Abramoff and Black were associated for many years beginning in the '80's. They were never in business together, but they were part of the same lobbying system that has run Washington since the '80's. Black was also a political consultant for Jesse Helms early in his career. He helped train Lee Atwater in dirty tricks politics. He served as a lobbyist for Jonas Svabimbi of the UNITA front in Angola, Ahmed Chalabi (who helped con the US into getting into Iraq while on the payroll of Iran), and the Blackwater Group. We can pretend that this is a mainstream conservative Republican, but he's one of the sleazy operators that have made politics disgusting for the past 30 years -- fear-mongering, race-baiting (see Helms ads when he ran against Harvey Gantt). Imagine Charlie Black as President McCain's chief adviser; the ties between this man and McCain are real, not a figment like the nonexistent ties between Obama and Billy Ayres.