A Second McCain Aide Resigns.

Doug Davenport, the regional campaign manager for the mid-Atlantic states, founded the DCI Group's lobbying practice and oversaw the contract with Myanmar in 2002.

"Doug has tendered his resignation and we have accepted it," Jill Hazelbaker, McCain's communications director, wrote in a e-mail.

He joins former DCI Group CEO Doug Goodyear, who resigned yesterday from the post of convention CEO after Newsweek reported that DCI was paid more than $300,000 to represent Myanmar's ruling junta.

Goodyear and Davenport were recruited by McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, who has been accused by some current and former McCain advisers of take insufficient care of McCain's reformer brand by appointing lobbyists to key positions. Ironically, as Newsweek reported, Goodyear was asked to become convention CEO after Davis's lobbying firm partner, Paul Manafort, was nixed because of his own close ties to foreign governments and controversial companies.

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/05/a_second_mccain_aide_resigns.php

What is the DCI Group?

The DCI Group, LLC is top Republican lobby and public relations firm associated with telemarketing company Feather Larson & Synhorst DCI and the direct-mail firm FYI Messaging. The DCI group publishes the website Tech Central Station and has close ties to the George W. Bush administration. Incorporated in 1997 in Phoenix, Arizona, Timothy N. Hyde, Douglas M. Goodyear, and Thomas J. Synhorst are listed as the LLC's managers. In addition, Christopher A. Holt is listed as a member.

The DCI Group calls itself a “strategic public affairs consulting firm” and boasts that it handles corporate issues like political campaigns.

What the Burmese Junta and the Drug Industry Have In Common

DCI seems willing to work with some of the most controversial clients in the world. In 2002, it received $340,000 for eight months of work for the Union of Myanmar (Burma) State Peace & Development Council. The Washington Post’s Al Kamen wrote, “DCI’s filings with the Justice Department offer an unusual glimpse into the efforts by the Rangoon junta. DCI lobbyists, featuring Charles Francis, a longtime family friend of the Bushes, ran a sophisticated campaign to improve the regime’s image—and steer the conversation away from its rampant human rights abuses and such.”

Francis “even set up two meetings with White House National Security Council Southeast Asia director Karen B. Brooks,” Kamen continued, “—an unusual feat given that Burma is under U.S. sanctions and its top officials are barred from coming here—to tout Burma’s cooperation on anti-drug, HIV/AIDs and anti-terrorism efforts and in finding the remains of U.S. soldiers from World War II.” After lobbying congressional officials, the Defense Department, and well connected think tanks, the “campaign was on the verge of success—the State Department was about to certify the regime—but the administration backed off amid pressure from the Hill, human rights groups and the media.”

A more recent example of DCI’s work is a campaign to generate positive press for the contentious Medicare act of 2003. The main force behind the Medicare act was the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America(PhRMA), one of the country’s largest and most influential trade associations. PhRMA spent millions of dollars and used dozens of lobbyists including the DCI Group to get the act passed. Even so, the law was so controversial even among Republican legislators that it barely won approval, even after the party’s leadership violated normal voting procedures to push it through. Following its passage, The Hill reported in September 2004 that DCI was “offering healthcare consultants $3,750 plus expenses over six weeks to generate positive news stories about the drug card and offer support to Congress for voting for the Medicare drug law.”

Hmmm.. connection to the oil companies and big corporation? Big nightmare for the Republican Party:

This piece from Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff:

Goodyear is CEO of DCI Group, a consulting firm that earned $3 million last year lobbying for ExxonMobil, General Motors and other clients.

Potentially more problematic: the firm was paid $348,000 in 2002 to represent Burma’s military junta, which had been strongly condemned by the State Department for its human-rights record and remains in power today. Justice Department lobbying records show DCI pushed to “begin a dialogue of political reconciliation” with the regime. It also led a PR campaign to burnish the junta’s image, drafting releases praising Burma’s efforts to curb the drug trade and denouncing “falsehoods” by the Bush administration that the regime engaged in rape and other abuses.