Word: johnson
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DIED From childhood on, disability-rights lawyer Harriet McBryde Johnson was adamant about defending what she thought was right--even if that meant leading the charge as a young teen to oust a teacher she considered abusive. Suffering from a congenital neuromuscular disease and bound to a wheelchair, Johnson resented assumptions about her quality of life. She railed against the "pity-based tactics" of the Jerry Lewis muscular dystrophy telethon, challenged a prominent Princeton professor on the ethics of euthanizing disabled infants and spoke out in defense of the brain-damaged Terri Schiavo when her case polarized the nation...
...road that led to Johnson's withdrawal began back in February, when Obama and his Democratic allies started highlighting the many lobbyist ties that bind together the Republican campaign of John McCain. "His top advisers in the campaign are lobbyists," Obama told his traveling press, making no secret of his disdain for politicians who fraternize with influence brokers...
...earlier this week, after the reports of Johnson's ties first surfaced, McCain leaped at the chance to be outraged. "I think it suggests a bit of a contradiction, talking about how his campaign is going to be not associated with people like that," McCain told Fox News on Monday. "Clearly he is very much associated with that." The Republican opposition research machine went into overdrive, bombarding reporters with all the telling details of Johnson's record as a powerful man who profited from his own relationships. Conservative blogs and the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal...
...allies sent out e-mails announcing that the man leading McCain's vice presidential search, Arthur B. Culvahouse, was - you guessed it - a former lobbyist. To make matters even more complicated - and absurd - Culvahouse used to lobby for Fannie Mae, the rich and well-connected mortgage company where Johnson previously served as chairman and CEO. (Full disclosure: Time Warner, the parent company of TIME, is another of Culvahouse's former clients...
...These are some of the issues that will decide the future of our country, the state of our world and the prosperity of our children. The past dealings of relatively minor political aides like Johnson and Culvahouse will not, no matter what the candidates tell you tomorrow...