John McCain has realized that it takes more than talk these days.  McCain, who says he doesn’t take money from lobbyists, is shedding them from his campaign posts like a snake shedding its skin.

Over the past week McCain’s campaign has seen several strategic advisers hitting the road.  Former Rep. Thomas G. Loeffler, a Texan who is among the McCain campaign’s most important advisers and fundraisers, has resigned as a national co-chair over lobbying entanglements.  He is the fifth to bite the dust.

According to Politico

The officials who have left include Doug Goodyear, who was McCain’s top liaison to the Republican National Convention; Doug Davenport, regional campaign manager for mid-Atlantic states; Eric Burgeson, an energy policy adviser; and Craig Shirley, a prominent Republican consultant who was a member of McCain’s Virginia Leadership Team.

Maybe this seems like McCain is taking the high road, and I’m sure that’s his intention.  But, let’s just not “assume” that Senator McCain has never met with lobbyists.  I’m sure anyone who has been in Washington has met with a lobbyist at some point in time.  It seems that they are about as prevalent as rats in a New York tenement building and about as hard to avoid.  In today’s world where everything is being watched and logged by Big Brother and Little Sister one must check the record before stating fact.

Loeffler’s departure followed a report this weekend by Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff that Loeffler’s “lobbying firm has collected nearly $15 million from Saudi Arabia since 2002 and millions more from other foreign and corporate interests, including a French aerospace firm seeking Pentagon contracts.”

Isikoff wrote: “Loeffler last month told a reporter ‘at no time have I discussed my clients with John McCain.’ But lobbying disclosure records reviewed by NEWSWEEK show that on May 17, 2006, Loeffler listed meeting McCain along with the Saudi ambassador to ‘discuss US-Kingdom of Saudi Arabia relations.’ ”

All that said, we now get into the excuses.

A Republican source who has talked to Loeffler played down the revelation, saying: “I doubt he meant he had never lobbied McCain in his life. And if it were only the one time pre-campaign, that’s pretty remarkable considering they’ve been friends for many years.”

I’m not going to vote for John McCain whether he talks to lobbyists or not, whether he surrounds himself with them, or has an office on K Street.  But, for the record, McCain has made his little missteps throughout his career… Keating 5, the recent land deal in Arizona, etc.  He has the weight of his wife’s holdings with mid-East companies that will resurface, even though it was reported that she sold off the holdings… some $2 Million worth.

But, for the record, John McCain is pretty clean after all those years in Washington.  No one among us is going to try the water walk as proof, but McCain overall is an honorable man.  And, while we will watch him and continue to check his affiliations, let’s hope that once the general campaign gets going, the candidates will stipulate past acquaintances on the record and get on with what affects us all.