Monthly Archives: August 2008

“Whenever there’s a corrupt system, then you’re going to have these birds of prey descend on it to get their share of the spoils,” John McCain said during an interview for Politico.

In case you were wondering, McCain was referring to lobbyists.  McCain gave an interview with Politico where he addressed issues like lobbyists, pork barrel projects and even Jerome Corsi.  If there were any follow up questions or fact challenges by authors, Jonathan Martin and Mike Allen it didn’t appear in this article. 

“Lobbyists don’t come to my office. Because they know they’re not going to be an earmark. They know they’re not going to get a pork-barrel project. Senator Obama’s gotten lots of ’em.:”

No Senator, lobbyists come to work on your campaign.  Because they know that you will come out against Vladimir Putin and Russia in favor of Georgia because you have a lobbyist on your campaign being paid by Georgia.

“I think there are too many lobbyists in Washington.” 

“But the fact is that they are the symptom of a disease.  As long as you have earmarking and pork-barrel spending and bridges to nowhere and money for DNA of bears in Montana and museums and all that, then you’re going to have lobbyists.
So it’s kind of entertaining to me to attack the lobbyists rather than the source of the problem, which is the earmark. They’d all be out of business – most of ’em would be out of business if we stopped pork-barrel and earmark spending.

So, Senator – how did you vote on the Pharmaceutical bill written by the pharmaceutical companies?  Or the Bankruptcy bill written by the credit card companies? 

Your logic is all wrong Senator.  The lobbyists are paid for by corporations and countries (I am, of course, referring to Georgia) and they hope to get favorable legislation and government contracts.  You, as a result, receive money in your coffer. 

There are other projects where money gets shifted back to the people of the state you were elected to represent.  These projects are designed, hopefully, to actually benefit your state.  Clearly, these are the pork-barrel projects to which you refer and are so offended.

What’s worse, Senator, taking money for your campaign from a corporation (through a lobbyist) so you can vote for legislation that benefits this company and harms your constituents or taking money that will preserve a state park which benefits the park’s wildlife and provides a place of recreation for your constituents? 

“Senator Obama has asked for nearly a billion dollars in earmarked pork-barrel projects. And he rails against lobbyists? I’ve never taken a single one.”

Not a single one?  Care to explain this:  In 2006, McCain co-sponsored legislation with fellow Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl “that asked for $10-million for an academic center at the University of Arizona named in honor of William Rehnquist, the former U.S. Supreme Court chief justice.  (From PoliFact.com)

McCain, now refers to his moderate maverick image (which we all know is a sham.)

“I point out what my record is, which is one that has not won me Miss Congeniality over the years.  People want change in America — we all know that — and very legitimately so.”    

Yes, Senator.   We all want change.  We crave change.  We need change.  So, just ignore the facts that you’ve supported the Bush position 95% of the time.

Politico asked McCain about how he’d deal with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

“I’ve faced bad guys in my time.”

“I’d be glad to meet with him.  It would be important to have some kind of framework for the meeting. In other words, there would have to be some kind of predetermined, at least outcome about some aspects of the meeting.”

Wouldn’t you worry that you’d be labeled an appeaser since you don’t talk to our enemies?

Finally, McCain said that he wasn’t ‘comfortable having his campaign aided’ by Jerome Corsi’s smear book ‘The Obama Nation.’

 “As you know, I have condemned the [commercials invoking Obama pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright] that were done by various people.”

But McCain wouldn’t go so far as to denounce the book.

“I haven’t read the book, so I don’t know – I can’t comment.”

Did you read the smears Corsi had written about you earlier this year?  Care to comment about that, Senator?  And don’t think I didn’t notice how you slyly worked Rev. Wright into this interview. 

And I’d love to see where you really condemned anyone who aired commercials that smeared Obama using Rev. Wright. 

This could have been a good interview if they had only challenged McCain a little.  I wonder what type of donuts he brought them.

                Read the Politico story here.

                Read all about McCain’s Lobbyists here.