This is breaking political news and the details will be forthcoming later today. Once again, McCain's association with Abramoff, whether direct or through channels is brought to the fore. This time, one of his top bundlers has an Abramoff association..it's actually a very close association.
I believe that it is now time for McCain's involvement in the Keating 5 scandal to be brought out of the closet and explored again for all to see and scrutinize.
After perusing the Fundraising Disclosure filed by John McCain's camp yesterday, one particular name jumped out: Juan Carlos Benitez, a lobbyist, lawyer, and Jack Abramoff recommendation to a top post at the Justice Department.
Benitez was appointed as Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices in 2001, where he strongly supported former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales-- even after the firings of the eight U.S. Attorneys had been made public.
According the the disclosure, Benitez has raised raised between $50,000 and $100,000 for Sen. McCain's bid for the presidency.
UPDATE:According to the blog Fired Up America, Benitez was lobbying for the island of Guam at the same time that his wife was a special adviser on economic policy at the Department of the Interior, responsible for helping improve economic conditions on that island. "Mr. Benitez received a fee of $125,000 per month from the taxpayers of Guam, to arrange meetings that the taxpayers of the United States and Guam were already paying his wife to undertake."
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmem...
Below is a comprehensive list I have compiled of all the top McCain advisors and their lobbying connections:
Charlie Black is John McCain's chief political adviser and formerly a partner at the lobbying firm he founded, BKSH & Associates. He took leave from the firm earlier this year.
The firm's client list have included military contractor Blackwater Worldwide and Phillip Morris, as well as Angolan warlord Jonas Savimbi, and former dictators Ferdinand Marcos of the Philipenes and Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). Last year Black was registered to lobby on behalf of 29 clients, including AT&T, Lockheed Martin, Occidental Petroleum, and JP Morgan Chase.
Charlie Black has earned more than $1.8 million representing the Occidental Petroleum Corporation, the leading foreign producer of gas and oil in Colombia. Significant in view of McCain's trip last week to Columbia.
Other Clients include:
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, who looted his country during his reign and whose totalitarian regime was marked by human rights abuses.
Angolan Guerilla leader Jonas Savimbi, who brutally murdered and tortured civilians and planted land mines in his own country.
Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, who tortured and publicly executed political rivals, and pillaged his country's resources, enriching himself as the people of Zaire starved.
Nigerian Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, who supressed opposition political parties, and had a magazine editor critical of his abuses murdered.
Somali dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, whose army slaughtered 5,000 unarmed civillians in ten months.
Rick Davis is John McCain's campaign manager from both this election cycle and McCain's run in 2000. However, he recently turned over day-to-day campaign operations to another staffer.
Davis took leave in 2006 from the lobbying firm he founded, Davis Manafort, in which he retains an ownership stake. Davis Manafort's client list has included Verizon and SBC Communications and Ukranian holding company System Capital Management. Although he has not been registered as a lobbyist for two years, his firm was actively involved working as an unregistered lobbyist representing the interests abroad of foreign politicians and businessmen. In 2006 Davis’s firm represented Viktor Yanukovich, a Ukranian politician opposed by the U.S. Government because of his ties to Vladimir Putin.
Also in 2006, Davis represented Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska a close ally of Vladimir Putin, whose U.S. visa was revoked because of his organized crime and anti-democratic ties. Davis used his ties with McCain to set up a meeting between Deripaska and McCain at an economic conference in Switzerland.
Davis was still actively working as a lobbyist while also working as a paid consultant to McCain’s Reform Institute, and later used his contacts with McCain to facilitate a merger between DHL and Airborne. McCain "thwarted [R-Alaska Senator Ted] Stevens's effort to insert language into legislation that would prohibit foreign-controlled companies such as DHL from holding certain military contracts."
Phil Gramm is an economic adviser for McCain who was until April a
registered lobbyist for UBS, the world's largest manager of personal
wealth. Gramm is also currently a vice chairman for UBS's investment arm. A former Texas senator and economics professor at Texas A&M, Gramm was still a lobbyist when he advised McCain on the campaign's economic policies unveiled earlier this year.
Additionally, Gramm was a senator who took cash from the banking industry and introduced - and passed - a law that removed consumer safeguards in place since the Great Depression. This allowed banks to merge with financial investment institutions and begin selling risky investment products, including speculating on mortgages. This led to the subprime meltdown we have today which is destroying our economy. Then Gramm quit the Senate and went to work for UBS, a gigantic international bank that took advantage of Gramm's new law and gobbled up investment firms, then had Gramm lobby George W. Bush to remove the remaining consumer safeguards on predatory lending.
John Green is a lobbyist who announced in March that he planned to take leave from his post as a managing director at Ogilvy Government Relations to coordinate the McCain campaign's efforts with congressional Republicans. In recent years, the firm's clients have included European Aeronautic Defense & Space, which beat Boeing for a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract. Also, his firm represented Ameriquest Mortgage, one of the most notorious lenders in the current mortgage crisis.
This year, he is registered to lobby for 57 clients including Pfizer, United Health Care Group, the Carlyle Group and the American Petroleum Group.
John Timmons is a fundraiser for McCain and a former aide in his Senate office. He is also a founding partner of the Cormac Group, which took in more than $2 million in revenues in 2007. The firm's clients include the City of Hollywood, the National Association of Broadcasters, News Corp. and Time Warner. This year Timmons is registered as a lobbyist for US Airways Group, the City of Hollywood, the Association of American Railroads, Time Warner and a group called Americans for Democracy.
Previous Timmons clients include AT&T, SBC Communications and America West Airlines.
Kirk Blalock is a fundraiser for McCain and chairman of Young Professionals for McCain. In 2002 he joined the firm of Fierce, Isakowitz & Blalock. The firm was collecting more than $7 million in lobbying fees as recently as last year. His firm's clients include Coca-Cola, Time Warner and the Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs of large U.S. companies.
Previously he was the White House director for business outreach and a "Pioneer" for the Bush campaign, meaning he raised more than $100,000 for the candidate.
Randy Scheunemann is a foreign policy adviser to John McCain. Scheunemann has served as a lobbyist with Orion Strategies and Scheunemann & Associates for foreign governments such as Georgia, Macedonia and Taiwan. He has also lobbied for the National Rifle Association and a group called the Caspian Alliance.
He has reportedly lobbied for the Republic of Georgia while working for the campaign. This year he was registered to lobby for the NRA.
Scheunemann was a board member for the neoconservative think tank Project for the New American Century, in addition to creating The Committee for the Liberation of Iraq in late 2002 and serving as its executive director.
Carlos Bonilla was described earlier this year on the McCain campaign Web site as an economic policy adviser. A McCain spokesman said Bonilla left the campaign in May after the campaign imposed new rules restricting the involvement of lobbyists.
A recent White House report said Bonilla took favors from convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff while working in the White House. Bonilla is a lobbyist and senior vice president at the Washington Group. His firm was bringing in more than $10 million annually a few years ago, representing corporate clients such as Motorola, Delta Airlines and Rent-a-Center.
Bonilla is registered this year to lobby on behalf of 27 clients, including Time Warner, Motorola and the National Automobile Dealers Association.
Kristen Chadwick is a fundraiser for McCain and served on the steering committee (pdf) for Women For McCain. She is also a lobbyist and partner with Fierce, Isakowitz & Blalock, which had more than $7 million in revenue in 2007. She worked for the Bush White House before joining the lobbying firm.
She has personally represented Sprint and Nextel. This year she is registered to lobby for 38 clients, including financial, health care and retail companies. In April, The Hill named her one of the top lobbyists in Washington.
Wayne Berman is a top McCain fundraiser who joined the McCain camp in April 2007. Berman is listed as the managing director of Ogilvy Government Relations, which took in about $22 million in lobbying fees in 2007. The firm's clients include top financial firms, insurance companies, and those in the energy and telecommunications services. In particular, the firm represented Ameriquest Mortgage, one of the most notorious lenders in the current mortgage crisis.
This year Berman is registered to lobby on behalf of 51 clients including AT&T, Chevron, Motorola, Fannie Mae and Visa.
Susan Nelson is a finance director for the campaign. As recently as last year she was a registered lobbyist for the Loeffler Group, which collected more than $5 million last year. Nelson has reportedly received payments from Loeffler and continued to lobby since joining the campaign.
Last year she was registered to lobby on behalf of five clients, including Southwest Airlines and Toyota.
Christian Ferry is a deputy campaign manager for John McCain. He has partnered with Rick Davis to represent telecom companies SBC and Verizon from 2003 to 2005. He has also registered as a lobbyist for Deutche Post, ImageSat International, a group called Preserve Luke Air Force Base, and DHL Holdings USA.
David Crane has served as a senior domestic-policy adviser for McCain's campaign. He is also a lobbyist and the president of Quadripoint Strategies. Crane was a senior policy adviser to then-Majority Leader Trent Lott and worked with McCain on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
This year he is registered to lobby on behalf of four clients, including CSX and Bank of America.
Thomas G. Loeffler, is a lobbyist whose clients have included Saudi Arabia, stepped down as national finance committee chairman, the senator's campaign reported on May 18, 2008. Loeffler is a former Texas congressman who had been a top fundraiser for President Bush. He took over McCain's fundraising apparatus last summer when McCain's campaign ran out of money.
His law and lobbying firm, the Loeffler Group, has counted as its clients Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong and the state of Hidalgo, Mexico.
Peter Madigan lobbies for the government of Columbia to promote free trade and "seek appropriations for the Government of Columbia." Has also defended Columbian President Alvaro Uribe against allegations of ties to paramilitary groups. Uribe has also reportedly been linked to drug trafficking and bribery. Lobbies on behalf of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), because the UAE faces a class-action lawsuit alleging they enslaved thousands of children and forced them to be jockeys in camel races for the entertainment of the Arabian elite.
Eric Burgeson was an Energy Advisor to McCain. Resigned. Eric Burgeson had to resign as McCain's advisor on energy policy, because he was the head lobbyist on behalf of the energy industry for Barbour Griffith and Rogers (BGR), a lobby firm in Washington, DC. Yes, you're reading right. John McCain let an active energy lobbyist "advise" him on energy policy.
Doug Goodyear Was GOP convention Chair chosen by McCain. Resigned in May a few hours after Newsweek posted a report online saying the company was paid $348,000 in 2002 to represent the government in Myanmar, also known as Burma. Goodyear’s firm , DCI Group, represented the same junta still in power today that withheld aid to its citizens after a cyclone destroyed much of Myanmar’s coastline in May of this year. Goodyear’s firm also launched a PR campaign on behalf of the Burmese junta with the goal of denouncing "falsehoods" by the US government about them. Other clients of Goodyear's firm include ExxonMobil and General Motors.