Video: John McCain… with a LOT of help from his “friends”

Since the traditional media has obsessively focused on McCain's alleged liaison with Vicki Iseman and smearing The NY Times, we felt compelled to take action. Jason, Phillip, and Dallas raced to the editing room, turned off the phones, locked the door, and focused on the real issue about McCain's lobbyist ties.

It's not a pretty picture. But here's our chance to get the truth out there for everyone to see.

With inspiration from the insightful blogs of FireDogLake's Jane Hamsher, Christy Hardin Smith, and Marcy Wheeler, we found footage and music to show the story not being told.

We use humor, we use pop culture, we use McCain's insistent use of the word "friends!" We hope you will send it along to your friends, foes, and media outlets.

John McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, and yet he said "I'm the only one the special interests don't give any money to."

Sign the petition demanding McCain return the millions of dollars raised by lobbyists.

John

I hope that America goes out there and votes to get rid of these Republican War mongers who have put the burden of this country on the poor and middle class while they get richer and richer for the last 8 years. I don't know why anyone poor or of middle class would ever vote for McPain. Ignorance is bliss I guess. Unless the Republicans steal the elections again, I think they are done!

Kim

Bush/McCain
More of the Shame
Bush/McCain
Lies before Honor

Justin Mckay

"A Fifth Top Aide To McCain Resigns" from the Washington Post. So that is 5 down and 54 more to go by my count. The Double Talk Express is going the wrong way and his lobbyists are jumping off. Ha ha ha ha!

Matt Judkin

John McCain is the real deal. He has support from the middle, the independents. No one has ever won with just support from the far left or the far right. John will get the conservatives sooner or later because they won't vote for a extreme liberal like Obama/Hillary. The middle and Indep will go to McCain... Obama will go down as nothing more than a great speaker...

Michael Lewis

I am just a citizen and not affiliated with any lobby or citizens group. I believe Federal Candidates should honor their oath to protect and defend the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Lawmakers are not above the laws they write. Specifically, John McCain agreed to public financing limitations and should be prosecuted for exceeding spending limits in the Primary. Also, McCain’s campaign should be terminated. He qualified to appear on the ballot in several States by accepting public funds and now wants to back out of public financing.

John McCain should be nick named Assassin of the 1st Amendment. The discussion of 3rd party spending and evil 527s all stem from the trampling of the 1st Amendment: "Congress shall make no law abridging freedom of speech or the press". Regulation of elections is a State right. The 1st Amendment was intended to prevent Federal laws from infringing on freedoms guaranteed in State constitutions. Freedom of speech and the press are individual rights and not collective "corporate" or "group" rights. The pamphleteer (blogger) is supposed to enjoy the same press rights as newspaper chains and broadcast companies. Furthermore, it costs money to publish. If spending limits and reporting requirements are placed on distribution of political pamphlets and blogs then newspaper and broadcast “editorials” should also be regulated. How can an editorial have no “political” value if political ads placed in the same media do? What makes the opinion of talking heads or editorial staffs more valid in the marketplace of ideas than those of individual citizens or grass roots organizations? If the Federal Election Commission and BCRA existed in Thomas Payne’s time, would he be allowed write and distribute his famous pamphlet “Common Sense” The 1st Amendment is not a loophole in federal campaign law! Federal Campaign Law is a violation of 1st Amendment rights!

It is illegal for a candidate to talk with a 527 before the 527 places an ad for the candidate (independent expenditure). In other words the candidate cannot “coordinate” with groups or entities that agree with him and his political beliefs. What a ridiculous regulation! In sports and commerce we admire coordination and teamwork but in public life it has been deemed a crime. Isn’t a measure of leadership the ability to put together a team that works well together and maximizes the use of limited resources? Years ago Coca-Cola Corporation spent millions on a “New Coke” campaign but people did not like the product and the marketing campaign failed. It takes money to sell a candidate and his platform and we should let the people decided as the 1st Amendment intended.

Please visit amendment10.tripod.com review the farce of Federal Campaign Laws and help defeat John "Assassin of the 1st Amendment" McCain.

You might also read: McCain stymied in his scam of public financing for his campaign at:

http://www.americablog.com/2008/02/mccain-stymi...

Apparently John McCain thinks he should not be restricted by laws he helped write or agreements he made. This is proof that Federal politicians should not be allowed to regulate how they are elected. There are no federal elections only elections for federal offices held by the States.

Until 1971 there were no Federal Campaign Laws and regulation of elections was done by the States as the Federal Constitution intended. Citizens and citizens groups that wanted to participate in the process did not have to ask Uncle Sam’s permission.

My website is amendment10.tripod.com

Bartxx2

Will let others analyze the film. I'd just say it is too soon. Wait until after GOP convention. If McCain is weakened now, GOP at convention might turn to super conservative uniter such as Newt Gingrich or a sensible candidate such as Chuck Hagel, either of whom would be harder to defeat than McCain would.

jgilliam

Jay-

The entire point of this video is to use the Vicki Iseman hook to point out all the lobbyists surrounding McCain and running his campaign. It's a chance to use the interest around this story to reach more people about the core issue.

It's precisely because we wanted to get the real message out there (and not the prurient one) that we busted our butts to get this out so fast.

Jay

You know, Bob, if I have one complaint about you, it is that you just don't have the ability to resist going into the gutter when delivering your message. Why jump on the Vicki Iseman band wagon and use the cute quotation marks about her as a "friend"? Why link her name so strongly to what should be a general message regarding McCain special interest money. It's the message, not the prurient interest, that is important here. A stronger, more ethical person would have edited out this ugly and unproven allegation and just listed her, not first, but just among the other lobbyists.

In this regard, I don't see much difference between you and the Swift Boat gang. Your homophobic attack on Giuliani was another low point for you, as far as I'm concerned. You had plenty of ammo to do a job on him without resorting to a tasteless, low life attack.

See if you can rise above the GOP smear troop level. It's a real turn-off for me and probably many others ........ and it just isn't necessary.

Doug

Steve, how long have been working for the sinkng Mccain campaign and how many lobbyist positions have you held??

Steven Bierer

Mr Greenwald and company,

I respect and support your political and media-awareness causes in general. But I believe this particularly dig at Sen. McCain is disingenuous. As private citizens, lobbyists SHOULD be able to campaign for a presidential candidate without necessarily involving the special interests that they represent at work. I'm sure these lobbyists are very good at bundling and other campaign chores.

I would never vote for him as president, but McCain has an honorable record when it comes to the lobby industry's influences on legislation. If you want to be unbiased about the matter, give some grief to Sen. Clinton and others who actually play the earmark game.