Political Irony

John McCain claims to be a fighter for ethics reform, but yesterday, Doug Goodyear, the man that John McCain picked to run the Republican National Convention, resigned from that post. Goodyear is CEO of lobbying firm DCI Group that has earned millions lobbying for ExxonMobil, GM, and others. But the reason he resigned is that the cyclone disaster in Myanmar has inconveniently brought to light the fact that the DCI Group was paid $348,000 to run a public relations campaign for the military dictatorship of Myanmar to (among other things) denounce claims by the Bush administration that the regime engaged in rape and other abuses.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gmKnv87pTl8kotSQmjZIeNBsH6UwD90J1K581

Unfortunately, Doug Davenport, the the DCI Group person in charge of lobbying, who was directly responsible for the Myanmar PR campaign, is still a regional director for the McCain presidential campaign.

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/05/an_optics_problem_for_mccain.php

This whole mess is on top of the recent disclosure that at least three of McCain’s top advisors are lobbyists who were successful this February in getting a $35 billion military contract awarded to European plane maker Airbus, bypassing American plane manufacturer Boeing and thus costing the US tens of thousands of jobs. And McCain himself personally intervened to switch the contract from Boeing to Airbus.

http://www.jedreport.com/2008/03/mccain-top-advi.html

Is all this any surprise when McCain’s campaign is full of lobbyists, including his campaign manager Rick Davis?