Media Begins Handicapping Ethical Issues in Obama-McCain Match-up
Jun 9th, 2008 • Posted in: NewsIn one corner looms Antoin Rezko, in the other, Charles Keating; and both candidates face hovering questions about lobbyists
WASHINGTON
As political developments last week appeared to cement the nomination of Barack Obama as the Democratic opponent to presumed Republican candidate John McCain, reporters and analysts began speculating about what role ethics will play in their respective bids. Among the coverage:
- Antoin Rezko, a fundraiser who played a major role in the political rise of Obama, was found guilty last week on 16 federal counts of fraud, money laundering, and bribery. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that while no evidence in the trial raised links to Obama, with the presumptive Democratic nominee’s name surfacing only tangentially as a beneficiary of Rezko’s fund-raising, it appears inevitable that the verdict will become a campaign issue.
- On the GOP side, press reports note the likely highlighting of McCain’s association with Charles Keating, Jr., a wealthy savings and loan executive at the center of a government probe in the 1980s — the so-called Keating Five scandal, in which four other senators and McCain were accused of corruption and inappropriately helping savings and loan operator Keating. The Christian Science Monitor reports that while the Senate Ethics Committee eventually found McCain’s involvement to be minimal and issued only a mild rebuke, the incident amounted to “a brush with political death.”
- Both McCain and Obama face questions over the role of corporate interests in their campaigns, according to an analysis from the finance site TheStreet.com. Analyst John Fout writes: “Obama claims to have no lobbyists working on his campaign, though he has many former lobbyists working for him and an army of bundlers. One example would be his chief campaign strategist, David Axelrod. Axelrod formerly worked as a lobbyist for Exelon, an energy company based in Illinois that is a leader in advocating for nuclear energy. Employees of Exelon have strongly backed Obama, donating more than $200,000 to his presidential campaign.” McCain, Fout notes, has also “become sensitive to the lobbyist issue. In May, his campaign issued a memo asking all staff members to reveal lobbyists ties along with potential conflicts and followed up by purging the staff of anyone who might hurt the campaign’s image. Other important staff members like campaign manager Rick Davis and chief strategist Charlie Black have cut their lobbyists ties in recent weeks.”
Sources: Chicago Sun-Times, June 6 — The Street.com, June 6 — AP, June 5 — Christian Science Monitor, May 19.
For more information, see: Related Newsline story, June 2 — Related Newsline story, May 12 — Related Newsline story, Apr. 14 — Related Newsline story, Mar. 17 — Related Newsline story, Feb. 25.
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