McCain Adviser's Work As Lobbyist Criticized Foreign Clients Included
Notorious Rulers [image: Charles Black, John McCain's top political
strategist, is now retired from a 30-year career as a
lobbyist.]<javascript:void(popitup('http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/postphotos/orb/asection/2008-05-22/index.html?imgId=PH2008052103076&imgUrl=/photo/2008/05/21/PH2008052103076.html',650,850))>
Charles
Black, John McCain's top political strategist, is now retired from a 30-year
career as a lobbyist. (Karin Cooper - AP)
*Enlarge Photo*<javascript:void(popitup('http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/postphotos/orb/asection/2008-05-22/index.html?imgId=PH2008052103076&imgUrl=/photo/2008/05/21/PH2008052103076.html',650,850))>
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By Michael D. Shear and Jeffrey H.
Birnbaum<http://projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/email/michael+d.+shear+and+jeffrey+h.+birnbaum/>
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, May 22, 2008; Page A01
Longtime uber-lobbyist Charles R. Black
Jr.<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Charles+R.+Black+Jr.?tid=informline>is
John
McCain <http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/m000303/>'s man
in Washington, a political maestro who is hoping to guide his friend, the
senator from Arizona, to the presidency this November.
This Story
- McCain Adviser's Work As Lobbyist
Criticized<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/05/21/ST2008052103048.html>
- Channel '08: MoveOn Fires Straight Talk at McCain
Campaign<http://blog.washingtonpost.com/channel-08/2008/05/moveonorg_is_calling_on_john.html>
- Thursday, May 22 at 11 a.m. ET: Post Politics
Hour<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2008/05/18/DI2008051802636.html>
- In Wake of Defeats, House GOP Moves to Right the Campaign
Ship<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/21/AR2008052102570.html>
- Charles Black, Foreign
Agent<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2008/05/22/GR2008052200264.html>
View All Items in This
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But for half a decade in the 1980s, Black was also Jonas Savimbi's man in
the capital city. His lobbying firm received millions from the brutal
Angolan guerrilla leader and took advantage of Black's contacts in Congress
and the White House<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/The+White+House?tid=informline>.
Justice Department<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/U.S.+Department+of+Justice?tid=informline>records
that Black's firm submitted under the Foreign Agents Registration
Act detail frequent meetings with lawmakers and their staffs and lavish
spending by Black and his partners as they attempted to ensure support for
Savimbi, whose UNITA movement was fighting the Marxist Angolan government.
Then in his 30s, Black already had established himself as a pioneer of the
revolving door between campaign consulting and lobbying, having been a
senior adviser on President Ronald
Reagan<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Ronald+Reagan?tid=informline>'s
reelection campaign before returning to K Street. And his clients, as often
as not, were foreign leaders eager to burnish their reputations.
In addition to Savimbi, Black and his partners were at times registered
foreign agents for a remarkable collection of U.S.-backed foreign leaders
whose human rights records were sometimes harshly criticized, even as their
opposition to communism was embraced by American conservatives. They
included Philippine President Ferdinand
Marcos<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Ferdinand+Marcos?tid=informline>,
Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, Nigerian Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, Somali President
Mohamed Siad Barre, and the countries of Kenya and Equatorial Guinea, among
others.
That client list is now the subject of a fierce attack from Democrats who
are clamoring for Black, 60, to be fired as McCain's top political
strategist. And the candidate's decision this month to impose a strict ban
on lobbying for foreign governments by members of his staff has only
intensified the scrutiny of Black's past.
[image: ad_icon]
McCain "portrays himself as Mr. Clean, and then he has all these lobbyists
around him who are connected to a lot of not-so-clean people," said Paul C.
Light<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Paul+C.+Light?tid=informline>,
a professor of public service at New York
University<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/New+York+University?tid=informline>.
"One of the things Obama will do is portray him as the creature of
Washington, and what could be more Washington-esque than having a dictator
as a client?"
The back-and-forth between lobbyists and presidential advisers is not
exclusive to Republicans. Democratic candidate Barack
Obama<http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/o000167/>does
not accept donations from lobbyists, but the senator from Illinois has
lobbyists informally advising him on strategy and on policy.
Black has retired from lobbying, having left BKSH & Associates recently. But
he says he has no intention of leaving the campaign and is unapologetic
about a lobbying career spanning 30 years and seven presidential campaigns.
He said his firms never represented foreigners "without first talking to the
State Department<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/U.S.+Department+of+State?tid=informline>and
the White House and clearing with them that the work would be in the
interest of U.S. foreign policy."
For instance, he said, the United States considered Marcos an ally when
Black's firm took on work for the Philippine government, and "when the White
House pulled the plug on Marcos, we resigned the account the same day." He
said his firm was hired to help show Mobutu how to form political parties
and conduct elections, and when Mobutu canceled the results of a
parliamentary election, "we quit."
"Anyone that knows John McCain and his record understands that he's a public
servant who stands on principle. Any suggestion otherwise isn't rooted in
fact," said Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for the campaign. But McCain has long
been seen as a fighter against just the kind of special interests that paid
Black handsomely.
Black formed the political consulting firm Black, Manafort and Stone in 1980
with two other Republican political advisers, Paul Manafort and Roger Stone.
In 1981, the trio started a separate lobbying company by the same name. In
subsequent years, the lobbying firm added Democrat Peter Kelly, and the
consulting firm tapped legendary
GOP<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/U.S.+Republican+Party?tid=informline>adviser
Lee Atwater.
*CONTINUED* *1
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