Subject: RE: McCain Transition
From: "Chris Lu" <[email-masked]>
To: "John Podesta" <[email-masked]>, "Pete Rouse" <[email-masked]>, [email-masked], "Melody Barnes" <[email-masked]>, [email-masked]
Cc: "Anita Dunn" <[email-masked]>, "Dan Pfeiffer" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2008 08:11:16 -0500

looping in Anita and Dan
 
________________________________

From: John Podesta [mailto:[email-masked]]
Sent: Fri 9/12/2008 8:00 AM
To: Pete Rouse; Chris Lu; [email-masked]; Melody Barnes; [email-masked]
Subject: Fwd: McCain Transition

This will get the press juices flowing

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Gayle Smith <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2008 05:02:09 -0400
Subject: McCain Transition
To: John Podesta <[email-masked]>

From Time mag this morning, mentions you at end:

Friday, Sep. 12, 2008
McCain Taps Lobbyist for Transition By Michael Scherer/WASHINGTON

A prominent Washington lobbyist who has worked for every Republican
president since Richard Nixon has been tapped by the McCain campaign to
conduct a study in preparation for the presidential transition, should John
McCain win the election, according to sources familiar with the process.

William E. Timmons, Sr. is a Washington institution, having worked in the
Nixon and Ford administrations as an aide for congressional relations, and
assisted the transition teams of both Ronald Reagan in 1980 and George W.
Bush in 2000. He was also a senior adviser to both Vice President George
Bush in 1988 and Senator Bob Dole in 1996.

Timmons is the chairman-emeritus of Timmons and Company, a small but
influential lobbying firm he founded in 1975, shortly after leaving the
White House. According to Senate records, he registered to lobby in 2008 for
a wide range of companies and trade groups, including the American Petroleum
Institute, the American Medical Association, Chrysler, Freddie Mac, Visa
USA, and Anheuser-Busch.

His registrations include work on a number of issues that have become
flashpoints in the presidential campaign. He has registered to work on bills
that deal with the regulations of troubled mortgage lenders Freddie Mac and
Fannie Mae; a bill to provide farm subsidies; and bills that regulate
domestic oil drilling.

By tapping Timmons, McCain has turned to one of Washington's steadiest and
most senior inside players to guide him in the event of a victory - but also
to someone who would represent the antithesis of the kind of
outside-of-Washington change he has recently been promising. One Republican
familiar with the process said the decision to involve Timmons could become
a political liability for the campaign's reformist image, especially in the
wake of the controversies over the lobbying backgrounds of other McCain
staffers, including campaign manager Rick Davis. "It's one more blind spot
for Rick Davis and John McCain," the person said.

Under the McCain campaign's conflict of interest rules, announced in May,
lobbyists who volunteer for the campaign must disclose their clients, agree
not to lobby the campaign or McCain's Senate office, and refrain from
"involvement in any campaign policy-making on the subjects for which they
are registered."

Timmons, who is not leading the effort, is working on the McCain transition
planning with former Navy Secretary John Lehman, Jr., a friend and traveling
companion of McCain's, who runs an investment bank and recently served on
the national commission that investigated the terrorist attacks of September
11, 2001.

McCain campaign communications director, Jill Hazelbaker, said in an Email
that the campaign would not comment on news stories about the transition
process. Messages left at Timmons' office and home Thursday afternoon were
not returned. A spokesman for Lehman referred questions to McCain campaign
manager Rick Davis.

It is typical for presidential campaigns to begin working on the transition
effort months before the election, given the short window available to set
up a new government between election day and the inauguration. The Obama
campaign has also started a transition planning effort, recruiting John
Podesta, a former chief of staff to President Clinton who now runs a liberal
think tank, the Center for American Progress, to help oversee the
preparation.

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