Before John McCain takes the stage tonight at the Republican National Convention, Campaign Money Watch’s David Donnelly decided to offer up a “prebuttal” to the Republican nominee’s remarks, a big chunk of which are expected to focus on bringing reform to Washington.

In the prebuttal, David explains why that won’t be the case if McCain were to win. Here are some highlights:

“In his acceptance speech, McCain will try to recapture the past reform victories as prologue to what a President McCain would fight for, but the last two years have exposed him as a cynical, old-school politician. McCain has neither a comprehensive, bold reform agenda that will truly change Washington nor the ability to reject the control exercised by his lobbyist-run, big money-fueled candidacy.”

“Sen. McCain has fought shoulder-to-shoulder with my colleagues and me for reforms in a number of states around the country. One might call it organizing. But the stakes in this election are too high, and the opportunities to truly change Washington are too great, to remain silent in the face of Sen. McCain’s hollow calls for reform and his reversal on ending campaign money’s grip over who runs for office and what they do if they win.”

“Sen. McCain will likely rail against the lobbyists in Washington and claim he helped craft a new lobbying and ethics law. Despite some good things required under these reforms, how does preventing a lobbyist from buying McCain a $25 lunch while allowing the same lobbyist to raise $250,000 for McCain’s campaign blunt the power of lobbyists?”

The entire prebuttal is available online as a PDF – definitely worth checking out.