Our biggest story today is one we mentioned yesterday – McCain bundler Harry Sargeant III was labeled a “war profiteer” Thursday by Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, which is investigating Sargeant’s oil services company for overcharging the U.S military for oil it shipped to troops in Iraq. Read the whole story in our post from yesterday.

But what’s really generating some headlines today is lobbyist Vicki Iseman finally breaking her silence in an interview with National Journal. Iseman, you probably remember, was the subject of a New York Times piece early this year that alleged she had an affair with John McCain. Iseman strongly denies that claim today, and says the Times’ story nearly broke her. While there’s little in the way of news, it does offer an interesting look at both McCain’s time in the Senate and the inner workings (and dysfunctions) of his presidential campaign.

Finally, BusnessWeek reports on lobbyists for the three Detroit automakers, who are “pestering” both the McCain and Obama campaigns for a bailout for their struggling industry. Their biggest asset might be the electoral map: “Its hired guns point out that many auto plants are in battleground states—Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Missouri.”

Remember McCain bundler Harry Sargeant? We’ve discussed him plenty in the past. You might remember that his company, which ships oil into Iraq for use by American forces, was under Congressional investigation for overcharging the U.S. military.

Today, Rep. Henry Waxman, chair of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said in a letter that Sargeant’s International Oil Trading Limited “appears to have engaged in a reprehensible form of war profiteering.” That according to a report by MSNBC.com’s Aram Roston.

Waxman said that IOTC has made a $210 million profit off its oil-shipping contract, one it was able to obtain thanks to Sargeant’s business partner being brother-in-law to the king of Jordan (that business partner is now suing Sargeant). Most shocking of all, Waxman says that a huge chunk of that profit, $70 million, went right into Sargeant’s pocket.

John McCain has already returned $50,000 of the questionable contributions Sargeant helped round up. But now that Sargeant’s been slapped with the “war profiteer” label, McCain could find himself under more scrutiny and pressure to be up front about his relationship with Sargeant.

The biggest news of the day (at least that wasn’t from the debate) is something we wrote about last night – AT&T and Verizon setting up cell phone towers on John McCain’s ranch in what appears to be an example of McCain and his wife, Cindy, getting preferential treatment. McCain, of course, has been a friend to the companies on Capitol Hill and has many of their lobbyists serving his campaign.

Here’s the original Washington Post story. Also weighing in today is The New York Times.

Yesterday we mentioned Murray Waas’ story in Huffington Post about William Timmons’ connections to Saddam Hussein. As expected, McCain’s campaign is downplaying the story but now they’re also claiming they’ve “had no associations with any lobbyists – a claim MSNBC’s David Schuster isn’t buying, in this clip.

McCain’s VP pick, Sarah Palin, got a frosty reception yesterday when she trashed Wall Street… in front of a group of wealthy New Yorkers, even earning hisses and boos at some points of her speech. Fox News embed Mosheh Oinounou has the story.

The Wall Street Journal’s Mary Jacoby reports that McCain raised $87 million for the Republican National Committee in August and September. Unfortunately for McCain, it appears the RNC isn’t returning the favor, having pulled out of Wisconsin and Maine, the AP’s Jim Kuhnhenn notes.

Finally, USA Today’s Ken Dilanian and Matt Kelley look at the problems both candidates face in railing against corruption while relying on some questionable people for fundraising. It’s part of their ongoing “Price of Power” series examining the role of money in politics and is definitely worth a read.

We’ve all been there – you’re in a remote area and cellphone coverage is lacking or sometimes non-existent. Most of us resign ourselves to being out of touch for a while.

But when you’re Cindy McCain, you get two cellphone towers built right on your property by Verizon and AT&T – two companies that have given John McCain both hundreds of thousands in campaign contributions and over a dozen lobbyist bundlers.

That’s the story, according to The Washington Post’s James V. Grimaldi, and it’s one that goes to the heart of why John McCain’s lobbyist ties are so important. The article makes it clear that the towers were completely unnecessary in terms of providing coverage, and so few people lived near them that they could never be profitable.

Of course, none of that may matter when the McCains are the customers. Why? Well, Sen. McCain has been a friend to AT&T, Verizon and other telecom giants during his service on the Senate Commerce Committee, where he is a senior member and former chairman. And it turns out that McCain and these two companies have had a healthy exchange of money and lobbyists over the years.

According to a Campaign Money Watch analysis of data from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, AT&T employees and PACs have given McCain $480,408.00 since 1989. Verizon has contributed $282,572.00. AT&T is his No. 3 all-time contributor; Verizon is No. 11.

A list of the people who have lobbied for AT&T and Verizon forms a virtual who’s-who of McCain’s campaign staff, advisors and fundraisers. They include: national finance co-chair and bundler Wayne Berman, senior advisor Charlie Black, McCain’s Senate chief of staff, Mark Buse, VP vetter A.B. Culvahouse, campaign manager Rick Davis, deputy RNC chair Frank Donatelli, deputy campaign manager Christian Ferry, congressional liaison John Green, former finance chair Tom Loeffler, mega-bundler Tim McKone, George W. Bush national finance chair Jack Oliver and transition team head William Timmons.

In total, AT&T has paid nearly $20.9 million in lobbying fees to lobbyists now connected to McCain’s campaign, with Verizon paying just over $7 million. Those same lobbyists have bundled $600,000 for McCain.

The best way to illustrate these many, many connections is to visit our home page – click on one of the lobbyists mentioned above to see just how complicated this web (with McCain at the center) really is.

All those connections appear to have helped the McCains get good cellphone reception, even though AT&T and Verizon had to navigate through plenty of red tape to do it. That they’re willing to do such favors for McCain suggests they might expect a lot from him if he were elected to the White House. With so many of their lobbyists in McCain’s orbit, they’d definitely have reason to be hopeful.

Today’s big story comes courtesy of Murray Waas, who reports on Huffington Post that the head of John McCain’s transition team, lobbyist William Timmons, “aided an influence effort on behalf of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to ease international sanctions against his regime.”

Waas notes that Timmons’ previoius claim that he didn’t know two of his associates, Samir Vincent and Tongsun Park, were working on Saddam’s behalf falls flat: “Virtually everything Timmons did while working on the lobbying campaign was within days conveyed by Vincent to either one or both of Saddam Hussein’s top aides, Tariq Aziz and Nizar Hamdoon. Vincent also testified that he almost always relayed input from the Iraqi aides back to Timmons.”

The Wall Street Journal’s Monica Langley reports that McCain’s rhetoric during the economic crisis has caused tension between the candidate and financial executives and advisers. The story also suggests that Wall Street is increasingly reluctant to donate to the Republican’s campaign, because of both concern about McCain’s response to the crisis and Barack Obama’s rise in the polls.

Finally, The Washington Post’s Matthew Mosk gives us another report on Obama’s airwave dominance, though it also details some of the problems that go with having such a large donor base.

An analysis piece posted on CNN.com yesterday goes after what might be the source of John McCain’s recent troubles: “In the end, it’s not relevant who holds what title in the McCain operation, because it is not being run by campaign professionals, but by the Washington lobbying class.”

The sentiment is not surprising, but the source may be: GOP strategist Ed Rollins, known most recently for managing Mike Huckabee’s overachieving presidential campaign.

At least McCain has the political professionals at the Republican National Committee helping him stay in the game. The New York Times’ Leslie Wayne notes that the RNC, “flush with cash,” recently made two $5 million ad buys.

That money from the RNC – which is allowed to take much, much larger donations than candidates themselves can – appears essential to keeping the spending wars competitive. As The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza notes, there is growing speculation that Barack Obama may have raised well over $100 million in September. That would shatter the earlier record set by… Barack Obama in August.

Overall, the presidential race appears to have crossed the $1 billion spending threshhold. As Agence France-Presse notes, “the total bill adds up to 1.3 billion dollars spent during the length of a marathon struggle which started back in early 2007.” And that figure doesn’t appear to include spending by outside groups.

Even the presidential debates aren’t immune from the effects of money, The New York Times’ Leslie Wayne reports. The Commission on Presidential Debates is largely dependent on cash and in-kind contributions from corporations like Anheuser-Busch and the International Bottled Water Association. But the most disconcerting part of this arrangement, as one critic noted, is that “sponsors receive tickets to the events allowing them to ‘hobnob with campaign staff advisers and managers who will be senior advisers in the next administration.’”

Finally, The New York Times’ Robert Pear looks at the health care and pharmaceutical industries’ political contributions and notes that the money is shifting toward the Democrats. The question, of course, is what impact that will have on health care policy in 2009. History suggests the industries’ investments will pay off.

Happy Columbus Day! The holiday’s arrival means a relatively slow news day, but there are some items worth mentioning.

Catching up on news from the weekend, the “Troopergate” report was finally released late Friday – the Alaska legislative investigation found that John McCain’s VP pick, Gov. Sarah Palin, abused her power in pursuing the firing of a state trooper and removing the state public safety commissioner from his post. Palin has claimed the report cleared her of any ethical wrongdoing, even though the report appears to say the exact opposite.

In related news, the Los Angeles Times’ Kim Murphy reports on Todd Palin’s involvement in the governor’s office, noting that his constant presence made staff members uneasy.

The Boston Globe’s Brian C. Mooney notes that outside groups appear to be playing less of a role in this presidential election than they did in 2004.

Finally, the LA Times’ Mark Z. Barabak and Dan Morain go into detail about what Barack Obama’s fundraising advantage really means – mainly, it has given Obama an overwhelming presence in every battleground state, including a few that were deep red in 2004.

The Alaska legislature is expected to release its findings today in the “Troopergate” investigation, which has focused on whether John McCain’s VP pick, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, abused her power in pursuing the firing of her former brother-in-law, a state trooper, and in firing the state public safety commissioner after he refused to meet Palin’s demands. The Anchorage Daily News has the latest.

The New York Times also reports on the scandal – Serge F. Kovaleski writes that “the commissioner and his aides were contacted about Trooper Wooten three dozen times over 19 months by the governor, her husband and seven administration officials, interviews and documents show.”

As for McCain himself, The Washington Times has uncovered an interesting tidbit from the GOP nominee’s friendship with Charles Keating. In 1986 McCain, then a House member pursuing a Senate seat, sent Keating a letter apologizing for incorrectly listing Keating as a member of his campaign finance committee. Keating’s handwritten response? “Don’t be silly. You can call me anything, write anything or do anything. I’m yours till death do us part.”

The Washington Post’s Paul Kane and Glenn Kessler report on McCain’s gambling winnings: Apparently he’s been a loser at the craps table the past couple years, explaining his lack of gambling winnings on his tax returns. However, the campaign will only say that about 2006 and 2007. Returns from prior years still haven’t been disclosed.

Finally, Barack Obama has apparently raised a LOT of money – he’s going to air a half-hour infomercial in prime time on CBS and NBC on Oct. 29 and is in negotiations with other networks as well. Each block of time is estimated to cost around $2 million, The Washington Post’s Paul Farhi notes.

(Sorry for the late post today. We had some technical difficulties this morning.)

The “Troopergate” investigation into whether John McCain’s VP pick, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, abused her powers in pushing for her brother-in-law to be fired, and if those efforts resulted in the firing of the state’s public safety commissioner, is picking up steam. “First Dude” Todd Palin submitted a statement to the legislative investigation yesterday that indicated his efforts to get the trooper fired “started before his wife became governor and accelerated during the first 19 months of her administration,” the Anchorage Daily News’ Bill White reports.

The legislative panel’s report is expected to be released in a matter of days.

As for McCain, The New York Times reports today that a plan he floated in Tuesday’s debate – having the government buy up bad mortgages – would “would leave taxpayers to cover the losses, rather than the financial institutions that hold the original mortgages.” Of course, those are the same financial institutions that, with the help of deregulatory laws supported by McCain, played a big role in sparking the current crisis.

In an editorial today, the Times notes the “hypocrisy” of McCain for his talk about Obama’s “cronies” during the debate. After noting that McCain once called lobbyists “birds of prey,” they say the GOP nominee “is living in a virtual aviary with, among others, his campaign manager and his White House transition planner, bona fide heavyweights in the power game of lobbying and consulting.”

In the same vein, The Washington Post’s Zachary Goldfarb examines how Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae became this year’s “political hot potato,” noting how deeply entangled the mortgage giants were in Washington and the two presidential campaigns.

The LA Times’ Dan Morain and Doug Smith examine how Obama’s fundraising has, basically, been so successful that it’s rendered existing law obsolete. Campaigns don’t have to report information on donors who provide $200 or less, but Obama has raised so much money from small donors that a large chunk of his donor base is completely unknown. Basically, when the law was written, no one thought so much could be raised via small donors.

Finally, and along the same topic, the Financial Times notes that Blue State Digital, whose tools and consulting have helped fuel Obama’s record-breaking online fundraising, is taking its business international.

There were rumors last night – spread by top McCain surrogate Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), as seen in this Los Angeles Times report – that John McCain use last night’s presidential debate to bring up Barack Obama’s decision to opt out of public financing. That never happened – perhaps the constraints of the format prevented the topic from coming up. But there’s still one debate to go, and one more chance for both candidates to talk about their views on the role of money in politics.

Speaking of Obama’s decision, it appears to be paying dividends in one place: the TV ad war. The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza reports that Obama is outspending McCain nearly 3 to 1, including “more than $20 million on television ads in 17 states.”

Obama was able to pull in a little more money for ads after the debate with a little help from Al Gore, The Swamp’s John McCormick reports. The post-debate event at Gore’s residence raised more than $900,000.

Finally, the Chicago Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet reports that last night wasn’t the first time Tom Brokaw had lobbed questions at Obama. The two shared the stage at a private event at Goldman Sachs in 2007. No money was raised there, but perhaps the connections were made that resulted in Goldman Sachs employees topping the list of Obama’s campaign donors.