Hunter Biden is a Washington lobbyist. One of his firm's biggest clients is MBNA bank, which also happened to be a big f

[lafinfil]

>
> Why doesn't anyone find this interesting?
>

Because to folks that follow this kind of stuff it is old stale news and no wrongdoing has ever been proven ?

[kanesa]

People forget that McCain was a member of the Keating Five

5 senators who took money and freebies from Keating and associates
Glenn and McCain were cleared of impropriety but were sighted for poor judgment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_Five

"McCain and Keating had become personal friends following their initial contacts in 1981.[8] Between 1982 and 1987, McCain had received $112,000 in political contributions from Keating and his associates.[14] In addition, McCain's wife Cindy McCain and her father Jim Hensley had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators. McCain, his family, and their baby-sitter had made nine trips at Keating's expense, sometimes aboard Keating's jet. Three of the trips were made during vacations to Keating's opulent Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay. McCain did not pay Keating (in the amount of $13,433) for some of the trips until years after they were taken, when he learned that Keating was in trouble over Lincoln.[6][15]"


I don't have problems with lobbyists. I'll bet just about everyone here is represented by some sort of lobbyist pushing some agenda in Washington. If you are in a union, there's a lobbyist representing you. Or a professional organization, or a large company that you work at. Heck, if you belong to AARP, they have one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the US.

I am not condoning the system but it is what we have. In fact, lobbying has been going on for over a 100 years. I do have a problem when I think my representative appears to be bought by some large lobby group. In fact, it was just reported in my state that after a donation from a nuclear power company, our governor appears to be softening on nuclear power. I don't like that. It appears he has changed his position because of the donation.

[MacMagus]

> Why doesn't anyone find this interesting?

It's interesting, but it's also been disclosed in the ordinary course of business and is legal.

Business as usual (distasteful as it is). No scandal.

[decocritter]

I did not say it was scandal. And it all walks a fine line as to being "legal". We are talking about ethics, as well.

Rob - I won't defend Dems or Repubs that say they don't cozy up to lobbyists but do, or those that promote their own industries.

I know a lobbyist who shut his "business" down, in order to work for Obama's campaign. Obama talks big about lobbyists, not me.

Very fine line to determine which politicians are bought and paid for by lobbyists.

[Ted King]

Yeah, it's about a 3 out of 10 on the lobbyist stink-o-meter.

Do you find this interesting - in the quote given there is this statement, "Both Obama and Republican presidential rival John McCain have said lobbyists may not work on their campaigns. McCain recently called lobbyists ``birds of prey..." That certainly gives the impression and even implies that McCain and Obama are equal in standing about this issue in terms of rhetoric but when juxtaposed with the information about Biden's son it seems that Obama isn't living up to his rhetoric. BUT in one 8 day stretch in May of THIS year McCain had to fire five his key campaign aids because they were working as lobbyists AT THE SAME TIME they were working on his campaign! That is when McCain came up with the rule that lobbyists couldn't work for his campaign (just a little over 3 months ago). So... either McCain had no problem with key people working in his campaign working as active lobbyists at the same time just a little over 3 months ago, or he was so out of touch with what was going on in his campaign that he had no idea it was riddled with active "birds of prey". One alternative rates high as being hypocritical and certainly not being a straight talker and the other alternative is strong evidence that McCain doesn't even have a clue what is going on with his most important strategic enterprise. But it gets worse. A month and a half after the campaign came up with the "no lobbyist rule" McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, was asked by Katie Couric how many lobbyists worked in McCain's campaign and Davis' response was, "“We don’t make it a litmus test for employment at the McCain campaign. It goes without saying that some people who are involved in the lobbying profession do it because they are interested in that side of the equation. They’re interested in government, they’re interested in Congress, they’re interested in public service." Now from the false impression left by the quoted article, to the fact that till very recently McCain had active lobbyists working in many key positions in his campaign, to this non-denial that lobbyists are still working for McCain (actually even giving a rationale for why it would be okay even though McCain rhetorically has called them "birds of prey"), I'd say that rates at least an 8 out of ten on the lobbyist stink-o-meter. (I'd be tempted rate it higher but the Republicans and the K-street crap stunk so much that it reached levels of the metaphysically sublime in putridity.)