McCain Rejects and Denounces Lobbyist Friends. Feeling's Mutual?

John McCain has come under fire this month, as some pesky folks have decided to look into his lobbyist connections (particularly Charlie Black and Thomas Loeffler, who also represent foreign dictators... and the latest, fmr. Sen. Phil Gramm, whose got connections to the housing issue). When McCain began cutting a few, but my no means most or all, of them loose, lobbyists everywhere got pissy with their old maverick pal-

More than a few Republican lobbyists in Washington are scratching their heads these days, asking: So this is the thanks we get?

It was a small band of loyal lobbyists who stood by presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain last August when his campaign went broke and his White House aspirations seemed doomed.

They raised money for him under impossible odds and kept him company in budget hotels during his darkest days.

Now they are under siege as McCain purges active lobbyists from his campaign team in a quest to wrest the reformist title from Democrat Barack Obama, his likely opponent in this fall’s general election...

The lobbyists quoted from the piece mostly wished to remain anonymous, which is so odd because there's nothing unseemly or corrupt about what they do, right? Gosh!

Here's one pissed-off anonymous lobbyist-

"If it was OK to have these people working for you in February, why is it not OK today?" asked one Republican lobbyist who counts a friend among the new McCain outcast class...

..."McCain’s self-righteous [expletive] has caught up with him. Now he’s got himself in a jam," said another Republican lobbyist who asked to remain anonymous because he is a campaign volunteer. "He’s got to change the subject back to economic growth and taxation and the war on terror."

Umm, sir, if you're worried about whether the Republicans will be foaming at the mouth enough this summer about the free market and tax cuts and terrorists, you've clearly been too busy buying off congressmen to pay attention to politics in the last eight years.

The article also has a funny mention about how lobbyists who were formerly backing Sen. Clinton now need to ingratiate themselves with Team Obama, but are having a hard time getting around his no lobbyist money pledge. It's hard out there for a pimp.