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Who is John McCain? His spinmeisters paint a picture
of him as a straight talker, Washington outsider, maverick reformer,
determined foe of the special interests, champion of the average Joe. Gosh, what a guy — only that guy is not the
real John McCain. The real one is the
corporate suit who has been a faithful servant to the corporate interests
in his many years as head of the Senate Commerce Committee. To see the real
John McCain behind his carefully crafted reformer image, take a peek at the
crew running his presidential campaign. They are a who’s-who of the K
Street lobbying crowd that he is supposedly going to reform.
Leading this pack is Charlie Black, known as the
Republican Party’s quintessential company man. He has used his GOP connections to
become one of Washington’s most aggressive and successful lobbyists,
representing the likes of tobacco corporations, Blackwater, Lockheed
Martin, the brutal dictator Jonas Savimbi of Angola, Iraqi flimflammer
Ahmed Chalabi, and the government of Saudi Arabia. A multimillionaire
influence peddler, Black is the anti-reformer — indeed, he’s
the embodiment of what’s wrong with Washington. With these corporate cronies raising campaign
funds for him, it’s not surprising that McCain’s policy
proposals would bring cheer to CEOs, not to average Joes. His economic
plan, for example, is centered on more Bush economics, cutting corporate
taxes and extending Bush’s tax giveaways to the rich. How to pay for
these withdrawals from our public treasury? By cutting national programs
that help regular folks. Far from being the run of outsider who’ll
change Washington’s special-interest rule, McCain’s entire
campaign is being paid for and run by the same corporate insiders who
brought us eight years of Bush-Cheney.
Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator,
columnist, and author.
This article appears in Apr 24-30, 2008.
