The body man

Like clockwork: As it becomes inevitable who the Democratic nominee is going to be, the Times rolls out a story about his "valet" in which we are regaled with lists of the exotic, nay, "elitist" foods said candidate consumes.

What a body man does depends on the politician. Senator John Kerry’s aide for his presidential race in 2004 was dubbed “part butler, part buddy.” Bill Clinton’s aide when he was president said their relationship sometimes felt more like that of an old married couple. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has a body woman, the efficient and glamorous Huma Abedin. On NBC’s “The West Wing,” President Josiah Bartlet treated his body man, Charlie Young, like a son.

I guess McCain fetches his own water. Or maybe the Times just feels they've done too many lobbyist stories.

Early in 2005, Mr. Davis tried to develop another relationship with Pegasus when he and two other men suggested that it help bankroll a proposed new private equity firm. That firm was to focus on investments in domestic security companies, including those that vied for federal contracts, the person knowledgeable about Pegasus said.

A draft proposal for the new firm described Mr. Davis as a power player among Washington influence brokers.

“For the last three decades in the White House, Congress, federal agencies and politics both here and abroad Rick has operated at the highest level of decision and deal making,” according to a copy of that proposal reviewed by The New York Times.

Along with his work as a lobbyist, Mr. Davis at the time was also drawing a salary as the part-time president of the Reform Institute, a Washington group that Mr. McCain helped found to reduce “the influence of special interests” in politics and government.