John McCain: Vietnam vet, prisoner of war, crusading campaign finance reformer, Bush butt buddy.

Wait. Back up. What was that last bit?

Until recently, McCain, widely touted as the GOP’s darling for the 2008 Presidential Sweepstakes, has forged a lot of political capital by distancing himself whenever possible from the Bush/Carlyle Group/Dubai Ports World/Republican National Committee/K Street Group cabal. After all, wasn’t it McCain who joined forces with Russ “Censure Now” Feingold to produce landmark legislation to reform all campaign finance?

Well, sure it was.

We all remember that, right?

Maybe McCain doesn’t.

News released this past week reveals that John McCain, maverick campaign finance reformer, has signed Terry Nelson to serve as his campaign advisor. Specifically, he wants Nelson to organize and manage his political action committee, which is a fancy title that actually means fund-raiser.

Who is Terry Nelson? Why, he’s none other than The Shrub’s PAC organizer from the 2004 election.

At first, this may seem like a shrewd, canny career move for McCain. After all, it’s well-established in sports that you build a winning team by drafting the best players, right?

In this case, maybe not. You see, campers, Terry Nelson is also sunk right up to his balls in the Tom Delay money laundering case in Texas. According to recent reports, Nelson has lawyered up, and is planning to present damning testimony against disgraced former Republican House Majority Leader Delay.

Here’s the way the scheme worked, basically. In 2002, Terry Nelson was the Deputy Director of the Republican National Committee. Delay founded TRMPAC, or the Texans For A Republican Majority Political Action Committee. TRMPAC raised some $190,000 in corporate donations.

Under law, since these were hard money contributions, TRMPAC could not distribute these donations to Texas Republican candidates to be used for political purposes. Hard money contributions over a certain amount can only be used for administrative costs.

Delay and his TRMPAC found a convenient solution, according to allegations currently being tried in Texas courts. He sent the money to the RNC – specifically, to Terry Nelson, through the RNC’s Republican National State Elections Committee and Jim Ellis, a TRMPAC operative. This, as it turns out, made the contributions soft money.

Nothing really illegal so far. Just a little shady. However, the indictments against Delay (and his administrator for TRMPAC, John Colyandro) also indicate that Ellis included with the transfer a list of Texas Republican legislative candidates supported by TRMPAC, ostensibly included as a guide for how the money was to be, um, ‘re-distributed’.

Seven of those candidates subsequently received checks – representing soft money, which could be used for any purpose whatsoever – from the RNC, totaling (What, class? That’s right, you guessed it!) $190,000. Coincidentally, or probably not, this amount exactly matched the amount of hard money sent to the RNC by TRMPAC.

This, my beloved loyal readers, is called money laundering. It is a crime, most often engaged in by Mafia types, but it’s also a favorite of GOP cash-jugglers.

Terry Nelson is reported to have been named by the Texas grand jury investigating TRMPAC’s operations as an unindicted co-conspirator in a scheme by Delay, Colyandro, Ellis, TRMPAC, and the RNC to engage in money laundering.

As the trial has proceeded, it has emerged that the exact list allegedly delivered to the RNC by Ellis has not been uncovered. It appears to reside in a single place – Terry Nelson’s head. So, Nelson is planning to testify against his indicted co-conspirators. If convicted, Delay, Colyandro, and Ellis likely face some significant prison time, where they will undoubtedly discover an entirely new meaning to the term “back door contributions”.

In the mean time, Nelson became one of Bush Administration Chief Trickster Karl Rove’s protégés, and played a significant role in the 2004 Presidential Election, as political director. In fact, there are rumblings throughout Capitol Hill that Rove – as the master strategist of all Bush/RNC political activities in Washington – may have played a role in advising Nelson. Even if he didn’t, Terry Nelson’s role in this scheme places the Republican National Committee squarely in the sights of any ambitious Attorney General who might be interested in pursuing prosecution under the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act.

Yes, campers, the very legislation used to bust organized crime could eventually be employed to disassemble, prosecute, and imprison many prime players in the Republican National Committee.

And, at the center of the entire nefarious scheme, turning state’s evidence down in Texas, is Terry Nelson.

That’s right, campaign finance reform crusader John McCain’s new political action committee director.

Terry Nelson, Karl Rove protégé and alleged money launderer in Tom Delay’s 2002 TRMPAC/RNC scheme, will be in charge of McCain’s fund raising for his anticipated 2008 presidential campaign.

Gentles, we are living in dangerous times. The scandals revolving around Tammany Hall were nothing compared to the Tony Soprano – like undertakings of our current administration. The Bush Administration and its evil minions have mastered the art of deception and diversion. Can it be any coincidence at all that one of Karl Rove’s prime disciples has latched on to the GOP’s 2008 golden boy? Would you like to guess what McCain’s cabinet would look like if he were elected?

You wouldn’t have to think hard, or look very far. Most of them are already getting fat and happy in their West Wing offices on Pennsylvania Avenue. Rove’s master plan is ticking along right on schedule. Having orchestrated the diving jetliner of death that is the Bush Administration, he’s already planning how to pull the strings that will make the next Republican president dance to his macabre tune.

The only hope for breaking up the Rove/Bush crime syndicate is to elect a Democratic president in 2008. No Republican Attorney General is going to consider prosecuting the RNC for gangland activities. By replacing Alberto “When’s it MY turn for the Supreme Court?” Gonzales with a Democratic AG, there is a slim chance that justice will finally be served.

Until then, it’s going to be business as usual inside the Corruption Beltway.