Republican ran for president in 1996, but dropped out prior to the New Hampshire primary, despite at one point having $25 million in the campaign coffers.

Oh, and one more thing about Gramm…

In 1981, Gramm attended Democratic Caucus budget meetings and then secretly shared their strategy with Republicans to help pass newly inaugurated President Ronald Reagan's budget.[citation needed] In response, the House Democratic leadership stripped him of his seat on the committee. Following this action, Gramm resigned his House seat, forcing a mid-term special election. Gramm ran in that election to fill the vacancy that he had created, but as a Republican. Winning, he became the first Republican to represent the district since its creation. He won re-election to the seat again in 1982, and after he left the House, the seat was retained for the Republican party (by Joe Barton).

What a creep.

So, to sum up, John W. McBush is a “fiscally responsible” presidential candidate who wants to extend Dubya’s tax cuts into infinity (and as this New York Times story tells us, he would eliminate Amtrak funding, veterans’ disability payments and low-income heating assistance…maybe I should call him “Ebeneezer” McBush instead).

And he’s a “frequently anti-lobbyist” Repug who inserts earmarks into legislation for key campaign contributors and continues to seek counsel from individuals who have solicited from world despots (including Ferdinand Marcos and Jonas Savimbi) and Arab potentates, as well as an individual serving in a dual role with the McBush campaign and a “527” hit group against the Democrats.

I’m so glad that we cleared that up. Aren’t you?

Update: Yep, I sure want to trust John McSame with the economy based on this; don't you?

Update 6/11/08: I think Michael Scherer of Time is trying to get voters to keep an eye out for the issues that truly matter and away from the question of what lobbyists are up to here, though he could do it without quite so much condescension, thank you. I would argue, though, that the fact that Jim Johnson (assigned to “vet” Obama’s VP nominees) received a preferential loan from Countrywide pales in comparison to the rank offenses of McCain’s people that I noted in this post (and as nearly as I can tell, Arthur B. Culvahouse is a tiny fish by comparison swimming with a bunch of sharks).