Honest Government & Open Government
We will end the Republican culture of corruption and restore a government as good as the people it serves, starting with real ethics reform.
The Democratic Party is committed to real ethics reform and meaningful campaign finance reform that protects our rights and ensures that elected officials act ethically -- not just within the law, but within the spirit of the law. Democrats offer an aggressive reform package to reverse Republican excesses and restore the public trust.
We are committed to immediate change to lead our country in a new direction, to put an end to Republican business as usual, and to make certain our nation's leaders serve the people's interests, not special interests. For us, this commitment spans our lifetime, as we were elected to represent the people, not the powerful.
Our goal is to restore accountability, honesty and openness at all levels of government. To do so, we will create and enforce rules that demand the highest ethics from every public servant, sever unethical ties between lawmakers and lobbyists, and establish clear standards that prevent the trading of official business for gifts.
The parade of embarrassing John McCain advisers continues. This week? Top foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann is tied to the "cash for access" lobbyist, Stephen Payne. Houston Chronicle: Over that week, more questions have been raised about the Houston lobbyist's...
Big-time donor to the GOP and John McCain is in a bit of trouble: On the day Republican Sen. John McCain surged to victory in Florida's presidential primary, a group of supporters gathered at the elegant Tampa Club for a...
The New York Times discovers an Abramoff connection among the "bundlers" raising money for John McCain's campaign -- "Juan Carlos Benitez, a lawyer and lobbyist whom Mr. Abramoff had championed for a Bush administration post." Benitez has raised between $50,000 to $100,000 for McCain, and the campaign doesn't appear willing to return any of the contributions:
The Wall Street Journal today reveals the latest in a string of campaign improprieties from John McCain. According to the report, "allies of Sen. John McCain have found new loopholes in the campaign-finance law he helped write" after months of lagging behind the Obama campaign's grassroots fundraising. According to the Journal, prominent GOP donors have been trying to encourage high dollar donors to circumvent the $2,300 limit on contributions to presidential campaigns established in the 2002 McCain-Feingold law by steering contributions to the Republican Governors Association, calling it the "the best way to help McCain" in swing states and "the equalizer in this campaign." The story cites experts questioning the legality of this arrangement, with one prominent expert suggesting that if it is legal, it is close enough to the line that "they may have chalk on their shoes."
And CREW has filed an ethics complaint in response. From TPM Muckraker:
Today, John McCain's campaign released its latest misleading ad aimed at drawing attention away from his history of opposing efforts to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil. After years of voting against incentives for renewable energy and green jobs, McCain has now offered a series of gimmicks and giveaways that even his own campaign admits won't reduce the price of gas.
The Democratic National Committee today launched a new website that highlights the dismal records and misleading rhetoric of John McCain's top three economic advisors. With Senator McCain admitting that "economics is something that I've really never understood as well as I should," the question of who is shaping his economic agenda is important to determining what direction he intends to lead the country. The new site , "McCain's Economic Advisors: With Advisors Like These..." highlights the failed, flawed and out of touch policies championed by advisors like Phil Gramm, Carly Fiorina, and Doug Holtz-Eakin.
After years of saying he opposed drilling in our coastal waters, Senator McCain changed his position and has embraced President Bush's vision for offshore drilling. On CBS's Face the Nation, McCain advisor Carly Fiorina tried to defend John McCain's decision to cave in to Big Oil. First, she said Senator McCain changed his mind because he wants to confront rising gas prices. Even the Bush Administration and a former McCain advisor admit that drilling in coastal waters will do nothing to reduce the price for decades. But industry experts, the Bush Administration and even former McCain advisors admit that drilling in coastal waters will do nothing to reduce the price of gas for decades. Fiorina claimed Senator McCain is "approaching the subject of off-shore drilling in a sensible way." But just yesterday one McCain surrogate cited Fidel Castro's beachfront oil rigs to defend McCain's reversal.
The Democratic National Committee today filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the U.S. Department of State seeking information about possible violations of the Hatch Act in connection to John McCain's events in Ottawa today. The FOIA request follows reports that McCain campaign officials requested assistance in arranging a $100-a-plate luncheon speech from U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins.
It's the latest scandal for Team McCain.
Today's McCain Myth: John McCain follows campaign finance laws.
John McCain has spent months defending himself from charges that he weighed in on behalf of his lobbyist friends to steer a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract toward a European defense contractor. Despite the fact that seven of his top strategists and fundraisers lobbied for the company, Senator McCain insisted that he "had nothing to do with the contract, except to insist in writing, on several occasions, as this process went forward, that it be fair and open and transparent." In reality, Senator McCain intervened at key steps in the process, echoing the arguments of the EADS/Airbus consortium each time.
Despite his campaign promise to set a "new standard for transparency and accountability," the Wall Street Journal today reports that John McCain is refusing to pay for his campaign's use of a corporate jet. Despite his previous efforts to restrict the use of corporate jets, McCain's campaign failed to reimburse the cost of "several trips last year that included campaign-related activity." The story quotes two Republican campaign lawyers saying McCain should have paid for the flights.
From an email by Governor Dean:
Today's McCain Myth: John McCain is bringing a new transparency standard to campaigns.
According to Fox News, John McCain misled the voters about the nature of tonight's town hall meeting. While the event was billed by the McCain campaign as a town hall with independent and Democratic voters, Fox News noted at the end that the audience was made up of invited guests and supporters.
According to reports, one of John McCain's top economic surrogates-- Republican National Committee Victory Fund Chair Carly Fiorina--was head of Hewlett-Packard at a time when the company was actively working to circumvent export controls established as part of a trade boycott of Iran. This report makes Fiorina the second senior McCain advisor in as many weeks to be linked to companies doing business in Iran. Last week, on the same day Senator McCain called for the "the moral clarity and conviction of civilized nations" to organize "a divestment campaign" aimed at isolating Iran, the Huffington Post reported senior advisor Charlie Black lobbied for a Chinese oil company doing work in Iran. Before that, reports revealed that the lobbying firm co-owned by McCain campaign manager Rick Davis represented Ukrainian companies doing business in Iran.
C-SPAN's ratings are about to jump up again real soon. Think Progress: Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) invited former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan to testify before the Committee at a June 20th hearing about reported...
In a draft report [PDF] to be issued by the House Oversight Committee, chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles, Calif.), that details the close ties between the Bush administration and disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and associates. The House Committee...
John McCain says he'll take on lobbyists... but, his inner circle is full of lobbyists:
Today's McCain Myth: John McCain would run a transparent government as president.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and the Obama for America Campaign today announced that the DNC will no longer accept Washington lobbyist donations, making the same commitment as Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.
Today's McCain Myth: John McCain is running a transparent campaign.
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles, Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, wants the FBI transcripts from the interviews conducted with President Bush and Vice President Cheney about the CIA leak case, and is going to Attorney General Michael Mukasey to get them.
Did the Jack Abramoff scandal claim another Republican crook?
John McCain's campaign sent out a fundraising e-mail a few hours ago, soliciting supporters to drop $250 for a personalized McCain logo banner. The subject of the e-mail, Frank Donatelli, says he and his wife have "been proud to work...
It's one-after-another when it comes to John McCain and lobbying scandals. Former Republican Texas Senator Phil Gramm, a national campaign general co-chair for John McCain, was being paid by a Swiss bank, UBS, to lobby Congress on the mortgage crisis in the United States. Forbes says UBS is among the banks worst hit by the global credit crisis.
After pledging that Senator and Mrs. McCain would never release her tax returns, not even if she becomes First Lady, the Associated Press reports that the McCain campaign finally released Cindy McCain's 2006 tax returns tonight.
Minutes ago, the House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed former top Bush aide, Karl Rove, to appear before the panel on July 10, to answer questions about the White House's involvement in the firings of nine U.S. attorneys, and the prosecution of...
The Washington Post reveals the cozy relationship between John McCain and the Washington lobbyists he once railed against. Despite his rhetoric about reducing the role of lobbyists in Washington, McCain's inner circle is dominated by lobbyists like Charlie Black, who the Post describes as a "longtime uber-lobbyist" and "a pioneer of the revolving door between campaign consulting and lobbying."
Ask not what your lobbyists can do for you, ask what you can do for your lobbyists:
Today's McCain Myth: John McCain is sincere about cleaning up the influence of lobbyists in his campaign.
In the New York Times, there was an interesting read about John McCain's army of lobbyist staffers and their sordid work histories. McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis is currently "on leave" from his firm, a firm that took to a...
Today's McCain Myth: John McCain understands that Americans want to clean up the culture of corruption.
Today's McCain Myth: In a McCain Administration the lobbyists running his campaign would not be running the White House.
Thomas Loeffler, a former Republican congressman from Texas, resigned as National Finance Co-Chair and joins four other recently departed high-level staffers for John McCain's campaign, including McCain's hand-picked convention coordinator, Doug Goodyear, who lobbied on behalf of Burma's repressive military junta.
Despite John McCain's self-professed opposition to
earmarks and his claim to have never done anything to help his favorite lobbyists and campaign contributors, the USA Today reveals that McCain did in fact push for what watchdog groups called an "earmark" after a major donor lobbied him for it.
During his remarks in Ohio this morning, Senator John McCain outlined a fictional account of what he expects the American people to believe he will do as president. In reality, on each of the issues he addresses, Senator McCain has either failed to outline any plans or has actually promised outdated ideas that would make the problem worse.
Today's McCain Myth: John McCain would be a transparent leader and a break from President Bush.
The McCain campaign's decision to withhold Cindy McCain's tax returns is drawing criticism from across the political spectrum. This morning, editorials in both the Washington Post and Washington Times echoed calls for the McCain campaign to release Cindy McCain's tax returns. This follows a column in yesterday's New York Observer that blasts McCain for his hypocrisy on disclosure, noting that Mrs. McCain's corporate jet "has been flying him and his entourage of lobbyists around the country at bargain rates."
Days after two senior McCain campaign aides resigned after news reports revealed that their lobbying group had worked on behalf of the repressive regime in Myanmar, a new report reveals more lobbyist problems for John McCain's campaign.
McCain right-hand man/lobbyist ties to Putin-backed political party raises some eyebrows:
This weekend, we learned that one of McCain's campaign managers (he has several) had ties to a firm had represented the Burmese military Junta. As a result of the media scrutiny, he was forced to resign.
On the same day John McCain gave a speech aimed at repositioning himself as a "moderate" for the general election by claiming to be a "conservationist," the Washington Post highlights Senator McCain's true priorities.
'You Scratch My Back I'll Scratch Yours' McCain pushed key land deal for fundraiser:
The Coconut Rd. earmark is gaining more and more attention. I've focused on some of the Republican infighting over who is to blame. The Anchorage Daily News, though, makes a more important point -- that there are still a lot of unanswered questions that Rep. Don Young has failed to address.
Republican Party infighting over Coconut Rd:
Today's McCain Myth: John McCain will stand by the statements he makes.
Smooth: At his health care policy event yesterday at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute in Florida, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was introduced by the institute's chairman, former Republican senator Connie Mack. But, as Hotline reports, Mack...
Even as John McCain and the Republican Party resort to baseless legal complaints and blatant distortions to avoid defending McCain's willingness to keep our troops in Iraq for 100 years, new video
emerged today that shows John McCain once "rejecting the very policy he urges today." McCain's campaign is arguing that he has not changed is view, and that he has always advocated a long-term troop presence in Iraq similar to that in Germany and South Korea.
John McCain says that, if elected president, he would nominate Supreme Court justices in the mold of Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito.
Early in the Republican primary season, John McCain stated that he would not fly on corporate jets, nor would he enlist the aid of his wife's wealth to the campaign. According to the New York Times on Sunday, John McCain "frequently" flew on a corporate jet owned by a company headed by wife, Cindy, and paid a fraction of the actual cost.
Today John McCain, the ninth richest member of Congress, again showed the American people that his call for openness and accountability in government applies to everyone but himself.
For weeks now, John McCain has broken campaign finance law by going over the spending limits that he agreed to when he opted into public financing in order to secure a loan and get his name on the ballot in several states.
We've gone over this before, but Media Matters "Action Network" illustrates it so nicely. You'll want to check out this graphic showing the many lobbyists and former lobbyists on board the McCain campaign, which is more than any other candidate in the race.
Today's McCain Myth: John McCain's biography tour will give voters a picture of McCain's true values.
John McCain is traveling the country on a biographical tour, but here's one stop his campaign won't celebrate: the Keating Five. (April 2 marks the 21st anniversary of the group's first meeting.) McCain and four other senators interceded on behalf...
Lobbyist Doug Davenport is joining the McCain campaign as one of the ten, decentralized, regional campaign managers. Davenport is one of the founders and current chief lobbyist for the DCI Group. Lobbyist staffers: cheaper by the dozen.
A while back we filed an FEC complaint against John McCain, asking them to investigate whether the McCain campaign was on the verge of violating the spending limit law he agreed to when he became eligible to receive matching funds.
John McCain sent an e-mail message to supporters offering a chance to ride the "Straight Talk Express" with the Arizona senator -- a spot typically reserved for lobbyists. My campaign has come up with an opportunity for a supporter to...
McCain's numerous lobbyist connections raise some eyebrows:
The Democratic National Committee announced today that Senator John McCain will appear in a series of debates to be broadcast on www.mccaindebates.com. The one candidate in this debate who could beat John McCain, is John McCain himself.
In an effort to burnish his foreign policy credentials, John McCain made a taxpayer-funded campaign swing through Europe and the Middle East this week. But the trip was not the success the McCain campaign had hoped for.
It's never a good idea.
From CNN, via Cliff Schecter's blog:
Today's McCain Myth: McCain would have an open and transparent presidency.
In February, John McCain stood in front of the cameras and addressed a lobbying scandal by claiming that "at no time have I ever done anything that would betray the public trust or make a decision which in any way would not be in the public interest or would favor anyone or organization."
Today's McCain Myth: John McCain is an impartial watchdog in the Air Force tanker deal.
Despite John McCain's claims that the lobbyists don't have any influence on him, the Associated Press today reports that the lobbyists running McCain's campaign lobbied on behalf of a European company that won a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract.
We know McCain's campaign is filled with lobbyists. We know at least one of those lobbyists does his lobbying work from inside of the so-called "Straight Talk Express."
Two this week alone.
Today's McCain Myth: John McCain doesn't do political favors for friends.
Yet another lobbyist.
An article in the Wall Street Journal today highlighted some big flip-flops in McCain's record that I think are pretty striking in how clearly shameless they are.
The Washington Post "fact-checker" takes on McCain's statement that he's the only candidate who doesn't take money from special interests -- a claim they conclude is clearly false.
Today on CNN's Late Edition, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean highlighted John McCain's hypocrisy on the campaign trail. Citing McCain's efforts to skirt the same campaign finance laws he once championed and his failure this week to denounce John Hagee who has made discriminatory comments, Chairman Dean contended that John McCain "has not made a case for his honesty."
White House staffer Timothy Goeglein has admitted to plagiarism, the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reports:
McCain's ethics woes throwback to Keating scandal:
George Will's column this morning in the Washington Post details the hypocrisies of McCain's do as I say, not as I do record on lobbying and campaign finance reform. Though McCain has spent his career trying to cast himself as a "reformer," Will calls McCain a "situational ethicist regarding 'big money' in politics" who "seems sincerely to consider it theoretically impossible for him to commit the offenses of appearances that he incessantly ascribes to others." McCain will have trouble overcoming his ties to lobbyists and dodging of the very campaign finance laws he once championed, both of which seriously call his integrity into question.
After casting himself as a "Maverick" in 2000, the new John McCain is walking in lockstep with President Bush, pandering to the right wing of the Republican Party, and embracing the ideology he once denounced. On the campaign trail McCain has callously abandoned many of his previously held positions, even contradicted himself, in a blatant attempt to remake himself into a candidate Republicans can accept in 2008. So just who is the real John McCain? The Democratic National Committee will present a daily fact aimed at exposing the man behind the myth.
Today's McCain Myth: John McCain's campaign has been truthful when talking about his withdrawal from the matching funds program.
It turns out McCain's campaign misled reporters about their Kentucky ballot application.
Facing questions about whether the campaign leveraged eligibility for public matching funds to gain access to the ballot in several states, the McCain campaign yesterday sunk to a new low. For days the McCain campaign has been playing fast and loose with the facts surrounding McCain's FEC violations. On a call with reporters yesterday, the McCain campaign erroneously stated that the campaign was getting on the Kentucky ballot by collecting signatures. [Wall Street Journal, 2/27/08]
This time, they're breaking their promise to Congress to try to restore the emails from 2001 to 2003, when White House officials were using RNC email accounts to do government work -- which is supposed to be done using government email accounts that are subject to public records requests.
McCain's no-good very-bad week continues, as his placement on the Ohio ballot raises questions. The New York Times put it this way:
After casting himself as a "Maverick" in 2000, the new John McCain is walking in lockstep with President Bush, pandering to the right wing of the Republican Party, and embracing the ideology he once denounced. On the campaign trail McCain has callously abandoned many of his previously held positions, even contradicted himself, in a blatant attempt to remake himself into a candidate Republicans can accept in 2008. So just who is the real John McCain? The Democratic National Committee will present a daily fact aimed at exposing the man behind the myth.
Today's McCain Myth: John McCain has not benefited from the FEC's matching funds program.
Watch Governor Howard Dean's appearance on MSNBC this afternoon. Chairman Dean discusses, among other things, the DNC's FEC complaint filed against John McCain's lobbyist employment program presidential campaign....
John McCain's attempt to skirt federal election law is starting to catch up to him. Word of the FEC complaint filed by the DNC yesterday was all over the news. McCain claimed that his campaign did exactly what Governor Dean...
Washington, DC - After casting himself as a "Maverick" in 2000, the new John McCain is walking in lockstep with President Bush, pandering to the right wing of the Republican Party, and embracing the ideology he once denounced. On the campaign trail McCain has callously abandoned many of his previously held positions, even contradicted himself, in a blatant attempt to remake himself into a candidate Republicans can accept in 2008. So just who is the real John McCain? The Democratic National Committee will present a daily fact aimed at exposing the man behind the myth.
Enjoy this video the Democratic Party put together. Imagine somebody's ethics problems being so troubling that he can be lectured about it by Bush, of all people.
"In the 2006 Senate report concerning Abramoff's activities, which McCain spearheaded, the Arizona Republican conspicuously left out information detailing how Alabama Gov. Bob Riley was targeted by Abramoff's influence peddling scheme."
As John McCain faces renewed questions about his ties to lobbyists, the New York Times this weekend examined McCain's role in keeping a loophole open that benefited a company that lobbied him. McCain's image as a reformer who can take the influence of money and lobbyists out of Washington has been seriously undercut by letters he wrote to the FCC while serving as chair of the Senate Commerce Committee that reveal he threatened to overhaul the FCC if they closed the loophole that helped the client of a lobbyist-friend. This, along with other legal and ethical issues that have resurfaced this week have raised new questions about McCain's integrity.
Today we're filing a complaint with the FEC against John McCain's campaign. In the complaint, we ask them to investigate whether the McCain campaign is about to violate the spending limit law he agreed to when he became eligible to receive matching funds.
What is it with ethically-challenged Republican leaders getting standing ovations?
The DNC announced today that it will file a complaint with the FEC against John McCain's campaign Monday, calling on the FEC to investigate whether the McCain campaign violated or is about to violate the law by ignoring the spending limit agreement and other conditions Senator McCain agreed to when he became eligible to receive federal matching funds. According to McCain's latest campaign filing, he has already spent $49.6 million and given that a month has passed, he has exceeded or is about to exceed the approximately $56.8 million spending limit.
As was mentioned earlier, Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Flagstaff, Ariz.) was indicted on a series of charges, including extortion, surrounding a land deal. It just so happens that Renzi and Republican presidential nominee John McCain are described by their local paper,...
Ayensa Millan, a 24 year old community activist and DNC State Party Partnership staffer in Arizona, will deliver the Democratic Hispanic Radio Address this Saturday. Millan will discuss her impressions from meeting with Hispanic voters in Arizona and their disappointment with Senator John McCain's betrayal on the issue of immigration and his promise of a third term of George W. Bush's failed policies.
Goodbye, credibility.
There isn't any other way to describe it, really, reading the latest Washington Post piece detailing why McCain team is shockingly tied to Washington lobbyists. And should he become the next president of the United States, then we've got something else on our hands...
Today's McCain Myth: Despite having a record number of lobbyists on his staff, John McCain can be trusted to reduce the influence of money and lobbyists in Washington.
For once, George Bush got something right. From the campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000: Texas Gov. George W. Bush, abandoning all pretense of running a nice-guy front-runner campaign, lashed out at John McCain's reform credentials today, charging...
