Wednesday, May 28, 2008

McCain's Lobbyist Woes Continue

Conflict of interest alert! Sen. John McCain's ties to lobbyists are creating major headaches for the GOP's Mr. Straight Talk.

Earlier this month, McCain dumped several top staffers because of their lobbying activities.

Now it turns out that former Sen. Phil Gramm, a Texas Republican, has been working as a lobbyist for huge Swiss bank UBS while also advising the McCain campaign on economic policy.

USB has been a big loser in the on-going housing mortgage crisis and stands to benefit financially if it can influence current and future U.S. economic policy.

We know that Republicans have long backed big business and corporate interests over the working class and the little guy. But for John McCain, who styles himself as a reformer and no-spin guy, this sort of ethical blindness is especially damaging.

Our advice to the McCain campaign: Dump Phil Gramm and all the other business lobbyists on your staff. Sure, it will be painful—but it's the right thing to do.

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