http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2008/02/obama_blasts_lobbyists_on_mcca.htmlCOLUMBUS, Ohio — Barack Obama on Saturday questioned the reformist commitment of John McCain, portraying the likely Republican nominee’s campaign as tainted by the involvement of the creature that has come to symbolize capital’s culture of influence: the Washington lobbyist.
“It’s indisputable that his top advisers in his campaign are lobbyists, that many of them have been running their business on the campaign bus while they’ve been out with him. And he’s comfortable with that,” Obama said during a media availability in Columbus, Ohio.
Obama called that “a legitimate issue for voters” to consider “if somebody presents themselves as a reformer.”
The Illinois senator also raised the issue earlier in the day, saying in an opening statement at roundtable discussion on health care issues that McCain “takes (lobbyist) money and has put them in charge of his campaign.
McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, co-founded a lobbying firm though Davis on leave from the firm at the moment. Charlie Black, an unpaid senior adviser to McCain, is chairman of the Washington lobbying firm BKSH & Associates. Both of their firms have represented telecommunications companies whose business falls under the jurisdiction of the Senate Commerce Committee on which McCain is the senior Republican member.
Aides to Obama said he was referring to a Washington Post article Friday that reported Black does a lot of his lobbying work by telephone from McCain’s Straight Talk Express bus.
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