Obama’s Patriotism and the Scoop on Charlie Black
TPM has found an interesting nugget inside of a Politico article about the McCain campaign’s take on Obama’s patriotism.
“We don’t want to talk about his patriotism and character,” said McCain adviser Charlie Black. “We concede that he’s a patriot and person of good character. This is about big issues.”
Golly Gee mama, you mean Charlie Black has finally conceded to me being a patriot? Oh gosh, I can go out and get my picture with that huge American flag like I always wanted.
Seriously though, this is pretty revealing of how a senior McCain adviser actually feels about Obama beneath all the PC schmarm.
It’s ironic though, as some could argue that Black’s own record hasn’t always held America’s interests at heart. Let’s take a look.
- Black’s less than stellar record begins with a run for president of College Republicans against the king of dirty politics, Karl Rove. The fight got so brutal that the then head of the RNC, George H. W. Bush, had to intervene. Bush later hired him as a senior adviser during his presidency.
- Black spent the 90’s lobbying on behalf of Big Tobacco. He engineered the wresting of control over indoor air standards from the EPA to Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The move allowed for less tight regulation of smoking indoors. He also helped sink McCain’s 1998 bill to regulate the tobacco industry, which among many things would have limited advertising, gave the FDA the ability to regulate nicotine and fined the tobacco industry for failing to curb youth smoking.
- He’s shown an interest in hiring Tom Delay saying he, “would be very valuable to any firm if the legal cloud is lifted from him. He could come over here and be my boss if he wanted to be.”
- Then there are the statements wherein Black says that a terorist attack would be a “big advantage” for John McCain’s candidacy. Like Wes Clark’s “crashing a plane” statement, its facevalue is just as another non-PC truth; however, as head of the Civitas Group, a consulting firm with major contracts with Homeland Security, it appears Charlie Black wouldn’t do to bad from a terrorist attack either.
- Then there is Black’s lobbying firm, BKSH & Associates Worldwide. It seems that it, like Halliburton, is taking part in war profiteering, as it operates one of the psychological warfare operations in Iraq. The contract has the potential to net BKSH $300 million in future contracts. Why would Charlie Black ever advise McCain to keep the troops in Iraq 100 years? Profit motive maybe?
- Black’s personal statements about war profiteering in Iraq? New Yorker got the scoop from Black himself, “The problem in Iraq so far is it’s slow, and very confusing for people to figure out how to do business there … One week you go to Baghdad, and they say the decisions are being made at the Pentagon. Then you go to the Pentagon, and they say the decisions are being made in Baghdad. Only Halliburton is making money now!,” he told New Yorker. “Is there too much cronyism? I just wish I could find the cronies, Black said.”
- He also lobbied on behalf of Ahmad Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress; one of our primary Iraqi sources of intelligence and advisement prior to invasion. It’s now thought Chalabi was used by Iran to pass bogus information to the White House prior to invasion. Who got him into the White House? Charlie Black.
- BKSH also lobbies on behalf of the Blackwater USA Corporation, the war-profiteering group which massacred 17 Iraqis last year. BKSH represented Erik Prince, Blackwater’s founder at his testimony before congress.
Charming company that he keeps, eh?
-Marc-
