More about my namesake lobbyist, in a TNR blog post about Obama "pulling his punches" about Palin's lobbyist connections:
The shot the Obama campaign doesn't take here has to do with the Washington lobbyist Palin hired for Wasila. His name is Steven Silver and, as the saying goes, he "has ties" to Jack Abramoff.I for one hope Obama doesn't take that tack. I don't want my name dragged through the mud like that. Posted by Stephen Silver at September 10, 2008 05:20 PMAre those ties extensive? As this article from TPMMuckraker makes clear, probably not: It looks like Silver did some work for Abramoff's lobbying firm and had one meeting with Abramoff. But if the McCain campaign can do an ad about Obama sending an army of political hitmen after Palin based on an apparently bogus John Fund blog post, then the Obama campaign can certainly send out a press release release that accuses Palin of hiring "a Washington lobbyist with ties to convicted felon Jack Abramoff." Indeed, the hypothetical Obama press release would be more factually sound than the very real McCain ad.