A Question of Judgment

This does seem to be the dominant theme this election season. 

It can be argued Hillary Clinton's presidential aspirations went out the window when she voted, in 2002, to authorize President Bush the option to use force in Iraq.  Barack Obama's 20 year membership in Trinity Church has called many to question why he would opt to attend a church whose pastor delivered fiery, hate filled sermons.  John McCain's Keating Five involvement in the late 1980's nearly led to the end of Senator McCain's political career and ended with a rebuke from Congress.

It's probably unfair to expect any of the candidates will, in every case, exercise perfect judgment as President.  But it is a reasonable expectation that each has learned from past mistakes and will use those learnings to make better judgments going forward.

I would bet Senator Clinton will be very careful in the future that her Senate votes don't have the appearance of a political calculation and Senator Obama will now be a good deal more careful about his associations with controversial figures.

I'm not convinced, however, Senator McCain has quite learned the lesson of his Keating Five misadventure. (For a primer on the Keating Five and Senator McCain's involvement, go here).  Given the circumstances, one might expect John McCain to be very wary of associations with lobbyists and ultra-concerned about the appearances that those lobbyists hold some sway with the Senator. 

I wrote yesterday of reports of a late 1990's Arizona land swap deal that included Senator McCain's direct involvement.  The big (and I mean BIG) beneficiaries of that deal had connections to McCain campaign staffers and donors.  The post also outlined the very large number of professional lobbyists attached to the McCain for President campaign.

In the upcoming Newsweek, it's reported Senator McCain's choice for the manager of the Republican National Convention is raising eyebrows; it's yet another big time lobbyist, Doug Goodyear.

Goodyear is CEO of DCI Group, a consulting firm that earned $3 million last year lobbying for ExxonMobil, General Motors and other client,  Potentially more problematic: the firm was paid $348,000 in 2002 to represent Burma's military junta, which had been strongly condemned by the State Department for its human-rights record and remains in power today. Justice Department lobbying records show DCI pushed to "begin a dialogue of political reconciliation" with the regime. It also led a PR campaign to burnish the junta's image, drafting releases praising Burma's efforts to curb the drug trade and denouncing "falsehoods" by the Bush administration that the regime engaged in rape and other abuses.

Another issue: DCI has been a pioneer in running "independent" expenditure campaigns by so–called 527 groups, precisely the kind of operations that McCain, in his battle for campaign-finance reform, has denounced. In 2004, the DCI Group led a pro-Bush 527 called Progress for America, which was later fined (along with several other 527s on both sides of the political divide) for violating federal election laws. Goodyear, however, says that DCI is "not in the 527 business anymore."

No one is claiming Senator McCain is doing anything illegal here with all these lobbyists with which he seems intent on filling his campaign.  But he must understand, given his past history with the Keating Five, that these kind of associations raise red flags and suggest that he's not fully learned the lessons from that experience.

And that raises a question about his judgment.

Comments

[Crian Padayachee]

Very well put Jay, after reading this, I really need to put more time into doing some research on Senator McCain. On the face of everything, he seems far to squeaky clean, I don't know why none of the MSM run with this story.