The Barack Obama Lobbyist Show!

Barack Obama, his supporters, moveon.org, and other liberal messengers all love to attack McCain for lobbyists working on his campaign staff. The fact is their side is far from pure and the whole thing is kind of crazy anyway. Lobbyists are people too, and they need work in non-election years. This issue just shows that the Obama campaign is so busy trying to act pure that they have not come to term with what they are preaching.

National Review online had this to say,

"But if our friends on the left want to have this fight, then what's good for the goose is good for the gander.
So can we expect a front page story on:

Daniel Shapiro, one of Obama's foreign policy advisers on the Middle East, registered to lobby for several corporate clients in the last year, since leaving the office of Rep. Bill Nelson (D-Fla). Shapiro, who worked during the 1990s for President Bill Clinton's National Security Council, counts some of America's biggest corporate names among his clients, including beermaker Anheuser-Busch, carmaker Daimler Chrysler, the American Petroleum Institute and Freddie Mac.
Obama considers the point that he doesn't take money from oil companies (no one does; he just takes money from their employees) worth mentioning in an ad. So if their money is tainted, why is it okay to take advice from their lobbyists? How can Obama say he'll get tough on automakers to make sure they make fuel-efficient vehicles, if a Daimler Chrysler lobbyist has his ear?
Stupid argument? No more so than the idea that Charlie Black will be setting McCain's Africa policy. More:
Three political aides on Sen. Barack Obama's (D-Ill.) payroll were registered lobbyists for dozens of corporations, including Wal-Mart, British Petroleum and Lockheed Martin, while they received payments from his campaign, according to public documents.
The BP connection is through Teal Baker, who worked for the Podesta Group.
Or how about lobbyists for those dreaded insurance companies?
Brandon Hurlbut, Obama's liaison to veterans, union members and senior citizens in New Hampshire, represented clients such as the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies and the Allegheny County Housing Authority from January to June, according to public records. Six clients paid B&D Consulting $380,000 for Hurlbut to lobby their causes.Or how about pharmaceutical companies? They're popular in Democratic circles.
Hillary Clinton's campaign, which accepts lobbyists' donations and is now trailing in the polls, has sought to question Obama's commitment to his lobbying ban. In a debate Saturday night in New Hampshire, she noted that Obama's campaign co-chairman in New Hampshire, Jim Demers, is a state-based lobbyist whose clients include pharmaceutical companies. He is not registered at the federal level.
Wait, there's more. How about AT&T, opponent of "net neutrality" and a company that cooperates with the NSA on wiretaps?
The Washington Post previously reported that Moses Mercado, a veteran political adviser to the likes of Dick Gephardt's former presidential bids, was negotiating last fall to become an adviser to Obama. Mercado was registered in Washington to lobby on behalf of several several corporate clients, including AT&T.
Mercado said today he ultimately decided to skip becoming a paid adviser and instead is volunteering his advice and time in hopes of sidestepping the questions about being a lobbyist on the Obama payroll. Mercado was departing today to Nevada to help Obama with that state's caucuses.
How about a lobbyist as chief of staff in an Obama administration?
One of Obama's chief surrogates, former Senator Tom Daschle, is being talked up as possible chief of staff in an Obama administration. He's currently a "Special Public Policy Advisor" at Alston & Bird, where his duties are described, "as a non-attorney, Senator Daschle focuses his services on advising the firm's clients on issues related to all aspects of public policy with a particular emphasis on issues related to financial services, health care, energy, telecommunications and taxes. In addition, he advises on trade and international matters." His title may not be "lobbyist ," but when he joined the firm in 2005, NPR described their interview with him this way: "Tom Daschle, the former Democratic leader in the U.S. Senate, discusses politics, the party and his new job as a lobbyist."
Now, all of these folks may be fine folks - I think rather highly of Daschle for the way he handled the anthrax attack in his office - and if Obama wants them on his team, that's his decision. But I don't see why McCain should be raked over the coals for Black while Obama gets a pass for his lobbyist staffers, advisers, surrogates and helpers."

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