From The Hill:



Original DVD cover.

Democrats have criticized McCain, who has fostered an image as a reformer, for his ties to lobbyists such as Black. McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, and his national finance chairman, former Rep. Tom Loeffler (R-Texas), have also lobbied.

Black is an experienced GOP operative and strategist. The North Carolina native was a senior advisor to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and has also worked with the Republican National Committee.

Let’s take a closer look at the maverick’s buddy, Charlie. From The BLT:

Charlie Black of BKSH & Associates says he contacted Senate Judiciary Committee members last year as a private citizen who wanted to let them know he had questions about the fairness of an investigation into the island’s governor, not as one of Puerto Rico’s top Washington lobbyist.

From Think Progress:

ThinkProgress recently reported on Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) long friendship with Iraqi exile leader Ahmad Chalabi, who drummed up claims that Saddam Hussein had WMD and helped lead the United States into war.

But McCain isn’t the only one on his campaign with ties to Chalabi. Charlie Black serves as McCain’s (R-AZ) chief political adviser. He is also an uber-lobbyist, “chairman of one of Washington’s lobbying powerhouses,” BKSH and Associates.

Black and BKSH represented Chalabi’s former group, the Iraqi National Congress, giving the Iraqi politician access to high-powered officials in Washington. Chalabi even scored a seat in First Lady Laura Bush’s VIP box at the 2004 SOTU address. This connection has also helped Black, who “touted” his ties to Chalabi to get work in Iraq:


This PR paid off. In 2005, BKSH was hired by The Lincoln Group, which had a federal government contract to secretly pay Iraqi newspapers “to publish stories written by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S. mission in Iraq.”

BKSH helped sell this misguided war to the American public.

From Mother Jones:

John McCain’s primary defender in the Lady Lobbyist Scandal* is a man named Charlie Black. As a senior adviser to the campaign who is doing McCain’s damage control right now, Black has to explain to the press that John McCain didn’t have a romantic relationship with lobbyist Vicki Iseman, didn’t treat Iseman’s clients with undue favoritism, and isn’t too close to lobbyists in general despite his years of anti-lobbyist rhetoric.

At the link to Mother Jones, you will find a long list of corporations BKSH has worked for since 1998. The total value of the contracts was (are you sitting down, kids?) $57,426,252. 😯



12 responses to “McLobbyist

  1. What a maverick. Fight those special interests, McCain! Way to support the lobbying industry!

  2. nightowl724

    The tiny touches. The elephant at the top. The “Whaddya, stoned?” The “Republican Platform.” Delightful.

    But, the big picture. McBush rising in the polls. The possibility of a 3rd or even 4th Bush term. The buzz about Romney as a possible VP. Disgusting.

  3. nonnie9999

    hi again, insane (i never quite know what to call you)! 😀
    i guess the media is still too intoxicated with barbecue sauce to report that capt underpants will do or say anything to be president. he is running on a carefully crafted myth and no substance.

  4. nonnie9999

    i can always count on you to find all the little touches i stick in the posters.
    of course he is rising in the polls. he never gets any negative press (see my comment to our friend, insane, above). most people don’t pay attention to what is going on in the political realm. they are too busy trying to put food on their families while their houses are being foreclosed on. 😦

  5. nightowl724

    I’m hoping that by the time the Dems are done killing each other in the primary, McBush will have used up all his “free passes” for lies, flip-flops, bad policies, poor choices, and “senior moments.”

  6. nonnie9999

    i don’t think that’s going to happen. the media is scared stiff to say anything bad about someone who was a pow. nevermind that he was a lousy pilot who crashed 5 planes, graduated at the bottom of his class, and got preferential treatment, because his daddy was an admiral.

  7. nightowl724

    You might be right. Sigh…

  8. nonnie

    you crack me up!

    mccain never met a lobbyist he didnt like, and there isnt an MSM journalist who didnt meet the maverick mccain they didnt like

  9. you forgot a few more

    Look at how poor McCain’s web site has performed and who ran it. Therein, you will find more of Davis and his lobbyist friends. The funny part is that none of them are real “talented” political operatives. I have met all of them and if they were all that smart they would be the other ‘L” word, but that requires a graduate degree and about 20 more iq points-lawyer.

    Obama will run over these guys.

  10. nonnie9999

    hey dcAp! 😀
    i cannot for the life of me understand why they are not delving into captain underpants’s sordid past. the screeching heads parse every damned sentence a democrat says, and capt u seems to be off limits. if you want some tabloid-like stories, capt u is your guy! at the very least, i wish the media would just tell the truth. just today, i heard on cnn that capt u was in mississippi, where he had honed his piloting skills many decades ago. wtf?! how about ‘where he crashed some planes’. how about ‘where he was held in low esteem by his superiors, because he was a screw-up, and they only put up with him because daddy was an admiral’? makes me sick.

  11. nonnie9999

    hi you forgot a few more!
    welcome to the raisin! 😀 you met these guys? tell us more!
    i think capt underpants is living in the past, and he picked guys who are stuck there with him. he is running in some past era. that said, i am not convinced that he is going to lose. most people don’t pay a lot of attention, and the media is on his side. i hope that i am wrong, wrong, wrong.

  12. An inside Ace 5-count ’em-5 planes augered in. Can’t wait for Revell to issue a boxed set!