Prostitutes Converging On St Paul For McCain's September Hate Fest-- But Not Cheney

Many people have pointed out that John Shadegg, (R-AZ- $119,495), Tom Cole (R-OK- $277,050), John Culberson (R-TX- $301,961), Lamar Smith (R-TX- $342,897), Mike Pence (R-IN- $150,950) and some of the other Republiclowns who are back in Washington howling at the moon over the gas prices their own policies have driven sky high, have been getting paid by the hour by their johns at Big Oil. I wouldn't doubt it. And the biggest oil whore of all, John W. McCain, works harder for the money than anyone, running around like a chicken without a head screeching about drilling here, there, everywhere in the hope that voters won't focus on his long record of supporting policies that have led directly to $4.50/gallon oil. DWT has been riding this horse for 2 months and we're really excited that today's Washington Post, New Republic and NY Times have all discovered the stench of bribery wafting off the Double Talk Express. Michael Luo and Kitty Bennett at the Times (and Jesus' General on the right):

Senator John McCain received a burst of donations in June from oil company employees after he came out in favor of offshore drilling, according to a report released last week by Campaign Money Watch, a watchdog organization.

But the largest collective response from a single company, the report noted, came from the Hess Corporation. Together, Hess employees or their relatives poured out more than $300,000 to Mr. McCain’s joint fund-raising committee with the Republican National Committee in June, according to campaign finance records.

On Monday, after the Web site, Talking Points Memo, listed the names of the Hess contributors, scrutiny fell on a couple, Alice Rocchio, who is identified in campaign finance records as an office manager at Hess, and her husband, Pasquale, who is listed as a foreman at Amtrak.

They each gave a whopping $28,500 to Mr. McCain and the Republican National Committee.

Ms. Rocchio said in a telephone interview that she had made the contribution on her own and no one at the company had reimbursed her for it but declined to explain further.

Today I spoke with an ex-FEC compliance executive I don't know. When I mentioned to him that the executive assigned to our PAC was not only unhelpful but was a vicious little fascist he laughed and told me that she's a notorious Bush partisan who was indeed-- as I always suspected-- doing all she could to make life as tough for us as she could. I doubt I'll take this up in any legal sense until after the election in November-- and I doubt the Rocchio case will be looked at seriously before then either.



Meanwhile the dozens and dozens of lobbyists running the McCain campaign are all atwitter over the Republican national convention next month. As the list of Republicans up for re-election who are announcing they don't want to get anywhere near the Convention or be in jeopardy of being photographed with Bush or McCain grows, it is looking more and more like it'll just be McCain and the whores. Even the Cheneys have sent their excuses and explained that they won't be there.

The McCain campaign has not gone out of its way to reach out to Cheney, though a segment of conservative Republicans had been pressing the campaign to include Cheney in the convention agenda.

"Conservatives still think highly of him and are enthusiastic supporters whenever he speaks," says a leading conservative who has spoken to the campaign about Cheney. "For a campaign that has largely failed in reaching out to conservatives, reaching out to Cheney wouldn't be a bad idea."

McCain and Cheney famously do not get along, and with McCain's focus being almost exclusively on attracting independents and women to the polls, it's not a surprise that engaging Cheney isn't on the top of his list.

But the whores flocking to the Twin Cities aren't all riding in on the Double Talk Express. We first explained in February why the GOP Hate Fest is always one of the biggest annual events for call girls (and probably call boys). Today's StarTribune investigates whether the prostitution racket-- the non-K-Street variety-- is gearing up for the Republican Convention.