McCain's Choice for GOP convention chair: Lobbyist who represented Burma junta

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<p>"After John McCain nailed down the Republican nomination in March, his campaign began wrestling with a sensitive personnel issue: who would manage this summer’s GOP convention in St. Paul, Minn.? The campaign recently tapped Doug Goodyear for the job, a veteran operative and Arizonan who was chosen for his “management experience and expertise,” according to McCain press secretary Jill Hazelbaker. But some allies worry that Goodyear’s selection could fuel perceptions that McCain—who has portrayed himself as a crusader against special interests—is surrounded by lobbyists. Goodyear is CEO of DCI Group, a consulting firm that earned $3 million last year lobbying for ExxonMobil, General Motors and other clients.</p>

<p>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. “It was our only foreign representation, it was for a short tenure, and it was six years ago,” Goodyear told NEWSWEEK, adding the junta’s record in the current cyclone crisis is “reprehensible.”</p>

<p>Another issue: DCI has been a pioneer in running “independent” expenditure campaigns by so–called 527 groups, precisely the kind of operations that McCain, in his battle for campaign-finance reform, has denounced…"
[McCain’s</a> Convention Chair Worked for Burma’s Military Junta | Newsweek Periscope | Newsweek.com](<a href=“http://www.newsweek.com/id/136321]McCain’s”>McCain's Convention Chair Worked for Burma's Junta)</p>

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<p>Have you seen the guy who’s his director of outreach to the hispanic community? That’s pretty darn scary too.</p>

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<p>McCain will go out of his way to make sure he does not say anything that might hurt Sen. Obama’s feelings, and he will make sure there are many ways for people to criticize his character by associating himself with sleevy people. McCain is a chump. He will the the first Republican to intentially lose a Presidential race.</p>