McCain's Meddlers.

• Author: Ngugi, Mukoma Wa
• Position: Essay

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President Bush endorsed John McCain even before Mike Huckabee dropped out of the race. It was back in 2005 at an International Republican Institute (IRI) dinner. President Bush introduced John McCain as an "outstanding" IRI board chairman and as "a man of honor and integrity, and great personal courage."

McCain has served as board chairman since 1993. During the past fifteen years, under the cover of spreading democracy and a free market economic system, the IRI has helped install governments friendly to the United States and undermined others.

Despite its reputation for destabilizing popularly elected governments, McCain touts his experience in the IRI as an example of what he would do if elected President. "Given my decades of involvement in promoting democratic values, it is safe to assume that I will remain a supporter of legitimate democracy-building groups," McCain told The Arizona Republic .

Formed in 1983 during the Reagan Administration, the IRI is funded almost entirely by U.S. tax dollars to the tune of $75 million a year, with the money being disbursed through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Big business, lobbying groups, and foundations gave more than $1 million to the IRI in 2006, while individuals donated a total of $200,000.

The IRI calls itself a "nonprofit, nonpartisan organization committed to advancing freedom and democracy worldwide by developing political parties, civic institutions, open elections, good governance, and the rule of law."

But created at a time when CIA covert action in Central America was coming under increasing scrutiny, the IRI has undertaken some of the supplementary tasks the CIA traditionally performed.

And while the IRI portrays itself as nonpartisan, a quick look at the IRI website establishes that while it is not legally under the Republican Party, in practice it is indistinguishable from it. The group is an amalgam of businesspeople, party stalwarts, and neo-cons.

Corporate donors to the IRI include UPS, AT&T, Coca-Cola, Blackwater, Anheuser-Busch, BellSouth, Chevron, ExxonMobil Foundation, and BE The Associated Press reports that many donor companies regularly lobby on the types of issues handled by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, where McCain is the number two Republican.

On the board of directors, you also find Paul Bremer III, the former viceroy of Iraq...