McCain-- Beyond Dishonest, Beyond Dishonorable

The most recent presidential polling I've seen is in today's Des Moines Register and it shows Obama with a healthy, and growing, double digit lead over McCain among Iowa's likely voters. Iowans take their politics pretty seriously and, from years of experience as the nation's retail politics gatekeeper, they can smell a crooked political hack long before anyone else gets past the first layer of Aqua Velva.

Many Fox viewers were shocked today when even Karl Rove admitted that McCain's ads have gone "one step too far" and "beyond the 100% truth test." That's as close as you're likely to hear the man behind the GOP's most vicious negative ad campaign ever, call McCain a lying sack of dishonorable shit, willing to lose whatever shred of dignity he once possessed in an attempt to grab the White House. Watch Rove:



But it isn't just Karl Rove and most Iowa voters who smell a skunk on the Double Talk Express. It's taken longer than it should have but editorial writers all over the country are aghast at the steady stream of lies coming out of the campaign. When that ad guy who was working for McCain saw the playbook and quit a few months back-- saying he couldn't be part of the savage, gutter operation McCain had countenanced-- no one expected it to be as bad as it's already become. In today's Chicago Tribune, a conservative Republican newspaper, Steve Chapman makes the point that everyone is starting to see-- that To McCain, the truth is expendable. "Why does McCain insist on running such a mendacious campaign? There is plenty an honest conservative might say in opposition to Obama... But McCain has concluded that a fact-based case about Obama isn't enough to prevail in November. So he has chosen to smear his opponent with ridiculous claims that he thinks the American people are gullible enough to believe. He has charged repeatedly that his opponent is willing to lose a war to win an election. What's McCain willing to lose to become president? Nothing so consequential as a war. Just his soul."

Tony Norman it the Pittsburgh Post Gazette is also concerned about the state of McCain's mortal soul.

Where have you gone, John McCain? You once said you'd rather lose an election than lose a war. Is it worth winning an election if it means forfeiting your soul on the altar of political expediency?...Where is the honor in reciting lies for something as transient as political advantage? What are we as voters supposed to make of political ads that accuse Barack Obama of advocating sex education for kindergartners?... Despite the intellectually dishonest maneuvering of your campaign, many Americans admire you, John McCain. Before you embraced the darkness, I was among those who disagreed with your politics, but considered you honorable. Now it's hard to look at you without seeing the scoundrels who made you what you are today.

All over the country, Americans are noticing McCain has willingly sold his soul to Satan. His choice of Palin is absolutely stunning shocking-- a completely irresponsible and cynical choice based on electoral consideration without one care in the world about what could happen to our country if he-- old, sick and cancerous-- should die. Today's St. Petersburg Times editorialized that his campaign of lies has disgraced him. "McCain's straight talk has become a toxic mix of lies and doublespeak. It is leaving a permanent stain on his reputation for integrity, and it is a short-term strategy that eventually will backfire with the very types of independent-thinking voters that were so attracted to him."

Jay Bookman writes in today Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the volume and audacity of lies pouring from the McCain campaign is startling and even historic…That's really something, lying straight out about a FactCheck group, knowing that you're going to get caught but not giving a damn about it. With stuff like this, the McCain camp has cut any remaining tethers to reality and integrity and is now floating wherever the winds of illusion and whimsy may take them. It's quite remarkable, and quite insulting to the intelligence of the American people."

The Boston Globe accuses McCain or prezel logic and says he's "ready and willing to say preposterous things to win. The Washington Post's David Ignatius writes he'll stop at nothing to win and Paul Krugman has aptly termed his campaign, in the NY Times a blizzard of lies, while the editorial board there-- and editorial board that endorsed McCain-- comes as close as they likely ever will to apologizing for having been taken in themselves:

"I'm John McCain, and I approved this message." This from that straight-talker of yore, who fervidly denounced the 2004 Bush campaign's Swift Boat character attacks on John Kerry's military record. What a difference four years makes, especially after Mr. McCain secured the nomination by hiring some of the same low-blow artists from the Bush campaign.

Even the generally shameless A.P., which has been shilling with a straight face for McCain all year, can't gloss over the deluge of distortions and blatant lies that have come to define the most scurrilous presidential campaign in modern American history.

The "Straight Talk Express" has detoured into doublespeak. Republican presidential nominee John McCain, a self-proclaimed tell-it-like-it-is maverick, keeps saying his running mate, Sarah Palin, killed the federally funded Bridge to Nowhere when, in fact, she pulled her support only after the project became a political embarrassment. He said Friday that Palin never asked for money for lawmakers' pet projects as Alaska governor, even though she has sought nearly $200 million in earmarks this year. He says Obama would raise nearly everyone's taxes, when independent groups say 80 percent of families would get tax cuts instead.

Count the lies.

UPDATE: DID YOU EVER THINK YOU'D READ SOMETHING LIKE THIS... FROM JOE KLEIN???

A new rule here: Rather than do the McCain campaign's bidding by wasting space on Senator Honor's daily lies and bilge-- his constant attempts to divert attention from substantive issues-- I'm going to assume that others will spend more than enough time on the sewage that Steve Schmidt is shoveling and, from now on, try to stick to the issues.

Today's issue: health insurance. John McCain wants to tax your employer-provided health care benefits. He wants to replace those benefits with an insufficient tax credit--$2500 for individuals and $5000 for families (the average cost per family for health insurance is $12000).

UPDATE: EVEN FOX IS SICK OF McCAIN'S CAMPIGN OF LIES AND DISTORTIONS

Watch Fox's Megyn Kelly skewering McCain's professional inhouse liar, Tucker Bounds, and trying to hold his feet to the fire for all the lies:



Of course, on the other side on the coin, news anchors are talking about how people in Colorado will relate to Palin because she goes sledding.

McCain's Double Talk Express Pulls Into La Raza Conference-- And He Lies His Ass Off

If conservatives don't trust him, why should anyone?

It wouldn't matter if your first language was English or Spanish, figuring out where McCain stands on immigration reform is all Greek to anyone trying to follow his strained twisting, turning and tap dancing at the National Council of La Raza's annual conference in San Diego today. "I do ask for your trust that when I say, I remain committed to fair, practical and comprehensive immigration reform, I mean it." That would be news to the Republican base he's been reassuring that he's learned his lesson and that he no longer backs the legislation he claimed to have helped Ted Kennedy write. He then added "At a moment of great difficulty in my campaign, when my critics said it would be political suicide for me to do so, I helped author with Senator (Edward) Kennedy comprehensive immigration reform, and fought for its passage." The moment of "great difficulty" wasn't when he was supposedly helping Kennedy to write the act. It came after it was introduced and the Know Nothings, racists and xenophobes rose up and forced McCain to back down and abandon the bill. It was a typical McCain act of cowardice, something that has marked every step of his shameful and dishonest career, a career whose hallmark is double talk. The man will say whatever it takes to get elected, regardless of hat he said the day before or what he plans to say the next day.

While he was working both sides of the fence at the La Raza conference in San Diego, Carly the economic advisor was spinning another tall tale, and blowing more smoke, completely at odds with McCain's long public record:

In an interview, Carly Fiorina, a top adviser, explains that any tax increases on "middle- and working-class" Americans are off limits. She says if a bipartisan coalition is "creative enough" to fashion tax increases on wealthier Americans, that may prove palatable."

At the La Raza conference McCain must have forgotten to mention his promise-- yesterday-- to right-wing activists that he and Lindsey Graham would pass a bill to make undocumented status a criminal misdemeanor. Nor did he mention that during one of the Republican presidential debates (January 30th on CNN) when he was asked if he would vote for the immigration reform bill he was bragging about at La Raza today and asking for people to trust him on, his reply was uncharacteristically straightforward: No, I would not. Another in a long string of John McCain profiles in courage.

Today my pal Todd Beeton at MyDD shows McCain answering a question from a young woman asking if he would support the DREAM Act, which would provide high-achieving high school students who are long-term illegal immigrants, and who wish to serve in the armed forces or attend college, an opportunity to become legal residents-- a great bill that was filibustered to death by Republicans in the Senate October 24, 2007. McCain gave a one-word answer: "Yes." He gave right-wing bloggers a more in depth answer: "No." McCain was a co-sponsor of the DREAM Act but he skipped out on the vote so as not to go on the record for or against. But the right-wing bloggers cornered him and demanded to know his position.

...As for the Dream Act, McCain told us that he would have voted against cloture (i.e., in favor of preventing a vote) because he "got the message" this summer that Americans want the border secured before we "go on to the rest." McCain would deem parts of the border secure when the governor of the relevant state so certifies.

Since McCain is clearly on record as to how he would have voted on the Dream Act cloture motion, and since his vote was not needed to prevent cloture, there seems to be no basis for criticizing his departure for Iowa prior to the vote.'

I kind of wonder what excuses the right-wing bloggers will have for McCain after his performance today.

DOUBLE TALK EXPRESS HAS A MAJOR PROBLEM WITH LOBBYSTS

Actually, they have two major problems with lobbyists. The first and most obvious one is that over 100 crooked, sleazy lobbyists are working for the McCain campaign, sucking up money for the candidate who they have every reason to know will serve the interests of their corporate clients rather than the interests of everyday Americans. Fire The Lobbyists has a cure new video clip up today that summarizes this aspect of McCain's lobbyist problem:



McCain and his disgraceful relationships with the very bottom of the barrel of the Washington lobbyists-- many of whom lobby on behalf of foreign governments-- is finally starting to make it into the mainstream media, although it will probably take another few weeks before TV "news" picks up on it. It's ironic that McCain has been running around like a chicken without a head squawking about how Obama would "appease" foreign dictators when it looks like millions and millions of dollars are being funneled into McCain's campaign from every fascist dictatorship on the planet-- via his and their mutual employees-- especially the Saudis, the junta in Myanmar, Russia, China and at least a dozen other countries. One of McCain's two top staffers, lowlife sleazebag lobbyist Charlie Black, seems to be acting as a funnel for massive amounts of money from the Russian Mafia to McCain. McCain knows better than to have people like this around him, let alone driving the bus! But does he care?

Meanwhile, the other lobbyist problem is that the lobbyists don't think McCain, is willing to toss some of them off-- and under-- the bus to save his own ass... and they're getting angry.

Five lobbyists have been shown the door of McCain’s Virginia campaign headquarters in the past week, including Tom Loeffler, who is largely credited with keeping the senator’s primary campaign financially afloat long enough to capture the Republican presidential nomination.

“If it was OK to have these people working for you in February, why is it not OK today?” asked one Republican lobbyist who counts a friend among the new McCain outcast class.

The timing, motivation and even the details of the policy itself all are the subject of debates and consternation this week at water coolers, in restaurants and on conference calls on K Street.

“McCain’s self-righteous [expletive] has caught up with him. Now he’s got himself in a jam,” said another Republican lobbyist who asked to remain anonymous because he is a campaign volunteer. “He’s got to change the subject back to economic growth and taxation and the war on terror.”

And there’s this thought from another McCain supporter: “I find it a little offensive. It was good enough to get my $2,300 donation. If we’re not good enough, then send my check back. It pisses me off.”

The irony of this is that, despite the connivance of the corporate media-- particularly of shills like David Broder and Chris Matthews-- to create an image of McCain as "Mr. Clean," his entire career in politics-- from Day One-- has always been marked by gross corruption beyond even acceptable Washington standards. McCain has always been corrupt and always attempted to hide under a patina of being an ethics champion, even persuading Russ Feingold to let him sponsor Feingold's reform legislation and have his name on it first.

Senatorial courtesy has prevented most members of the Senate from calling McCain out on his outrageous behavior. I was really happy to see Obama finally calling a spade a spade today-- and exposing McCain's little charade-- while he was campaigning in Tampa:

"Now, we need a president who sees the government not as a tool to enrich friends and high-priced lobbyists, but as the defender of fairness and opportunity for every American. And let me be fair about this. Now, John McCain has agreed with me on some of the steps we need to make our government more ethical and accountable. Almost a decade ago, he offered a bill that, in his words, would ban a candidate from paying registered lobbyists. Let me repeat that. This-- ten years ago, John McCain offered a bill that said he would ban a candidate from paying registered lobbyists. And he did this because he said that having lobbyists on your campaign was a conflict of interest. This is what he said ten years ago.

"Well, I'll tell you that John McCain then would be pretty disappointed with John McCain now, because he hired some of the biggest lobbyists in Washington to run his campaign. And when he was called on it, his top lobbyists actually had the nerve to say, 'The American people won't care about this.' Well, I think the American people do care about it and I know they have a clear choice in this election: we can either have a election in which we are taking on the root causes of special interests dominated politics in Washington or we can ignore the problem and we can wake up four years from now and still be talking about an energy crisis and still be talking about a health care crisis and still be talking about a tax code that's not fair to you. I don't want to wake up that way, neither do you. That's a choice we've got in this election. We're going to change how politics is done in Washington."

ANOTHER TOP McCAIN OPERATIVE LEAVES THE CAMPAIGN-- BUT NOT IN DISGRACE LIKE THE REST OF THEM

McCain's campaign is almost losing as many Republicans as the House caucus. After a whole gaggle of crooked lobbyists were exposed by the media and asked to leave the Double Talk Express, one of the few decent operatives McCain has had around him, Mark McKinnon, jumped ship yesterday.

In telling the Cox News Service last June that he would not work against an Obama candidacy, Mr. McKinnon had said that Mr. Obama’s election to the presidency “would send a great message to the country and the world.” In that interview, Mr. McKinnon had said that he had policy differences with Mr. Obama, especially on Iraq, and that he believed Mr. McCain was best suited for the presidency because of his national security positions. But, he added, “I just don’t want to work against an Obama candidacy.”

There has been a great deal of speculation-- confirmed by sources inside the bus-- that McKinnon was sickened by the vicious, racist GOP game plan McCain approved to deploy against Obama and that was the reason he refused to work for his old friend. "Mr. McKinnon had told friends, and some journalists, that he did not want to be part of a hard-fought campaign against such a historic candidacy. In his interview with Cox, he had said of Mr. Obama: 'I think he has a deep character and good judgment. I also think he’s wrong on some fundamental issues. But I believe he is honest and independent.'”

MORE CROOKED LOBBYISTS EXITING THE DOUBLE TALK EXPRESS

Gettin' lonely on the bus

I just went upstairs to put on some shoes and socks and the TV was on and this guy was talking about how McCain had been forced to fire yet another corrupt lobbyist, Thomas Loeffler, a McCain national finance co-chairman! It was like 8 in 6 days or something. Granted his campaign has dozens and dozens of them but at the rate they're being found conspiring with dictators or oil companies or corporations that outsource American jobs... well, pretty soon McCain may wind up driving the Double Talk Express himself!

Funny how McCain always seems to do the bidding of the lowlife lobbyists around him-- and then get millions of dollars in campaign "contributions" from the corporations that employ the lobbyists. Everyone knows how fanatic McCain has been in going along with Bush's outrageous demands that the criminal executives at the telecom companies be granted retroactive immunity so that they can never be prosecuted for any crimes they may have committed when spying on American citizens without warrants. But how many people understood that McCain, who has been bribed-- in the form of "donations"-- by the telecoms to the tune of nearly $4,000,000, was surrounded by campaign staffers who work for them? AT&T alone has shoved $189,700 up McCain's ass. And their lobbyist? Thomas Loeffler, of course.

The media doesn't talk much about how McCain made sure one of his lobbyist's clients got a $35 billion airforce tanker contract, even though they were a foreign firm bidding against Boeing. As a result thousands of jobs will be created in Europe instead of Washington, Illinois and other states.

Shipping American jobs overseas may be someone's idea of "Free Trade," but it doesn't go over outside of the Board rooms. When McCain bragged about having been instrumental in denying an immense new contract to Boeing for refueling planes and helping the European Aeronautics Defense and Space Co. get it instead, there was "outrage from union halls to the halls of Congress over the impact on U.S. jobs, prestige and national security."

Boeing supporters in Congress are directing their wrath at McCain, the Arizona senator and nominee in waiting, for scuttling an earlier deal that would have let Boeing build the next generation of Air Force refueling tankers. Boeing now will miss out on a deal that it says would have supported 44,000 new and existing jobs at the company and suppliers in 40 states.

"I hope the voters of this state remember what John McCain has done to them and their jobs," said Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., whose state would have been home to the tanker program and gained about 9,000 jobs.

Several of McCain's in-house lobbyists were behind that deal-- and got very well-compensated when McCain was able to steer the contract to Airbus instead of Boeing: Susan Nelson (McCain's finance director, who was also getting big bucks from Loeffler supposedly without McCain knowing), William Ball III, John Green and, of course, Loeffler himself.

Tomorrow's Wall Street Journal has some whitewashed details of sleazy lobbyist Thomas Loeffler's relationship with McCain and why he was finally kicked off the bus.

Thomas Loeffler, a former U.S. representative from Texas, resigned from his post as a national finance committee and campaign co-chairman, a campaign spokesman confirmed Sunday.

Mr. Loeffler is the founder of The Loeffler Group, a San Antonio lobbying shop that has worked on behalf of AT&T Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co. as well as foreign interests, including Saudi Arabia.

Mr. Loeffler's resignation continues the fallout from a new policy that John McCain, the likely Republican nominee, instituted last week requiring full disclosure of involvement with lobbying firms and other independent political groups.

This is so totally shady. McCain wasn't aware that Loeffler was a lobbyist? The firm he works for is called The Loeffler Group. There are almost no McCain campaign staff who aren't lobbyists or "former" lobbyists, although several of the "former" lobbyists have been caught doing their lobbying on the Double Talk Express itself! In one of the most classic cases of bolting the barn door after the cows have escaped (and been butchered, packaged, made into BigMacs, and pooped out), McCain has unctuously announced a new policy that "bans staffers and aides from being registered lobbyists or working on behalf of foreign interests. It allows unpaid volunteers to continue as registered lobbyists as long as they disclose those interests and don't lobby or advise Sen. McCain on behalf of those interests." Meanwhile, just so you can comprehend the level of McCain's chicanery and gross hypocrisy, his actual campaign manager, Rick Davis, one of the most loathed and sleazy of the Beltway lobbyists "still owns a stake in his lobbying organization, Davis Manafort Inc., but is no longer paid by the firm." It was that kind of logic about Cheney and Halliburton that cost the American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. These people have absolutely no shame. I guess it looked a little funny that the Saudis have given Loeffler over $15 million and Loeffler has admitted lobbying McCain on their behalf. Kind of makes people think that they were buying themselves another president to replace the worn out disgrace they bought in 2000.

A few days ago two more of the filthiest of the filthy, a couple of high priced whores for the brutal and fascist Myanmar dictatorship, Doug Goodyear and Doug Davenport were fired when their connections to the dictatorship-- which McCain has been well aware of for years-- wound up in the newspapers. Then Eric Burgeson was unceremoniously fired as a McCain energy advisor when it was discovered he was tailoring the advising to the needs of his lobbying clients. And the day before yesterday GOP consultant Craig Shirley was hustled off the bus because of his slimy ties to stophernow.com, an attack site created to target Hillary Clinton that is now aimed at-- you guessed it-- Barack Obama.


UPDATE: TOO BAD WE CAN'T ALL AFFORD LOBBYISTS

I mean too bad we can't afford the really expensive, sleazy kind who infest the McCain campaign. If we could maybe McCain would do us favors too. And if American military vets could afford a high-priced sleazy lobbyist, maybe McCain wouldn't be on an anti-vet jihad.