It seems that Mr. Campaign Finance Reform, Sen. John McCain, doesn't take as pristine view of
associations in his desperate bid for the presidency.
Terry Nelson, political director of the Bush-Cheney campaign in 2004, will be senior adviser to Straight Talk America, according to several official familiar with the hiring.
...
While some of Bush's former aides may line behind McCain's potential GOP presidential rivals, Nelson's hiring may help McCain cast himself as the early front-runner and potential heir of Bush's political machine.
Who is Terry Allen? More
He's one of the operatives who
helped Tom DeLay hijack Texas' redistricting of legislative districts.
The recent indictments of Tom DeLay--on charges that he criminally conspired to launder $190,000 in corporate political funds--identify Karl Rove protégé Terry Nelson as the unindicted co-conspirator who oversaw the alleged money laundering in Washington, D.C. in 2002. What is largely unknown is that a consulting firm that Nelson founded has worked for another shadowy group accused of improperly influencing a special state senate election in Texas in 2003.
Nelson is from the Lee Atwater-Roger Ailes school of politics.
Meanwhile Nelson had co-founded the GOP media shop Dawson McCarthy Nelson Media (DMNM) in 2001. Among the clients claimed on DMNM's website is Americans for Job Security (AJS), a shadowy Virginia-based group that the American Insurance Association helped launch in 1997 by supplying $1 million in seed money. AJS takes out attack ads against liberal and moderate candidates nationwide without disclosing its political contributions or expenditures.
Nelson is a native of Marshalltown, Iowa, and has funneled tainted money to candidates there.
One would think McCain would know better than to hire someone with Nelson's background, but apparently he has no qualms about being tied to the Rove-DeLay axis when it comes to his presidential aspirations.