Day: May 19, 2008

Wrong Guy Resigned Over McCain Lobbyist Policy

Trish

What you get when you try to access Thomas Loeffler’s page on his firm’s web site

When John McCain’s national finance co-chair resigned over the senator’s newly-minted no-lobbyists policy, the wrong guy quit. It should have been McCain stepping down for making deals.

Who is Thomas G. Loeffler? His history of Texas and Bush connections puts him in the center of the Bush inner circle.

Among Loeffler’s clients is the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., the parent company of plane manufacturer Airbus. Northrop Grumman Corp. and EADS won a lucrative contract to provide air refueling tankers for the Air Force. McCain helped scuttle an earlier contract in 2004 that would have gone to a competitor, Boeing Co.

Loeffler’s firm also has lobbied for other foreign interests and foreign governments. Newsweek reported over the weekend that Loeffler’s firm was paid $15 million by Saudi Arabia. The news magazine also said Loeffler listed meeting McCain along with the Saudi ambassador to “discuss US-Kingdom of Saudi Arabia relations,” even though Loeffler told a reporter last month that he had not discussed his clients with McCain.

With this resignation, is McCain seriously trying to convince us that he was not influenced by lobbyists, and in any case, is now lobby-free?

McCain’s new policy prohibits any staffer on the campaign from being a registered lobbyist or foreign agent. Part-time volunteers for the campaigns, such as Loeffler, have to disclose whether they are registered lobbyists or lobbying on behalf of foreign entities.

Under the policy, dated May 15, such volunteer advisers cannot lobby McCain or his legislative staffs during the period they serve on the campaign.

Except for one little clause: lobbyists need only take a leave of absence from their day jobs in order to work on the McCain campaign. Once the campaign is over or they step down, it’s back to business as usual, if it ever really ceased.

So who is Thomas G. Loeffler? The short answer is, a piece of work. The longer answer shows a history of Texas and Bush connections that puts him in the center of the Bush inner circle.

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Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

In the United States the majority undertakes to supply the multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved of the necessity of forming opinions of their own.

— Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), French statesman

Majority of California Supreme Court ‘Activist Judges’ Who Legalized Gay Marriage Were Republicans

Jon Ponder

When judges make decisions that favor gay civil rights, rightwingers label them “activist judges,” and howl, “Let the people decide.”
Yet more evidence — as if any were needed — that the rightwing position on gay marriage is based on bigotry, politics and fundraising, not principals or “moral” values.
But last year, when the California legislature — a.k.a. “the people” — passed bills that would have legalized gay marriage — twice — the right wing cheered when GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the laws both times.

Now, in the wake of the California Supreme Court’s ruling earlier this month legalizing gay marriage, the right will have trouble making their name-calling stick, because three of the four “activist judges” who voted in favor of extending civil rights to gays were Republicans:

Voting for:

Chief Justice Ronald George, 68, a moderate Republican appointed by Gov. Pete Wilson in 1991. He wrote the 4-3 opinion striking down the state ban on same-sex marriage, which he said violates the “fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship.”

Justice Joyce Kennard, 67, a Republican appointed by Gov. George Deukmejian in 1989. She is considered a moderate and joined the majority opinion.

Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar, 72, a Republican appointed by Wilson in 1994. She is considered a moderate and was part of the majority in the ruling.

Justice Carlos Moreno, 59, the court’s only Democratic appointee, named to the bench by Gov. Gray Davis in 2001. He is considered a moderate and voted with the majority.

Dissenting:

Justice Marvin Baxter, 68, a Republican appointed by Deukmejian in 1990. He is considered a conservative and wrote a dissenting opinion that accused the court of substituting “its own social policy views for those expressed by the people.”

Justice Ming Chin, 65, a Republican appointed by Wilson in 1996. He is considered a conservative and joined Baxter’s dissenting opinion.

Dissented with caveat:

Justice Carol Corrigan, 59, a moderate Republican appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005. Her separate dissent said that the court should not invalidate the ban but that “Californians should allow our gay and lesbian neighbors to call their unions marriages.”

This is yet more evidence — as if any were needed — that the rightwing position on gay marriage is based on bigotry, politics and fundraising, not principals or “moral” values.

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