Free Republic

Disturbed by troubling connections and unflattering publicity, John McCain has just purged several prominent Washington lobbyists from his presidential campaign. Surely his intentions are laudable, but if Sen. McCain is consistent in ridding his campaign of such compromised people, he will find himself riding lonesome on the Straight Talk Express. That's because nearly all of his advisers, fundraisers and top staffers have worked on K Street, starting with his campaign manager, Rick Davis, and his senior adviser and spokesman, Charles Black. From the beginning, the McCain team has been thoroughly infested with representatives of corporate special interests, from the campaign's...

When CQ first covered the Bradley Smith interview that started the blogswarm on the FEC and the BCRA this week, I noted several unusual relationships between the donors and the institute, all hinging on Richard Davis, RI's president and John McCain's campaign manager. Since Davis also acts as McCain's chief political advisor, I found it odd that the RI -- which pays Davis a $110,000 "consulting fee" annually instead of a salary as its president -- received money from donors such as the sources that follow below. Bear in mind, please, that foundations don't just line up to hand out...

For reasons of financial necessity, personal preference and plain politics, John McCain is gearing up to run one of the least traditional presidential campaigns in recent history. The problem is that even prominent strategists within McCain’s own party wonder if his unorthodox strategy will work. Facing the prospect of competing against a Democrat who is on track to shatter every fundraising record — and confronted by his own inability to rake in large bundles of cash — McCain and his key advisers have largely been forced into devising a three-pronged strategy that they hope can turn their general election weaknesses...

Associated Press SANTA ANA PUEBLO, N.M. -- Republicans want to attract different voters. The top campaign official for the presumed GOP presidential nominee, John McCain, is identifying five groups of target voters. Rick Davis told a meeting of Republican state chairmen at Santa Ana Pueblo Friday that those groups include young voters and Hispanics. They also include what he calls "Wal-Mart moms," "Rehab Republicans" and "Facebook independents." Davis said it's not just McCain who would benefit from their support. He said they could help GOP candidates further down the ticket. He defines Rehab Republicans as longtime GOP members who haven't...

Noting a recent New York Times/CBS News poll ...... "We cannot win the election if our party is viewed 15 points less as a solution to the problems of America than the Democrat Party," Davis said. Davis pointed to five subgroups he said would be key to a victory in November. Those include "WalMart Moms," frugal suburban voters lower on the economic scale who Davis estimates will make up 17% of the electorate, and "Rehab Republicans," historically GOP voters who have grown disaffected, and a group from which Davis estimates McCain needs four out of five voters to win. Younger...

The staff of the McCain campaign had a rude awakening last Jan. 25th. They opened The Washington Post and found a front-page story linking McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, to the Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska. Who, some wondered, was feeding damaging information about Davis to the press? Skip to next paragraph Speculation inevitably settled, as it must in McCain World, upon John Weaver. For nearly a decade, stories about the inner workings of the McCain apparatus inevitably involved the Weaver-Davis rivalry. These two McCain advisers share a mutual hatred, one McCainiac told me Thursday, that is total, absolute and...

Claims that the charges against McCain are “unsourced” leave out one source that is prominently mentioned: John Weaver.So – who is he, and can he be believed? I recall that Weaver’s name was directly associated with the stories, delivered to the press in the 2004 Bush-Kerry contest, that McCain was flirting with an offer floated by Kerry to become Kerry’s running mate. In the retelling of that story by the Kerry people, the person who is square in the middle of the discussions and negotiations was -- John Weaver. When McCain’s campaign was imploding, back in the fall 07, because...

Sen. John McCain has asserted his opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin a number of times, going so far as joining with Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., in 2005 to introduce legislation calling on President Bush to suspend Russian's membership in the Group of Eight. That opposition, however, is being called into question by links that have been established in various reports between McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, and Ukrainian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, who is suspected of having ties to organized Russian crime. Davis even arranged for McCain to meet Deripaska at a time when Davis' lobbying firm was working under...

A top political adviser in Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign helped arrange an introduction in 2006 between McCain and a Russian billionaire whose suspected links to anti-democratic and organized-crime figures are so controversial that the U.S. government revoked his visa. Rick Davis, who is now McCain's campaign manager, helped set up the encounter between McCain and Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska in Switzerland during an international economic conference. At the time, Davis was working for a lobbying firm and seeking to do business with the billionaire. There is no evidence that McCain did anything for Deripaska after they met at...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- John McCain's campaign manager reportedly helped arrange the introduction of the Arizona senator to politically connected Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska. The Washington Post Friday said the meeting took place in 2006 at a dinner party in Switzerland and was followed up by a similar encounter in Montenegro seven months later. The Post said there was no evidence that McCain, a Republican presidential hopeful, and Deripaska had any further contact, but the newspaper contended the meeting illustrated the obstacles McCain faces in campaigning as a Washington "outsider" despite his long Senate career. The Switzerland meeting was...

John McCain's campaign released a late afternoon statement from newly appointed campaign manager Rick Davis. Davis: "This campaign has always been about John McCain and his vision for reducing federal spending, defending traditional values, and winning the war against Islamic extremists. Today we are moving forward with John's optimistic vision for our country's future." In the wake of the inside the beltway campaign shakeup at McCain HQ, plans are still set to travel to Concord, NH this Friday (the 13th, of all days) for an address on "Iraq and the War Against Islamic Extremism." Campaign spokesperson Danny Diaz expressed confidence...

As Sen. John McCain gears up for a prospective presidential run in 2008, he's trying to put an ugly little incident behind him — one that makes him look like a flat-out hypocrite on his signature issue, campaign-finance reform. If members of the national media are anything more than lapdogs for the war-hero, "maverick" senator, they'll start asking some tough questions about a bogus little think tank in Alexandria, Va., called the Reform Institute. According to the inside-the-beltway paper Roll Call, McCain has stepped down as chairman of the Reform Institute, citing "negative publicity" from earlier this year when it...