Presumptive Republican presidential candidate John McCain's hand-picked choice for convention manager, Doug Goodyear, resigned after Newsweek ran a story about his lobbying work and involvement in 527 groups in 2004 that were fined for improprieties.

McCain has denounced 527 groups as recently as this past February.

Goodyear, CEO of the DCI group, a consulting firm that lobbies for ExxonMobil, General Motors and the military junta that runs that great democracy Burma, said in a brief statement, "Today I offered the convention my resignation so as not to become a distraction in this campaign. I continue to strongly support John McCain for president, and wish him the best of luck in this campaign".

Astonishingly, the McCain campaign's first choice, Paul Manafort, was nixed due to HIS lobbying efforts for foreign heads of state that included Ferdinand Marcos and personal relationship with Russia's Vladmir Putin. The campaign was concerned about the appearance of McCain being to closely tied to Washington lobbyists.

Does John McCain NOT have anyone close to him that ISN'T a lobbyist? Does his staff need introductory courses on how to vet people? I'm sure they'll run and take my advice, but they might just want to expand their circle of influence before he starts getting called on this stuff in earnest.