McCain adviser ousted in conflict uproar

By BEN SMITH | 5/15/08 7:56 PM EST Updated: 5/16/08 9:39 AM EST

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Shirley’s firm, Shirley & Bannister Associates, was paid more than $22,000 by McCain for work this February and March to win conservative support.

Photo: AP

John McCain's campaign asked a prominent Republican consultant, Craig Shirley, to leave his official campaign role Thursday after a Politico inquiry about Shirley's dual role consulting for the campaign and for an independent 527 group opposing the Democratic presidential candidates. The campaign also released a new conflict-of-interest policy barring such arrangements.

Shirley, a conservative public relations veteran, doubled as a consultant to McCain and to Stop Her Now, a 527 group barred from coordinating its activities with presidential campaigns. He is not currently on the McCain campaign’s payroll but will also step down from his role on McCain’s Virginia Leadership Team said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers.

"If you're working for a 527 involved in the presidential race, you won't have a named role in our campaign,” said Rogers.

Under the new policy, a copy of which was provided to Politico, “no person with a McCain campaign title or position may participate in a 527 or other independent entity that makes public communications that support or oppose any presidential candidate.”

Shirley’s firm, Shirley & Bannister Associates, was paid more than $22,000 by McCain for work this February and March to win conservative support. Stop Her Now has paid the firm more than $155,000 since 2007 for public relations work.

Shirley said Stop Her Now wasn’t the sort of group airing hard-hitting, factually questionable attack ads that have given 527s a bad name, but rather a “lighthearted” effort.

“This is not the nether regions of 527s,” he said.

But his background is in some of the hardest-hitting Republican attacks on Democratic presidents and presidential hopefuls.

He was reportedly a member of the team that tarred Michael Dukakis with the “Willie Horton” ads in 1988. In 2004, his company did public relations work for the movie "Stolen Honor," which attacked John F. Kerry for undermining the treatment of Vietnam Veterans.

In a recent editorial, Stop Her Now’s main backer, Richard Collins, explained his recent move to change his group’s name to “Stop Him Now” and devote it to attacking Barack Obama. Collins attacked Obama’s “full-throated liberalism” and his ties to the “corrupt politics of Chicago.”

“Obama’s style may be different, but his radical agenda is just as dangerous” as Hillary Rodham Clinton’s, Collins wrote.

Shirley’s firm registered the domain name stop-him-now.com in March; it redirects browsers to the Stop Her Now site.

The website ran animated parodies of Clinton and now runs parodies of Obama, recently imagining a visit by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright to the Obama White House. Shirley’s work was to promote the website and spread the word about its other promotional activities, including airplanes trailing “Stop Her Now” banners over Democratic presidential debates.

One recent anti-Obama cartoon features an Oval Office exchange between President Obama and Wright, whom Obama summons as his “spiritual adviser.”

“How may I serve you my brother?” asks the animated Wright.

“Is love black and white?” asks the fictional Obama.

“No — it is black,” shrieks Wright.

“Really?” asks Obama.

“Goddamn right,” the minister replies.

"That's what I'd thought you'd say," says a reassured Obama.