Another One Gone and Another One Gone . . .

Another one bites the dust:

Former Rep. Thomas G. Loeffler, a Texan who is among the McCain campaign’s most important advisers and fundraisers, has resigned as a national co-chair over lobbying entanglements, a Republican source told Politico on Sunday.

It’s at least the fifth lobbying-related departure from the campaign in a week.

Loeffler, in addition to being entangled as a lobbyist for Saudi Arabia, appears to have lied about whether he ever lobbied McCain in that capacity:

Loeffler last month told a reporter "at no time have I discussed my clients with John McCain." But lobbying disclosure records reviewed by NEWSWEEK show that on May 17, 2006, Loeffler listed meeting McCain along with the Saudi ambassador to "discuss US-Kingdom of Saudi Arabia relations."

This all feeds into MoveOn's campaign to get McCain to fire chief strategist Charlie Black.



From a technical standpoint, that's a very well executed ad. That said, I question the overall electoral value of making McCain fire a bunch of his guys. Is this really going to move voters or is it just a matter of some (well deserved) score-settling?

Still, it's hard to deny that the drumbeat of these stories has the McCain campaign rattled and seems to be bearing fruit.

(Via Hilzoy, Yglesias)