His colleagues call him Senator McConnell, or Mr. Minority Leader. He's campaigning across Kentucky trying to convince his longtime constituents that his "clout" helps them.

But instead of using his "clout" for pork and earmarks, he's really flexing his muscles for the big donors who fill his campaign coffers. That's...

From my colleague Dave Miller, posting at McCainsLobbyists.com:

We've all been there - you're in a remote area and cellphone coverage is lacking or sometimes non-existent. Most of us resign ourselves to being out of touch for awhile.

But when you're Cindy McCain, you get two cellphone towers...

In a conference call with reporters today, John McCain's lawyer John Dowd claimed that the Keating Five ethics investigation into McCain and four other senators was a "political smear job."

That seems to put him at odds with what McCain has claimed over the years. In fact, in 1999,...

John McCain once said, "I am a deregulator. I believe in deregulation." Those words have come back to haunt him this week. More importantly, this deregulatory approach he espoused over decades in Congress has left Wall Street unchecked and now teetering, with more than just "storied" investment houses at risk.

The John McCain who fought for campaign finance reform in the past is not the same John McCain speaking tonight. In his acceptance speech, McCain will try to recapture the past reform victories as prologue to what a President McCain would fight for, but the last two years have exposed...

On Sunday I wrote about the spike in donations to John McCain from Texas oil executives following a June 16 speech in which he reversed his longstanding opposition to offshore drilling.

In fact, no fewer than 85 Texas-based donors connected to the oil and gas industries gave $1,214,100 to...

On June 16th, a day before Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) scheduled to begin a series of big donors fundraising events in Texas, the presidential candidate announced a reversal in his longstanding opposition to coastal drilling for oil.

The reversal was been met with derision by economists, energy CEOs, and environmentalists....

While some have argued, quite convincingly, that this should have been the week to end John McCain's campaign, a little-noticed press briefing Thursday by lobbyist and campaign head Rick Davis is the one silver-lining for the candidate. Davis announced the campaign would have $400 million at its disposal.

John McCain traveled to Colombia this week to promote free trade, and with him went questions surrounding chief strategist and lobbyist Charlie Black. Like more than 100 other McCain staffers and fundraisers, Black's former clients have been scoured for potential embarrassments. Black's extensive ties to that country's oil and textile...

You can hear editorial boards across the country wringing their hands: Does Sen. Barack Obama's decision to reject public financing for the presidential campaign signal the death of publicly financed elections? Is it possible that Obama, the one who's inspired millions to become involved in politics, is to blame?

The...

John McCain has a new problem.

The Government Accountability Office's report today that found errors in the awarding of an Air Force contract sheds new light on McCain's intervention in awarding of that contract to Airbus -- which hired seven lobbyists who have been helping McCain raise money and...

Today, John McCain will deliver a speech, according to the Associated Press, in which he will make the case that he's the presidential candidate with a "history of fighting to reform government" and that Barack Obama's rhetoric doesn't match up to McCain's accomplishments.

As a reformer who has watched McCain...

Q. How many lobbyists does it take to get to the center of John McCain's campaign?

A. Too many.

Just last night Keith Olbermann criticized John McCain for letting lobbyist and former Senator Phil Gramm (also known as the Senator from Enron) advise him on his mortgage foreclosure proposal --...

John McCain's campaign doesn't just have any old 115 lobbyists working as staffer or fundraisers. He's got some of the worst abusers of the pay-to-play and influence-peddling in Washington, DC. These people are the ones, along with Jack Abramoff, responsible for giving lobbyists approval ratings below that of President Bush.

I read with interest the news reports of your campaign's decision to vet all the past associations, work, and conflicts of interest of your staff. As you may know, Campaign Money Watch has been increasingly concerned about the number of lobbyists working on and raising money for your presidential bid,...

Google is setting up a political operation in Washington and collecting big-name lobbyists with Republican connections faster than you can search the Web for Jack Abramoff.

At first, I thought it was another of those famed Google April Fools' Day jokes, just a week early. They may have pioneered a...