Black Claims McSame’s Campaign Is Above Lobbyist Influence: ‘I Don’t Know What The Criticism Is’

Thinkprogress:

Last week, BKSH & Associates chairman Charlie Black announced that he was quitting his lobbying firm to join Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) presidential campaign full-time, effective March 31. Prior to this arrangement, however, Black had already been serving as a senior adviser to the campaign.

Yesterday on CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight, Black claimed that he was the only “senior staff” member on the McCain campaign who was a lobbyist:

DOBBS: Well, you know, lobbyists, no one rails against them more than I do as you know Charlie. The criticism of having so many lobbyists in the McCain campaign, what is the response?

BLACK: “Where are they?” is the response. If you look at the senior staff, the top 12, 15, 20 people of the McCain campaign, there’s no one other than me who was a lobbyist — a currently active lobbyist. Now I am not. I don’t know what the criticism is.