Muddled Vetting

While presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain survey the political landscape for running-mate options, they have also found time to pick apart each other’s search committee, criticizing the members’ links to special interests.

Obama’s leading VP vetter, Jim Johnson, was the first to come under fire from Republicans. The former CEO of Fannie Mae resigned from the search committee after being criticized by John McCain for getting mortgages with help from Countrywide Financial Corp., which Obama has condemned for its role in the subprime mortgage mess. The day after Johnson resigned, McCain drew attention to one of the remaining two people on Obama’s search committee, former deputy attorney general Eric Holder. McCain argues that because Holder served under President Clinton during his second term, he is linked to the president’s pardoning of Democratic campaign contributor Marc Rich, a commodities trader who fled the country after being charged with tax evasion. Holder is currently a partner with law and lobbying firm Covington and Burling LLP, which has made nearly $3 million in the first quarter of this year lobbying for such clients as Qualcomm Inc, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and the National Football League.

The Obama campaign shot back with criticism of the man leading McCain’s VP search, former lobbyist Arthur Culvahouse. According to The Hill, although Culvahouse is no longer registered to lobby, he is the chairman of the firm for which he once lobbied, O’Melveny and Myers. Earlier in Culvahouse’s career, he was a legislative assistant to Howard Baker and then counsel to President Reagan during the Iran-Contra scandal. He began lobbying for O’Melveny and Myers in 1998. In addition to lobbying, Culvahouse uses his own income to play politics. During this election cycle, Culvahouse has donated at least $200 to McCain and $5,000 to McCain’s leadership PAC, Straight Talk for America, CRP has found. The Obama camp might not want to be too critical of the international law firm that Culvahouse leads; individuals at O’Melveny and Myers have given the Obama campaign at least $110,675 compared to just $42,300 for McCain. Interestingly, while lobbying at O’Melveny, one of Culvahouse’s clients was Fannie Mae–the former employer of Jim Johnson.

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