John McCain, Post Implosion

After John McCain's campaign manager Terry Nelson, chief strategist John Weaver, and chief of staff Mark Salter all deserted him today, McCain brought in veteran Republican lobbyist Rick Davis as his new manager.

Meet Rick Davis.

Rick Davis was founder and managing partner of the very partisan Davis, Manafort & Freedman, Inc., a lobbying firm based in Arlington, Virginia. Some of the firm's notable clients include:

Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha: The firm was hired by the Nigerians in March 1998, at a time when the country's dictator, General Sani Abacha, was engaged in an aggressive public relations campaign to persuade Americans that he was the leader of a progressive emerging democracy. Human rights groups described General Abacha as a ruthless and corrupt dictator.

Companies that moved jobs offshore: The firm also lobbied Congress for favorable treatment for Fruit of the Loom in a trade bill that was expected to deliver a quick $25 million to $50 million to the company's bottom line. The company had recently saved additional money by moving about 17,000 of its American jobs offshore, mostly to the Caribbean Basin, and reincorporating in the tax haven Cayman Islands.

Companies with business before McCain's committee: Two of the companies represented by Davis' firm, COMSAT and SBC, had major (and controversial) mergers pending before the Federal Communications Commission in 1999, and both mergers were approved. That same year, Davis was working both for McCain and for the lobbying firm representing the two companies seeking permission from the FCC to merge. McCain refused to recuse himself from the proceedings, despite his connections with the involved parties.

Davis also played a central role in the McCain Reform Institute Scandal. McCain founded The Reform Institute to push for clean campaigns and elections nationwide, but then used the 501(c)3 to draw large donations from industries seeking legislative favors. He also used the Institute to pay political advisors like Davis, who earned $110,000 a year from the Institute.

Many of the Reform Institute donors were also communications industry players with business before the Commerce Committee--when Sen. McCain was its chairman.

Echosphere, a communications company started by Charles Ergen, a founder of EchoStar Communications and the DISH Network, gave $50,000 or more to the institute. So did CSC Holdings, a subsidiary of the Cablevisions Systems Corporation, headed by Charles F. Dolan, and the Chartwell Foundation, the charitable group funded by A. Jerrold Perenchio, the Univision billionaire.

In fact, Cablevision's money accounted for 15 percent of the Institute's fund-raising in 2003.

Comments (2) «

Nice of MSNBC to give Sen. McCain major prime-time from the Senate floor of his take on Iraq today. After all, he had so much to say... more of the same. Only he didn't call it more Nation-building in the midst of a civil war. Some leader! Real fair, MSNBC.

When do a Democrat get a prime-time slot when they can lay out a comprehensive approach? And notice the media mostly quotes Obama on Iraq. What do the rest have to say about Iraq?

One thing for sure... the media won't ask any pro-surge Republicans how in the world can they pay for it? And how much is it really going to cost when it's all said and done.

Keep in mind that Sen. Cleland reports that new VA care is going to cost ONE TRILLION DOLLARS over the lifetime of the soldiers. So that $550 Billion dollar figure being thrown around is a drop in the bucket. And what a huge bucket of waste has been created since 2000.

Now let's talk about the MORALITY of our children paying for an endless war and tax cuts. No schools, no health care, no alternative energy. The money has been spent on Iraq and making millionaires into billionaires. It's time to take the moral high ground back, Democrats.

1

Big_Yellow_Dog on July 10, 2007 at 08:52 PM

McCain is DONE!!!

2

NRH on July 11, 2007 at 02:54 PM

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