A top adviser overseeing finances
for Republican Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign has
quit over his ties with lobbying, a McCain campaign official
confirmed on Sunday.
Former Texas Rep. Thomas Loeffler, a national finance
co-chairman, is the latest McCain adviser to step down amid
concern over potential conflicts of interest among lobbyists in
the campaign.
He is the fifth person who worked on McCain's campaign to
resign recently over links to lobbying activities.
McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee to contest the
November presidential election, has made ethics and
transparency a centerpiece of his campaign. Last week he
established a policy of requiring advisers with lobbying ties
to sever them or leave.
Newsweek magazine reported that Loeffler's lobbying firm
has collected nearly $15 million from Saudi Arabia since 2002
and millions more from other foreign and corporate interests,
including a French aerospace firm seeking Pentagon contracts.
Campaigning in Oregon, Barack Obama, the front-runner for
the Democratic presidential nomination, took a swipe at the
Arizona senator, saying he appears to be "very much a creature
of Washington."
"And it does appear that over the last several weeks John
McCain keeps on having problems with his top advisers being
lobbyists, in some cases for foreign governments or other big
interests that are doing business in Washington," Obama said....
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A Republican candidate with ties to big businesses. Well thank God,
after 8 years of that harsh Bush Administration regulations on them,
they need a break. (Insert sarcasm here...)
Speaking of the ideal of business self-regulation and how well that works, did you see about the producers of Heparin getting slapped with lawsuits over a "contaminent" that caused 21 fatalities and 785 adverse reactions to the drug through March of this year? This is the shit that
government SHOULD be regulating and monitoring, the drugs these
corporations give to us, the food they sell us and tell us it is safe,
only to hear of recalls and E. Coli contaminations. Do I want them
incorporated into all business affairs, No. But This stuff is needs of
we the people, the stuff that we do not for the most part care that we
are being taxed for. Things we all use, the roads and infrastructure,
the foods we eat, and the drugs we take should be secure, and the
businesses are obviously not improving with this little problem of
theirs through self-regulation.
Four more years of this? You would have to be insane...