[DEBATE] : (Fwd) McCain aides and Burma, tobacco, Big Oil

[Patrick Bond]

A lobbying firm and its McCain ties
Posted: Monday, May 12, 2008 2:20 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under: 2008, McCain

 From NBC/NJ’s Carrie Dann
If there's one lesson that this cycle has taught aspiring politicians, 
it might be to keep an eye on your staff members' day jobs. Each of the 
remaining candidates have taken heat for murky intersections between 
their advisors' political work and consulting day jobs; Obama had 
advisor Robert Malley's Hamas meetings (part of his international 
conflict resolution duties); Clinton had Mark Penn's off-message 
handiwork with Columbian trade officials; and John McCain has now lost 
two aides in as many days as a result of an objectionable lobbying resume.

Doug Goodyear and Doug Davenport, the two McCain aides who resigned from 
positions within the GOP contender's campaign, stepped down this weekend 
after Newsweek reported that their lobbying firm, Washington power 
player DCI Group, represented Myanmar's military junta in 2002 to the 
tune of $348,000.

Goodyear, who resigned Saturday from his recent appointment as McCain's 
convention head, is a chief executive and co-founder of the DCI Group, 
whose resume has earned him ties in Denver, where he helped to usher in 
a new Major League Baseball team and an international airport, and in 
North Carolina, where he previously worked at a public relations firm 
linked to tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds.

Before the 2004 political season, Goodyear was recruited to help mediate 
between political ad gurus and cable companies who wanted a piece of the 
political advertising pie. (Source: Roll Call, 6 Nov 2003)

Many have pointed out that it's ironic that Goodyear got the convention 
chair gig. The favorite for the post was originally Paul Manafort, the 
lobbying partner of McCain campaign manager Rick Davis. Manafort's 
lobbying ties to some not-so-savory foreign characters, including a 
Philippine dictator, prompted the veto.

On Sunday, a second DCI-linked aide joined Goodyear in taking a knee.
Doug Davenport, who just stepped down as the Mid-Atlantic Regional 
Director for McCain, founded the lobbying shop for the DCI Group in 2000.

It's not the first time the ties between McCain and DCI have been under 
the microscope. Among DCI's other clients? Per a Wall Street Journal 
analysis shortly after Davenport jumped on the regional team, DCI 
represents Exxon-Mobil as well as "several towns and universities who 
are seeking the type of spending earmarks that Sen. McCain wants to 
eliminate."

Speaking of Exxon-Mobil, DCI's work for the oil giant, in particular, 
caused a stir in 2006 when an anti-Gore Web parody of "An Inconvenient 
Truth," was traced to a computer registered to the company. The 
cartoonish video, called, "Al Gore's Penguin Army," quickly went viral, 
scoring more than half a million hits on YouTube.

The film makes fun of Gore for claiming that global warming can be 
blamed for travesties such as the Middle East Crisis and the coupling of 
Heather Locklear and David Spade.

In any case, it raised eyebrows that someone within an oil company's PR 
firm appeared to be linked to the effort to make Gore look alarmist, 
boring and silly.