More Of The Saint's Corrupting BFFs

So where's the straight talk why corruption and hypocrisy are good?? Just asking....

Senator John McCain has campaigned on curbing the influence of money in politics.

But an examination by The New York Times of a list of 106 elite fund-raisers who have brought in more than $100,000 each for Mr. McCain found that about a sixth of them were lobbyists. The list of "bundlers" was released on Friday by the McCain campaign.

The sizable number of lobbyists, who are outnumbered on the list only by those working in the financial services industry, offers another example of the balancing act that Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, is having to strike as he campaigns for the presidency and seeks to maintain his reputation as a reformer.

The McCain campaign's disclosure on Friday of its top bundlers of contributions was part of its efforts to furnish a sense of financial transparency to the public, in keeping with Mr. McCain's past focus on overhauling campaign finance and his criticism of the influence of special interests in Washington.

But Mr. McCain, of Arizona, has drawn scrutiny for the fact that many of his top advisers hail from K Street lobbying firms, including Rick Davis, his campaign manager, and Charles Black, a senior adviser who only recently stepped down as chairman of his lobbying firm to avoid accusations of conflict of interest.

Mr. McCain has steadfastly insisted that he does not give preferential treatment to those lobbying him, even if they happen to be close friends. Although Senator Barack Obama, who could become Mr. McCain's general election opponent, has made a point of refusing to accept money from federally registered lobbyists, Mr. McCain has continued to collect cash from them and allow them to bundle campaign contributions. His supporters argue in his defense that Mr. McCain has a record of independence and has, in fact, often clashed with corporate interests over the years.

But the potential for conflicts of interest are obvious. Several of Mr. McCain's top fund-raisers, for example, lobby for the telecommunications industry, which regularly does business before the Senate Commerce Committee, where Mr. McCain is a senior member and once served as chairman.

Kirk Blalock, of the lobbying firm Fierce, Isakowitz & Blalock, leads Mr. McCain's young professional group and has raised over $250,000 for him; his clients include Sprint Nextel and Viacom.

Kyle McSlarrow, chief of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, the lobbying arm for the cable industry, has raised over $100,000 for Mr. McCain. He and others in the cable industry recently butted heads with Mr. McCain over a proposal that would allow customers to pick and choose which channels they received.

In an interview Sunday, Wayne Berman, who is deputy finance chairman of the McCain campaign and a veteran lobbyist whose clients include Verizon and Verizon Wireless, dismissed the notion that some lobbyists might be raising money for Mr. McCain to curry influence.

"When it comes to McCain," Mr. Berman said, "there's just absolutely no concern whatsoever that he is going to be influenced by lobbyists. He takes on issues as he sees them. It doesn't matter whether his best friends are on the other side or not."

But the McCain campaign, which struggled over much of the past year in raising money, is now seeking to emulate the record-setting money machine that powered George W. Bush to victories in 2000 and 2004, bestowing special titles upon bundlers who exceed certain financial targets.

Instead of "Pioneers" and "Rangers," as President Bush's top fund-raisers were called, Mr. McCain is dubbing the 73 people so far who have brought in $100,000 or more "Trailblazers," while the 33 who brought in $250,000 or more are being called "Innovators."

Campaign finance watchdogs criticized the Pioneer and Ranger system for establishing an elite class of donors, many of whom went on to ambassadorships and other political appointments. But Mr. McCain's advisers believe the system offers the best chance for the campaign to encourage as many people as possible to raise large amounts of cash for him.

Mr. McCain has badly trailed both Mr. Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in fund-raising - in March, for example, he brought in $15 million, compared with Mr. Obama's $40 million and Mrs. Clinton's $20 million. While Mr. McCain's Democratic counterparts, especially Mr. Obama, have enjoyed much success in harvesting small-dollar donations over the Internet, Mr. McCain has not built an effective Internet fund-raising machine, forcing him to depend on a circle of wealthy donors.

But in a sign that Mr. McCain is still working on building up his bundler network, fewer than 20 people on the list were former participants in the powerful Bush Pioneer and Ranger system.

Most of the people on the list released Friday have been with the campaign for months. Although the campaign has been working to sign up fund-raisers for former candidates like Rudolph W. Giuliani and Mitt Romney, few of them have had the opportunity to raise enough money yet to make the list.

But there are at least some new supporters of the campaign. B. C. Clippard, who was national finance chairman of Fred D. Thompson's presidential campaign, has now raised $100,000 or more for Mr. McCain. Former Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato of New York also supported Mr. Thompson but recently helped organize a fund-raiser in New York that netted over $1 million for Mr. McCain. Peter Newman, a former fund-raiser for Mr. Giuliani from Pebble Beach, Calif., has since become a Trailblazer for Mr. McCain.

The list also includes something of a who's who of his national finance team, including Tom Loeffler, a former congressman, and Lewis Eisenberg, a former Goldman Sachs partner and longtime player in Republican fund-raising. Some recent notable additions to Mr. McCain's finance team are not on the list yet, like Mercer Reynolds, an Ohio businessman who led Mr. Bush's fund-raising in 2004 and had been seen as an important conduit to others from the Bush Pioneer network for Mr. McCain.

It appears that at least some on the list had been hedging their bets earlier in the primary season. About a fifth of the fund-raisers on the list appear to have given to other candidates as well as Mr. McCain, splitting their contributions fairly evenly between other Republican candidates and Democrats.

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