Yet ANOTHER McCain lobbyist? This REALLY stinks!

The Company They Keep
March 19, 2008
By Ken Silverstein

John McCain is on a world tour, and after flunking Middle East Politics 101 on the Jordan leg of his trip, he’s now on his way to London, where his campaign will hold a fundraising event. (For American citizens only as foreigners can’t contribute.) Proper attire for the luncheon affair is “lounge wear,” according to the Washington Post, which also reported that the event will be held at Spencer House on St. James’s Place, “by kind permission” of Lord Rothschild and Nathaniel Rothschild.

The latter “may become the richest Rothschild of them all,” according to a profile last year in the New York Times. The story said Nathaniel Rothschild was “close to becoming a billionaire through a web of private equity investments” in Eastern Europe, and that he was “a principal adviser to Oleg Deripaska, one of the richest oligarchs in Russia.” Indeed, the Daily Mail has said that Rothschild’s wealth had “been accrued in his role as the adviser to” Deripaska.

Deripaska’s name might ring a bell. Back in early 2006, lobbyist Rick Davis, who now serves as McCain’s campaign advisor, helped introduce the senator and the oligarch during an international economic conference in Switzerland. McCain didn’t do anything for Deripaska after the meeting, but the Russian was grateful for the introduction. Deripaska wrote “a thank-you note to Davis and his partner and offer to assist them in a subsequent business deal,” according to the Washington Post.

About eight months after the meeting, the State Department revoked Deripaska’s visa to the United States, due to concerns that he may have amassed his wealth illegally. That’s embarrassing to the Russian, and he’s hoping to reverse his ban on entry to this country, which he blames on “stupid and ignorant bureaucrats.” During one interview last fall, Deripaska said, “Maybe I’ll get the visa when the next (U.S.) administration comes in.” Given his contacts to McCain, through Davis and Rothschild, one can guess whom Deripaska will be rooting for this fall.
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/03/hbc-90002695

And this:
More On Rick Davis: Charlie Black Lied About Davis’ Past As A Lobbyist »
McCain’s Top Lobbyist Lobbies For Foreign Entities, But Doesn’t Register As A Lobbyist
By: Cliff Schecter Tuesday May 20, 2008 10:36 am

The New York Times is reporting that Rick Davis has pioneered a new effort to lobby for foreign governments and corporations without registering to do so--including a mobbed up Russian banned from entering this country (so he raised money for McCain in London, how tricky!) and the former premier of Ukraine--who McCain just happened to oppose during elections over there:

But while Mr. Davis took a leave from Davis Manafort in 2006, the company has developed a specialty in recent years in a type of lobbying for which firms do not have to register — namely, representing the interests abroad of foreign politicians and businessmen.

In recent years, the company’s clients have included the richest man in Ukraine and a former premier of that country whose opponents were supported by Mr. McCain. The Washington Post reported in January that Mr. Davis also set up a meeting in Switzerland in 2006 between Mr. McCain and a Russian businessman, who has been barred from entering this country, apparently because of accusations about past ties to organized crime in Russia. That businessman, Oleg Deripaska, has denied such links.

Davis, of course, also set up meetings for McCain with foreign clients while employed as campaign manager:

Seven months later, in August 2006, Davis was present again at a social gathering that was also attended by McCain and Deripaska, this time in Montenegro, another Eastern European country in which Davis's firm was working. The three were among a few dozen people dining at a restaurant during an official Senate trip. Davis was a paid consultant to the governing party in Montenegro and had advised it on a just-ratified independence referendum, Salter said.

It's good to be the king!
http://cliffschecter.firedoglake.com/2008/05/20/mccains-top-lobbyist-has-learned-how-to-lobby-wihtout-registering-as-a-lobbyist/

hoping that by fall there will be no "there" there. I heard some discussion of this on NPR earlier today. Beyond calling him on his hypocrisy, we need to keep the cynical manipulation of reality as a campaign stunt front and center and don't let him bluster that he didn't know.