Charges Against McCain

Barack Obama previewed an attack on John McCain today, accusing him of being beholden to lobbyists. If a charge like that can be made to stick, it could really hurt McCain, who has cultivated a reputation for fierce independence of thought.

So what's the truth? Like many things about McCain, that's not always so easy to tell. For starters, his campaign manager Rick Davis and his chief political adviser Charlie Black are well-known and successful Washington lobbyists. Then too, the recent New York Times article, beyond its poorly documented insinuation of a romantic indiscretion, alleged undue response to lobbying pressure. A Washington Post article followed the same lead on McCain's letters in favor of a communications company without the sex angle. The stink hangs because McCain's campaign denied meetings between the Senator and the people in question, only to have evidence surface of McCain's earlier testimony admitting to meeting with them, though denying succumbing to their influence.

On the other hand, McCain has a long history of taking on some of Capitol Hill's most powerful lobbies. He has stood against ethanol subsidies and tobacco interests. He took on the coal, oil and auto industries in the failed McCain-Lieberman Climate Bill. He angered many conservative advocacy groups by fighting for and passing McCain-Feingold on campaign finance. He's refused to ask for earmarks and supported open disclosure of them, to the consternation of many of his Senate colleagues. He strongly pursued the Jack Abramoff investigation, to the embarrassment of his party and the ruin of some Republican careers. He's saved several billions in cost overruns with strong oversight on military procurement contracts. He also famously took on some of the more vociferous of the religious right by calling them "agents of intolerance" in his 2000 run. And he stood up to a President of his own party and the anti-tax lobby by voting against Bush's 2001 tax cuts (though he now supports them.)

All in all, it's a record that matches up well in comparison to most who have been in Washington for any length of time. McCain does appear to be a politician with an independent streak who tends to vote his own judgment regardless of the institutional struggle it may cause him. That's one reason he's always been popular with independent voters and highly suspected by Republican loyalists. It would be surprising to me to find he'd been in the middle of an influence peddling racket. But then one comes back to the question: why are two lobbyists running his campaign? One thing is for sure, John McCain does not fit easily into a mold.