Huggy Bear ♥ lobbyists

It should come as no surprise to anyone that despite his mavericky reputation and rhetoric, Huggy Bear actually is far more tied to special interests and lobbyists than the right-wing corporate media would have you believe. Does the name Vicki Iseman ring a bell?

You wouldn't know it from watching the news, but just when Huggy's campaign should be hitting its stride, staffers are resigning left and right ... well, no, actually, just right -- he is a Republican, after all ... because of their links to lobbyists. The fifth one left the Straight Talk Express yesterday.

Tom Loeffler, the national finance co-chairman for Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign, resigned yesterday because of his lobbying ties, a campaign adviser said.

He is the fifth person to sever ties with the campaign amid a growing concern over whether lobbyists have too great an influence over the Republican nominee. Last week, campaign manager Rick Davis issued a new policy that requires all campaign personnel to either resign or sever ties with lobbying firms or outside political groups.

"The campaign over the last week or so obviously had a perception problem with regards with this whole business of lobbyists and their work," spokesman Brian Rogers said. "This is really all about setting a policy so that we can just get through that perception problem and the issues that come up with regards to lobbyists affiliated with the campaign and move on."

McCain has built his reputation in Congress on fighting special interests and the lobbying culture, but he has been criticized for months about the number of lobbyists serving in key positions in his campaign. Until recently, his top political adviser, Charles R. Black Jr., was the head of a Washington lobbying firm. Black retired in March from BKSH & Associates, the firm he helped found, to stay with the campaign. Davis ran a lobbying firm for several years but has said he is on leave from it.

Black, in particular, remains in the cross hairs of McCain's critics. Campaign Money Watch, a nonpartisan watchdog group in Washington, yesterday praised Loeffler's departure but renewed its call for Black's departure. The group has launched a Web site, http://www.firethelobbyists.com, to urge McCain to rid his campaign of their influence. Loeffler's lobbying for Saudi Arabia and other foreign governments was revealed over the weekend.

What's that? Huggy Bear is a hypocrite? No one could have predicted that! And I actually don't blame Loeffler and his predecessors in resigning. Let's see: you could hitch your wagon to a loser and spend the next six months on a sinking, doomed campaign, or you could stick with your high-paying K Street job and keep paying the mortgage on your Chevy Chase manse. Hmmm, tough decision there ...

In actuality, it is becoming clearer and clearer to the vast majority of Americans -- at least the sentient ones -- that a vote for Huggy Bear is a vote for keeping the same failed policies, the same corruption, the same "I've got mine, screw you" mentality that have characterized the Bush crime syndicate since 2001. In most presidential races, it's the campaign of the lagging candidate that sees defections and resignations and "leaving to spend more time with one's family" ... and so I can conclude only that, while it's still just May, the Huggy Bear campaign already sees the futility of their efforts. Couldn't happen to a better dessicated, goiter-ridden near-corpse, if you ask me.