Will Charlie Black be the next political hack purged from the John McCain campaign because of his dirty deeds as a lobbyist? Liberal activist group moveon.org subtly makes the argument for that scenario with a new ad (above) calling on McCain to fire his senior adviser for being in cahoots with "some of the world's worst dictators." (Note: "some of the world's worst testicle-eaters" would also have been acceptable.)

MoveOn presumably hopes that Black doesn't get fired so they can run more ads noting his work for Ahmed Chalabi, Blackwater, and ball-munching dictators until November, but it seems possible that their target could fall before then as McCain tries to regain the "reformer" mojo which earned him so much good press in the old days.

McCain turfed another close aide, Tom Loeffler, over the weekend because his ongoing lobbying activities violated the campaign's new conflict-of-interest policy. Though Black conforms with the new policy because he stopped lobbying earlier in the year, the special interest taint he brings to the campaign is no less pungent than Loeffler's in political terms; his unsavory client list is longer and includes a testicle-eater, after all. What's more, Black's wife is a lobbyist, meaning that scrutiny will begin to focus on the new business her firm will unquestionably receive because of her husband's closeness to McCain.

For his part, Black says this whole McCain-lobbyist kerfuffle is "complete inside-the-beltway nonsense" that has little or no effect on most voters. That's the argument that could prevent Black and other McCain aides, including Rick Davis and Randy Scheunemann, from getting thrown overboard. But from the looks of things, their boss doesn't agree. At least not anymore.