McCain's dictator problem

A few months ago we learned that the man John McCain tapped to run the Republican National Convention, Doug Goodyear, was a lobbyist for the repressive junta in Burma.

Today we learn that William Timmons, another lobbyist pal of John McCain's who has been chosen by the Senator to lead his transition team, was a lobbyist for Saddam Hussein.

William Timmons, the Washington lobbyist who John McCain has named to head his presidential transition team, aided an influence effort on behalf of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to ease international sanctions against his regime.

The two lobbyists who Timmons worked closely with over a five year period on the lobbying campaign later either pleaded guilty to or were convicted of federal criminal charges that they had acted as unregistered agents of Saddam Hussein's government.

During the same period beginning in 1992, Timmons worked closely with the two lobbyists, Samir Vincent and Tongsun Park, on a previously unreported prospective deal with the Iraqis in which they hoped to be awarded a contract to purchase and resell Iraqi oil. Timmons, Vincent, and Park stood to share at least $45 million if the business deal went through.

Timmons' activities occurred in the years following the first Gulf War, when Washington considered Iraq to be a rogue enemy state and a sponsor of terrorism. His dealings on behalf of the deceased Iraqi leader stand in stark contrast to the views his current employer held at the time.

So while John McCain and Sarah Palin keep inciting their crowds over a loose association that Barack Obama has with Bill Ayers, it turns out that John McCain has his own questionable connections.

If a man is measured by the company he keeps, then we know what we can expect from John McCain. More of the same. More authoritarianism, more Constitution thrown by the wayside, more flagrant disrespect for international law, more warmongering, more torture, and more questionable judgment from the White House.

That McCain has lobbyists on the payroll who have represented some of the most brutal regimes (or the worst in corporate malfeasance) on the planet has to make you question his leadership. Lobbyists get paid by clients to influence lawmakers to achieve a specific outcome supported by and beneficial to the client.

So exactly where do John McCain's loyalties lie? With Burma? With Saddam's loyalists? Has McCain's campaign been compromised? Is it an act of treason to have agents of foreign governments so involved in a potential McCain Administration? And how does John McCain reconcile his past statements about Saddam Hussein with keeping one of Saddam's agents on the payroll?

You can wear a flag pin, stand up and salute the flag in the morning, cloak yourself in the mantle of the red, white and blue and tell old war stories all you want, but when your campaign is rife with lobbyists who have represented brutal dictators, the emperor has no clothes.