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host · 12-07-2006, 11:39 AM

In my first (#13) post here, I included a quote box which documents that a caller to a radio program informed John McCain about the "ethics" of Terry Nelson. We also know that Nelson was the architect of the "race baiting" campaing against Tenn. Congressman Harold Ford Jr. in the senate race, before last months election:

Quote:

http://www.talkcheck.com/johncarlson...ffersdirtypast
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McCain Denies Knowledge of Staffer's Dirty Past
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Josh Marshall's new website had an <a href="http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/000137.php">interesting piece</a> earlier this week that pointed out how that maverick reformer John McCain had recently hired a rather dirty Republican operative. And as luck would have it, Senator McCain swung into Seattle today to promote the futile campaign of the Republican candidate for the Washington State senate race. Somewhere in between fundraisers the campaign finance reformer found time to stop by and help a local right-wing radio host with a different effort: the <a href="http://www.talkcheck.com/johncarlson/2006/02/14/johncarlsonchangestuneonmccain">campaign</a> to sell McCain to the local Republican base.

 
One clever caller decided to take advantage of McCain's appearance to try and get some "straight talk" on the senator's recent hire:
 
<blockquote>
CALLER: Thanks, I had a question for the senator. For a reformer, I'm kind of curious why he would hire a guy like Terry Nelson as a senior advisor.
 
Here's a guy who was actually in the indictment of Delay on his money laundering charges. When he was at the RNC, he agreed to take the corporate contributions from Delay's PAC and then recycle them back into the Republican congressional races.
 
And he was also, this guy Nelson was also the supervisor for James Tobin, who was the guy convicted last year for helping jam the Democratic get-out-the-vote phone lines in New England a couple years ago.
 
So I'm curious why would you hire someone with such a shady background?
 
MCCAIN: None of those charges are true.
 
CALLER: Do you believe what was actually written in the indictment from Texas?
 
MCCAIN: No.

 
CARLSON: All right.
 
[nervous laughter]
 
MCCAIN: I will check it out. But I've never heard of such a thing. I know that he was a grassroots organizer for President Bush year 2000 and 2004, and had a very important job in the Bush campaign as late as 2004, but the other charges I will go and look and see if any of them are true, but I've never heard of them before.
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<a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/mccain20060321.mp3">Audio</a>
 
Isn't it amazing how a few blogs can know more about McCain's senior advisor than McCain himself? I'll leave a few references that should speed up the good senator's "research", courtesy of <a href="www.talkingpointsmemo.com">TPM Media</a>:
<ul><li>The Delay indictment that lays out Nelson's role in money laundering is available <a href="http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/delay-reindictment/?resultpage=3&">here</a></li>
<li>The witness list that shows Nelson's connection to the phone jamming scam is available <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/tobin-witness-list/?resultpage=2&">here</a></li>

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I am no fan of McCain. He strikes me as a candidate who will do anything to win. His character seems to be eclipsed by his ambition, he is extremely partisan, choosing to shield the impropriety of members of his own party in congress, who helped Jack Abramoff or benefited financially from Abramoff's political blackmailing of native American tribes, investigated by the senate committee chaired by McCain, instead of doing the thorough investigation that his committee is presumably empowered, and obligated to do, to represent the best interests of the American people, instead of the best interests of McCain and his cronies.....

Now, we have confirmation that McCain, knowing who Terry Nelson is, and what he has done, is tapping Nelson to help win a McCain presidential campaing victory:

Quote:

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalra..._picks_ca.html
McCain Picks Campaign Chief

December 07, 2006 8:06 AM

ABC News' David Chalian Reports:

.....Later today, Sen. John McCain's exploratory committee plans to announce veteran GOP campaign operative Terry Nelson as his pick to be his national campaign manager, should the Senator choose to turn his exploring into a full-blown run for the White House.

"We couldn't be more pleased that John asked Terry to oversee the daily operation of the campaign if the McCains decide to move forward. All of us -- Rick (Davis), Mark (Salter), and me -- look forward to a crash course in metrics," McCain's top political strategist John Weaver told ABC News.

"Terry brings strong leadership, detailed and current knowledge, a wide range of impressive contacts nationally, and a drive to our core group," Weaver added.
The Washington Post was first to report the McCain camp's initial Nelson primary victory back in March when he joined McCain's Straight Talk America PAC as a senior adviser. <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/18/AR2006031800966.html">LINK</a>

Nelson served as national political director for Bush-Cheney '04. He has served in senior roles in both the political and field/grassroots organizing arenas at the RNC and the NRCC.

Nelson's hire is clearly a huge get, but will not come without controversy. Nelson made political headlines in the 2006 cycle as the strategist tapped to head up the RNC's independent expenditure which was responsible for that extremely controversial ad in Tennessee against Harold Ford, Jr. featuring a young blonde actress portraying a woman who met Ford at a Playboy party and who suggestively asks him to call her at the end of the ad. (It caused enough heartache for one of Nelson's other clients, Working Families for Wal-Mart, that they sought and received his resignation after the episode.) Nelson was also tied up in the recently settled New Hampshire phone jamming case and in Tom DeLay's TRMPAC troubles from his days at the RNC.