The liberal media never hesitates to cover lobbyist ties to the McCain campaign, but is less-than-interested when it comes to looking into the Obama campaign’s ties.

For example, Daniel Shapiro, one of Obama’s foreign policy advisers, is registered to lobby for several corporate interests.

Moses Mercado, a veteran political adviser, has an unpaid position providing advice to Team Obama. He also happens to be registered to lobby on behalf of corporate interests, including AT&T.

Then there are the Obama campaign staffers that only failed to register in order to work on the Senator’s campaign. Staffer Buffy Wicks was registered in ‘07 to lobby on behalf of the United Food and Commercial Workers union. Steve Hildebrand, an early state organizer for Obama, only terminated his registration to lobby for an environmental firm when he joined the campaign.

Now it turns out that David Axelrod, Obama’s campaign manager, has ties to lobbyists, too. His consulting firm, in fact, also lobbies for special interests.

When Illinois utility Commonwealth Edison wanted state lawmakers to back a hefty rate hike two years ago, it took a creative lobbying approach, concocting a new outfit that seemed devoted to the public interest: Consumers Organized for Reliable Electricity, or CORE. CORE ran TV ads warning of a “California-style energy crisis” if the rate increase wasn’t approved—but without disclosing the commercials were funded by Commonwealth Edison. The ad campaign provoked a brief uproar when its ties to the utility, which is owned by Exelon Corp., became known. “It’s corporate money trying to hoodwink the public,” the state’s Democratic Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn said. What got scant notice then—but may soon get more scrutiny—is that CORE was the brainchild of ASK Public Strategies, a consulting firm whose senior partner is David Axelrod, now chief strategist for Barack Obama…

But the activities of ASK (located in the same office as Axelrod’s political firm) illustrate the difficulties in defining exactly who a lobbyist is. In 2004, Cablevision hired ASK to set up a group similar to CORE to block a new stadium for the New York Jets in Manhattan. Unlike Illinois, New York disclosure laws do cover such work, and ASK’s $1.1 million fee was listed as the “largest lobbying contract” of the year in the annual report of the state’s lobbying commission. ASK last year proposed a similar “political campaign style approach” to help Illinois hospitals block a state proposal that would have forced them to provide more medical care to the indigent. One part of its plan: create a “grassroots” group of medical experts “capable of contacting policymakers to advocate for our position,” according to a copy of the proposal. (ASK didn’t get the contract.)

Wait. So while Obama’s been advocating socialized health care and helping the poor, his campaign manager’s own firm has been lobbying to block a proposal that wold provide medical care to the poor?

Axelrod insists he isn’t a lobbyist because he doesn’t work in D.C.. What about Exelon, which is? How about the fact the state of New York lists ASK as a lobbying firm?

Do as he says, not as he does.