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In case you have not noticed, John McCain seems to like having lobbyist and corrupt officials working and/or managing his campaign. Once a Republican crook, always a Republican crook.
Here is McCain's latest addition to the family.
John McCain is either stupid, senile, or just doesn't care about how he gets the money, just as long as he can swindle people into it. Witness his latest hire in Ohio of none other than disgraced Ohio Treasurer of State Joe Deters, who resigned in disgrace in 2005, to head his campaign efforts in Southwest Ohio. Will the press give it notice? Judging by there "attack Obama, give OLD John a pass" type of reporting, it is for we, the grassroots voter to continue to publicize the truly shady cast of characters that litter the McCain Campaign "twisted talk express".
For those of you that have no idea who Joe Deters is, here are a few tidbits.
2002: Deters Awarded Out-Of-State Company Millions In State Work, Affiliated PAC Gave Hamilton County GOP And Other Deters Supporters Nearly $60K. State Treasurer Joe Deters gave lucrative work to a Pennsylvania firm that splits its fees with another company owned by a pair of generous donors to Ohio Republicans. Valley Forge Asset Management Corporation was among 14 companies picked to invest $347 million of Ohio's tobacco settlement money; Valley Forge was assigned to handle the largest piece- $40.3 million- and was expected to be paid over $200,000 in annual fees. Valley Forge had an agreement with VFIM Inc. and gave 50 percent of fees for helping land clients. VFIM is owned by Richard Ireland and Brian McElwee, who are the sole contributors to the Concerned Citizens Political Action Committee. Since 2000, they have given over $370,000 to the PAC and, in turn, the PAC gave $58,000 to the Hamilton County GOP and other Ohio GOP accounts that have supported Deters' campaign. [Cleveland Plain Dealer, 5/31/02; Dayton Daily News, 6/1/02]
2002. Fifth Third Securities Received Largest Ever Fine For Pay-To-Play; Deters Linked To More Than $250K In Employee Contributions. The Securities and Exchange Commission fined Fifth Third Securities Inc., a subsidiary of Fifth Third Bancorp, $1 million for violating federal rules aimed to curtail "pay to play," the practice of using campaign contributions to curry favor with those awarding municipal bond business. The fine was the largest ever issued by the SEC to end pay to play politics. The SEC would not say which elected officials were involved, but a federal source said they key figure was State Treasurer Joe Deters. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that Fifth Third employees and associates gave more than $250,000 since 1998 to Deters' campaign or to Republican Party funds that supported him. Additionally, Executive Vice President Robert J. King, Jr. co-hosted a Deters fundraiser that raised $38,000 in Cleveland. [Cleveland Plain Dealer, 6/19/02] The Article
The list goes on and on, but you get the picture by now. If the choices that John McCain are making right now about who is involved in his campaign are an indication of what his staff will look like if he makes it into the White House, then this will indeed be a third Bush term. We do not need that again. It is bad enough that Barack Obama is starting to sound more like a Republican in some instances.
