NOT A MAVERICK

From Politico courtesy of Eschaton:

Another top McCain official resigns

Former Rep. Thomas G. Loeffler, a Texan who is among the McCain campaign’s most important advisers and fundraisers, has resigned as a national co-chair over lobbying entanglements, a Republican source told Politico on Sunday.

It’s at least the fifth lobbying-related departure from the campaign in a week.

The McCain campaign, already facing the prospect of being badly outgunned in the general election, now also must cope with the disruption of the lobbying shakeout.

The McCain campaign’s stringent approach to the issue is provoking a bit of grumbling from some of its Washington allies, who point out that a lobbyist’s function is enshrined in the Constitution.

“No one in real America cares,” said one key Republican. “But McCain cares.”

And

The officials who have left include Doug Goodyear, who was McCain’s top liaison to the Republican National Convention; Doug Davenport, regional campaign manager for mid-Atlantic states; Eric Burgeson, an energy policy adviser; and Craig Shirley, a prominent Republican consultant who was a member of McCain’s Virginia Leadership Team.

Click here for the rest.

Even though this is something of a campaign purge, it is remarkable that no less than five lobbyists have had to quit in a week. That is, the McCain campaign, and the GOP in general, are crawling with lobbyists. I mean, the Democrats are pretty bad off in this way, too, but the Republicans are into it neck deep.

It is particularly ironic that the anonymous "key Republican" quoted in the article believes that "no one in real America cares." As far as I can tell, the exact reverse is true. It isn't simply the war, or the economy, or any number of other problems that have the GOP fighting for its life right now: the indistinguishable line between big business and the Republican Party appears to have "real America" disgusted as all get out. Indeed, the vast majority of "real America" cares quite intensely. Americans believe that citizens ought to run the country, not corporations.

And McCain knows it. I don't think he has any personal problem with all these lobbyists; after all, he hired them in the first place, and surely knew their work histories when he did it. This isn't some sort of purge of bad guys from the Maverick's perspective, but it is an attempt to remove the stench of anti-democratic corporate influence from the Republican nominee's persona.

Unfortunately for McCain, you can scrub excrement all day long, make it sparkle and shine, but it's still going to stink like shit when you're done. Just like John McCain.

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