The Lobbyist Question

Presumptuous Washington celebrity John McCain decided to pick a Washington lobbyist to head his transition team.

Timmons is old-school power, and he brings all those connections to the McCain table -- for his own and clients' benefits, though, or for McCain's? Or both?

Timmons has been greasing the skids for a whole host of special interests for decades, and thus brings a certain "insider smarm" that the Maverocity PR purveyors will have to try to downplay. But can they?

Just take a peek at a partial list of clients for whom Timmons and Company has lobbied just since 2001 according to Implu:

-- Unocal (now owned by Chevron)
-- American Petroleum Institute
-- American Health Care Association
-- Lincare
-- AT&T
-- Freddie Mac
-- Centex Corporation
-- Cox Enterprises, Inc.
-- National Assoc. of Manufacturers
-- Asbestos Working Group
-- Northrup Grumman
-- American Financial Services Assoc.
-- The NRA (The National Rifle Association)
-- The American Council of Life Insurers
;-- Farallon Capital Management, LLC
-- Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.
-- The Vanguard Group, Inc.
-- Primerica Financial Services
-- Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc.

The guy worked for Nixon and every Republican President since. But you know, "change is coming to Washington."

Please.



This is a pretty decent ad for the Obama campaign. And it's all true. Check out McCain's Lobbyists too if you want to know who John McCain really wants in charge of your future.

...I forgot to mention that John McCain spent his 70th birthday partying with a lobbyist and his movie-star girlfriend on a yacht off the coast of Montenegro. How could I forget that?