Democrats and Republicans are having a little slapfight over which of their candidates has the most ties to lobbyists (Short answer: They both have lots and lots of ties to lobbyists -- active, inactive, foreign, domestic, tall, short, alive, dead, etc).

The Democratic National Committee sent out a mean little message today screamingly slugged: ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER LOBBYING SCANDAL FOR MCCAIN CAMPAIGN. "As John McCain's campaign continues its false and misleading attempts to spin away a widening lobbying scandal, the USA Today revealed that yet another member of McCain's inner circle was lobbying on the campaign trail. According to the report, as recently as November 2007, McCain's top foreign policy advisor, Randy Scheunemann, was lobbying McCain's Senate office on behalf of his foreign clients in the same week he was representing the Senator on the campaign trail."

The McCain camp sent out its own mean little message: "Despite his own campaign's ties to lobbyists, nothing comes between Barack Obama and a partisan political attack," said Tucker Bounds, a McCain spokesman. "In Senator Obama's world, lobbyists can raise money and advise his campaign on policy issues, their families can contribute but supposedly they have no role. It's absurd, despite his own rhetoric, Senator Obama still refuses to disclose the list of lobbyists advising his campaign. What is Senator Obama hiding?"

McCain enacted a new policy last week that prohibits any campaign staffer from being a currently registered lobbyist or foreign agent. Part-time, unpaid volunteers for the campaign must disclose whether they are registered lobbyists or lobbying on behalf of foreign entities.

Obama does not take money from current registered federal lobbyists, but has plenty of his own active lobbyists advising his campaign, and he has a slew of former lobbyists collecting cash. His fundraising team also includes dozens of members of law firms that were paid nearly $140 million last year to lobby Washington lawmakers. He also accepts contributions from state lobbyists and corporate executives with interests before Congress, and former lobbyists work for him as "bundlers," raising cash for him.

For more on the whole brouhaha, read my story tomorrow in The Washington Times (or here on the Web site).

— Joseph Curl, senior White House correspondent, The Washington Times