Who is Charlie Black?

by DarkSyde [courtesy of Daily Kos]

Up until last week, it would be no surprise if few Americans were familiar with the name Charlie Black: before joining the McCain campaign as chief adviser, Black amassed a fortune working not for middle class Americans, but as a serial lobbyist working closely with conservative powerbrokers in plush backrooms on behalf of powerful CEO’s and creepy foreign gazillionaires:

• TPM reports that Black was on the dole of Achmed Chalabi, the Iraqi born con man who played a leading role in hoodwinking a tragically naive Bush administration into invading Iraq and installing Chalabi as a senior figure in the new government. Up until just a few months ago -- we really don't know how recently -- US taxpayers were still paying Chalabi millions of dollars a year while he continued to fleece American taxpayers from an undisclosed location in ... Iran.
• Black is chairmen of lobbying giant BKSH and Associates. His firm boasts a long list of impressive, powerful clients, including many who currently have business before US lawmakers, At&T and JP Morgan among them. Despite joining the McCain campaign, Black was still reportedly being paid by BKSH as recently as this Spring.
• My personal favorite: John Gorenfeld, author of Bad Moon Rising, notes that Black lent his name and in the process decieved several US lawmakers into attending a gruesome spectacle in the Dirksen Senate Office Building a few years ago, where right-wing religious maniac and beloved funding maven of the GOP, cult-leader Sun Myung-moon, was dressed up like King George III and crowned the Savior and Messiah of Mankind. When confronted by Gorenfeld, Black confessed nonchalantly as though it were business as usual.

Charlie Black has the right to work for whomever he sees fit, but that just begs the question. Given Mr. Black's many divided loyalties to a multitude of wealthy patrons, clear conflicts of interest, and his self professed penchant for cutting lobbying deals on a cell phone from the back of the 'Straight Talk Express,' it's reasonable to ask just who the hell this guy is working for now. More importantly, can we trust the judgment of a Presidential candidate who casually places such grave responsibility for the welfare of our nation during a time of war, in the hands of a man who looks eager to open a lobby franchise in the Oval Office on behalf of everyone from revolting foreign operatives to extremist anti-American clerics at the expense, literally, of legitimate, taxpaying citizens?