McCain, A Campaign Reformer?

I've purposefully steered clear of politics for a while to clear my head before the final stretch. While the Democratic primary got a bit surly toward the end with it's Democrat style pillow fights, what's coming will make these skirmishes look like Haight/Ashbury before the summer of love.
The "Brittany/Paris" add gave a glimpse at where it's headed.
Whether or not you think a President McCain administration will be an extension of the Bush administration, we can be sure of one thing, the guys who are trying to put him there are from a Pedigree that stretches back to the Nixon Administration.
All you have to do is look at Senator McCains top people to realize that from the beginning of his campaign he has utilized the same kind of players that Republicans seeking the presidency have gone to since Donald Segretti was hired to conduct his "dirty tricks" campaign against Democrats in 1972. Segretti was convicted of distributing forged campaign literature and other types of "ratfucking" as he crudely referred to his duties.
Astonishingly in 2000 he served as co-chair of Senator McCain's presidential campaign in Orange County, California.
Guess who is commonly considered a protege of Segretti ? None other than Karl Rove.
McCain has shuffled the deck to assuage periodic rises in criticism but he continues to return to the tried and true dirty pool solutions to his political problems.
His latest addition and likely responsible for the Brittany/Paris add is Karl Rove protege Steve Schmidt. He was along for the ride with Rove as he ran President Bush's Re-election campaign in 2004. He was an exclusive member of the "Breakfast Club" as it was known.
He was also a White House strategist in charge of the U.S. Supreme Court nominations of Samuel Alito and John Roberts and worked on the Schwarzenegger campaign in 2004 and was a top aide to Vice President Cheney.
Then there is Charles R. Black Jr. who most recently and quite famously said that a terrorist attack would help his candidate, Senator McCain.
His relationship with Karl Rove started with a dust-up over leadership of the College Republicans way back in 1972. None other than RNC chairman George H.W. Bush had to step in and ruled in favor of Rove. Black also met the notorious Republican attack dog and Karl Rove associate Lee Atwater at that time and later hired him for the Reagan campaign. Black worked on the George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush campaigns as well.
Who is he? He's a lobbyist extraordinaire who's done work for a long list of unsavory clients including dictators and other regimes around the world. He has a reputation for being a tough guy as colleague Roger Ailes said, " Charlie's the kind of guy who if he came home and found somebody making out with his wife on a rainy day, he'd break his umbrella and ask him to leave, then have him killed a year later. Lee Atwater would blow the house up."
How he was able to stay on after McCains recent campaign lobbyist purge is a mystery but it highlights just how inadequate election rules really are.
His relationship with Ahmed Chalabi, a champion of the Iraq war, is laced with controversy. He received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the U.S for consulting with Chalabi. One can only wonder what that money bought.
Next there is Richard "Rick" Davis. Again a puzzle as to why McCain allows this super lobbyist to continue. Davis watched first hand in 2000 as his candidate, Senator McCain, was smeared by the the Bush Campaign in South Carolina. He knows the game well although seemingly less inclined to go dirty, which may explain the acquisition of Schmidt.
But his hands are are not much cleaner. Though it's said he is on leave from his lobbying firm and doesn't currently receive a salary, he has made plenty off his relationship with McCain and if he can put him in the White House he'll make plenty more.
Another recruit from the Bush Administration, Greg Jenkins, was recently sued by the ACLU for removing peaceful protesters from a McCain appearance in Denver, Colorado. Finally the lovely and talented Nicolle Wallace who also worked closely with Rove as President Bush's communication director and before that Jeb Bush's press secretary. Wallace can be summed up with her primary goal which is to be aggressive and drive the debate in the campaign. Unfortunately anything goes in that pursuit.
This is just a sample of the people who survived the shake-up of the McCain election staff. Imagine the conflict of interest for those who were let go.
The bottom line is that the McCain election crew is a who's who of lobbyists and operatives who thrive in a sham world where perception is reality and in the end having all to do with getting their hands on your tax dollars. They do it the only way humanly possible, without conscience.
It's an especially awkward duplicity when you consider Senator McCains projected image as an election reformer.