The Plank

by Walter Alarkon - 05/30/08 9:03 AM ET

While publishing house PublicAffairs says that former White House press secretary Scott McClellan didn’t write his book for money judging by his advance, Jason Zengerle notes that McClellan may have known that he could profit from sales. John McCain is going to have trouble distancing himself form obbyists entirely since they make up a large portion of the Republican operative talent pool, Zengerle notes. He cites reporting by Time’s Michael Scherer that shows McCain trying to purge his campaign of lobbyists only to find that they were almost necessary for his bare-bones campaign to continue.

Tags John McCain