The New York Times is reporting that Rick Davis has pioneered a new effort to lobby for foreign governments and corporations without registering to do so--including a mobbed up Russian banned from entering this country (so he raised money for McCain in London, how tricky!) and the former premier of Ukraine--who McCain just happened to oppose during elections over there:

But while Mr. Davis took a leave from Davis Manafort in 2006, the company has developed a specialty in recent years in a type of lobbying for which firms do not have to register — namely, representing the interests abroad of foreign politicians and businessmen.

In recent years, the company’s clients have included the richest man in Ukraine and a former premier of that country whose opponents were supported by Mr. McCain. The Washington Post reported in January that Mr. Davis also set up a meeting in Switzerland in 2006 between Mr. McCain and a Russian businessman, who has been barred from entering this country, apparently because of accusations about past ties to organized crime in Russia. That businessman, Oleg Deripaska, has denied such links.

Davis, of course, also set up meetings for McCain with foreign clients while employed as campaign manager:

Seven months later, in August 2006, Davis was present again at a social gathering that was also attended by McCain and Deripaska, this time in Montenegro, another Eastern European country in which Davis's firm was working. The three were among a few dozen people dining at a restaurant during an official Senate trip. Davis was a paid consultant to the governing party in Montenegro and had advised it on a just-ratified independence referendum, Salter said.

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It's good to be the king!