Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[fuagf]

Charles Black, head of BKSH & Associates, with 42 corporate clients including Philip Morris, General Motors, JP Morgan, AT&T and United Technologies. Black is so deeply entwined with tobacco companies he is known in Washington as “Mr. Tobacco.”

“Charlie Black is a consummate Republican lobbyist,” said Andrew Wheat, research director of Texans for Public Justice, in a phone interview from his Austin office. Texans for Public Justice is a nonpartisan research group that tracks corporate influence in Texas politics and beyond.

“Given everything John McCain has said about curbing the influence of money,” Wheat said, “for him to make Black one of his closest advisers can mean only one thing: McCain has rechristened the ‘Straight Talk Express,’ the ‘Double Talk Express’.”


http://www.pww.org/index.php/article/articleview/12588/1/412

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"For years, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has railed against lobbyists and =
the influence of 'special interests' in Washington, touting on his =
campaign Web site his fight against 'the revolving door by which lawmakers =
and other influential officials leave their posts and become lobbyists for =
the special interests they have aided.'

"But when McCain huddled with his closest advisers at his rustic Arizona =
cabin last weekend to map out his presidential campaign, virtually every =
one was part of the Washington lobbying culture he has long decried."

The facts are clear: from Keating Five to today, throughout his 25 years =
in Washington John McCain has consistently taken hundreds of thousands of =
dollars from his special interest friends, flown on their corporate jets, =
and then turned around and tried to do favors for them. And he's =
surrounded himself with just the type of people he claims to fight against =
-- including Rick Davis, Charlie Black, and senior advisers Steve Schmidt =
and Mark McKinnon. ......... and ...

Thanks for hitting back,

Howard Dean

P.S. -- John McCain may try to claim that the past careers of his advisers =
are irrelevant, but look at this passage from today's Washington Post =
article about Charlie Black, McCain adviser and chairman of lobbying firm =
BKSH and Associates...

"But even as Black provide a private voice and a public face for McCain, =
he also leads his lobbying firm, which offers corporate interests and =
foreign governments the promise of access to the most powerful lawmakers. =
Some of those companies have interests before the Senate and, in =
particular, McCain's Commerce Committee.

"Black said he does a lot of his work by telephone from McCain's Straight =
Talk Express bus."

John McCain literally has a lobbyist for "corporate interests and foreign =
governments" working from the "Straight Talk Express."

Where will they work from if he wins the White House?



http://groups.google.com/group/soc.retirement/browse_thread/thread/57caf16668680872/f5188482b4bf9e54