John McCain’s campaign employs or has employed lobbyists for Saudi Arabia, Saddam Hussein, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the military dictatorship in Myanmar, Exxon Mobil, Shell Oil, conservative televangelist Bud Paxon, every major telecommunications firm including AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, Motorola, SBC Telecommunications, et alia … well, the list is endless.
And the latest story to come out of McCain’s dubious connections with the world of lobbyists, big business and government contractors involves one of his major campaign fund raisers, Harry Sargeant III. Sargeant, a man who has raised over $500,000 for McCain, has been charged with war profiteering by Rep. Henry Waxman in his role of Chair of the House Oversight Committee:
A leading House Democrat alleged yesterday that [Harry Sargeant III] a top fundraiser for Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain has been involved in apparent war profiteering by inflating prices on jet fuel in defense contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. […]
Yesterday’s allegations came in a letter from Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House oversight committee, to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and pertained to contracts IOTC brokered with the military to ship jet fuel to Iraq for use by aircraft based there.
“I have been conducting oversight of procurement problems in Iraq since the war began over five years ago,” Waxman wrote. “The IOTC contracts stand out for the extent of the company’s apparent profiteering. Of the $210 million in profits received by the company, at least one third — $70 million — appears to have benefited a single individual: Mr. Sargeant.”
The McCain campaign’s response?
“This obviously has nothing do with the McCain campaign,” said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers.
No, nothing anyone connected with the McCain campaign ever has anything to do with John McCain. Funny how all these dubious lobbying connections and contracting activities by McCain staffers, advisers and fundraisers does not reflect on the integrity, honesty or judgment of the oh so honorable John McCain, even though he employs them in major positions in his campaign. Yet William Ayers, a marginal figure at best in Obama’s life, a man who has never been an Obama adviser, staffer or worked for his campaign in any way shape or form is somehow indicative of Obama’s lack of judgment and honesty.
Will the national media cover this story of a corrupt war profiteer raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for the McCain campaign, tainted money I’m sure McCain does not intend to return? I highly doubt it. You and I both know that Republican scandals never gain much traction in the media. Not even scandals by people bilking our government out of millions if not billions of dollars in connection with the war. Merely serving on a board of a charitable organization funded by the conservative foundation of deceased Republican philanthropist, Walter Annenberg (BFF of Ronald Reagan, whose widow supports John McCain) with a reformed William Ayers, on the other hand, has been must see TV on the cable news shows for months.
And conservatives claims the media is in the tank for Obama? Yeah, right. I wish the media was half as biased against Obama as they supposedly are against McCain. Then maybe coverage of the innumerable McCain big business and lobbyist connections might actually get a little air time.
