There are three witnesses now. Anybody honestly think all 3 are lying? Now, this may help McCain with moderates, who hate Bush, but it won't help him with conservative and other die-hard Republicans who have always suspected that Mr. McCain was more comfortable around Democrats (read: Joe Lieberman) than Republicans.
McCain's campaign is rife with D.C. lobbyists. They're running pretty much the whole operation. And, as much as McCain purports to be a guy who isn't influenced by lobbyists, he is. Today's Washington Post has a front page article examining a land deal McCain shepherded through Congress (the "largest" deal of its kind in the history of Arizona, we're told). A lot of former McCain staffers/lobbyist were involved, McCain cut the deal and one of his top fundraisers ended up being a major beneficiary of the whole thing:
McCain initially withheld support for Hayworth's bill, which failed in 2002. Ruskin saw McCain's restraint as an obstacle. He said Senate staff members warned him that the senator was wary of a swap because "he spent some political capital and got some bricks thrown at him" over the Tonto National Forest deal.
Ruskin, who is a pediatrician by training, said he realized he needed to hire lobbyists "to open communications with McCain's office."
He turned to some of McCain's closest former advisers. In 2002, he sought out Mark Buse, McCain's former staff director at the Senate commerce committee, which the senator chaired.
"I had gone to him to see if he had any advice as to how to deal with McCain," Ruskin said. "We had a couple of meetings and I paid him a little bit." Buse's federal lobbying records do not list the ranch as a client.
That year, lobbying records show, Ruskin also paid $60,000 to Michael Jimenez, another former McCain aide. Wes Gullett, who had worked in McCain's Senate office, managed his 1992 reelection bid, and served as deputy campaign manager for his 2000 presidential run, also lobbied on the bill, documents show. The watchdog group Public Citizen lists Gullett and his wife, Deborah, as bundlers who have raised more than $100,000 for McCain's White House bid. Ruskin also hired Gullett's partner, Kurt R. Davis, another McCain bundler and member of the senator's Arizona leadership team, to work with local officials and "to help with McCain if we needed help." Buse, Jimenez and Gullett did not return calls seeking comment.
Davis said that he and Gullett were not hired just to win over McCain. "Each member has issues that are more important to them. You have to be able to address their individual concerns. We had familiarity with the issues important to McCain." In this case, Davis said, "Senator McCain was very, very engaged and concerned about water issues."
In April 2003, McCain introduced his version of a land-swap bill. But he remained reluctant about the exchange, speaking to opponents and organizing meetings in towns that would be most affected.
Flagstaff Mayor Joseph C. Donaldson, a supporter of the swap, said McCain's hesitation stemmed from his "insistence that the environment be protected." But opponents were baffled by the senator's seemingly contradictory positions. Said Blaeloch: "The bizarre thing to me regarding McCain is, we spent a lot of time with his staff, and we all seemed to be on the same page about the problems with this swap. But somehow, John McCain kept pushing it forward."
Funny thing: The legislation for the land swap did pass thanks to McCain. Even funnier thing: One of the biggest fundraisers for McCain ended up getting the contract to build the development:
When McCain's legislation passed in November 2005, the ranch owner gave the job of building as many as 12,000 homes to SunCor Development, a firm in Tempe, Ariz., run by Steven A. Betts, a longtime McCain supporter who has raised more than $100,000 for the presumptive Republican nominee. Betts said he and McCain never discussed the deal.
Funny how these things happen. Starts to become clearer and clearer how McCain did get himself wrapped up with Charles Keating after all.
The man is dirty. Yeah, we get it, all you mainstream media types think he's "nice." Well, that's nice, but it's kind of irrelevant to you doing your job. The man has a history of being crooked, and that history keeps growing, first with his campaign finance law-breaking, then with the funny business with that lobbyist who looks an awful like a younger version of his wife, and now this. And let's not forget the Keating Five - hardly a youthful indiscretion - McCain was already in his 50s at that time. At least the Washington Post gets it (as has the Times in the past):
Sen. John McCain championed legislation that will let an Arizona rancher trade remote grassland and ponderosa pine forest here for acres of valuable federally owned property that is ready for development, a land swap that now stands to directly benefit one of his top presidential campaign fundraisers.
Initially reluctant to support the swap, the Arizona Republican became a key figure in pushing the deal through Congress after the rancher and his partners hired lobbyists that included McCain's 1992 Senate campaign manager, two of his former Senate staff members (one of whom has returned as his chief of staff), and an Arizona insider who was a major McCain donor and is now bundling campaign checks.
This is why the Democratic nomination process has to end. Barack Obama has been very decent to Hillary Clinton, ostensibly, she's on his side. Not so for McCain. On CNN today, Obama, in that way of his, lambasted McCain over the ridiculous attacks the GOP nominee has been making lately. This is a sign of things to come -- and it is going to be fun. John McCain has no idea what he's in for. (More on the interview from CNN.)
In February, the Washington Post ran an article exposing John McCain's criminal campaign finance activity. The Chair of the FEC, David Mason, a Republican, wrote to McCain explaining how the FEC, not John McCain, decides the campaign finance law:
Mason's letter raises two issues as the basis for his position. One is that the six-member commission lacks a quorum, with four vacancies because of a Senate deadlock over President Bush's nominees for the seats. Mason said the FEC would need to vote on McCain's request to leave the system, which is not possible without a quorum. Until that can happen, the candidate will have to remain within the system, he said.
The second issue is more complicated. It involves a $1 million loan McCain obtained from a Bethesda bank in January. The bank was worried about his ability to repay the loan if he exited the federal financing program and started to lose in the primary race. McCain promised the bank that, if that happened, he would reapply for matching money and offer those as collateral for the loan. While McCain's aides have argued that the campaign was careful to make sure that they technically complied with the rules, Mason indicated that the question needs further FEC review.
If the FEC refuses McCain's request to leave the system, his campaign could be bound by a potentially debilitating spending limit until he formally accepts his party's nomination. His campaign has already spent $49 million, federal reports show. Knowingly violating the spending limit is a criminal offense that could put McCain at risk of stiff fines and up to five years in prison.
It doesn't help that the FEC is hamstrung by Mitch McConnell's refusal to allow votes on new commissioners. But, one commissioner who now won't get re-nominated by President Bush is the guy who called McCain's scam: David Mason.
Mr. Bush is purging the current F.E.C. chairman, David Mason, presumably because he was responsible enough to challenge the funding machinations of Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign. Mr. Mason shocked his fellow Republicans by notifying Mr. McCain that he might run afoul of the law by switching from public funding to private donations once he secured the party’s nomination.
John McCain is a campaign finance criminal. He's scamming the public finance system -- and his new best friend, George Bush, is aiding and abetting the crime.
First we must solicit your confidence in this issue. This is by virtue as being utterly confidential and "top secret".
We are SENATOR HILLARY CLINTON, the wife of the former United States head of state, PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON, and also SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN, friend and associate of current head of state PRESIDENT GEORGE W BUSH. We got your contact through business inquiries as we were searching for contacts of a citizen who can help save our and our family's political careers since our country has been frustrating us.
We are top officials of the United States Senate Government who are interested in importation of oil into our country with funds that are presently trapped in the FEDERAL TRANSPORTATION TRUST FUND dedicated to improving transportation. We wish to send this money to overseas accounts in the MIDDLE EAST but cannot due to restrictions in Congress Transportation Equity Act requiring that this money must be spent to build roads, bridges and high speed trains.
If you accept we will deliver to your a sum of 30 DOLLARS in the summer 2008 in form of a "GAS TAX HOLIDAY". You will then deliver this money to accounts of our friends in Middle East by taking it to your nearby gasoline station where they have information to forward the money. Please supply your bank account, social security number, address and your vote in DEMOCRATIC PRIMARIES AND NOVEMBER GENERAL ELECTION.
But bear in mind that this transaction requires absolute confidentiality. Do not visit WWW.GASTAXSCAM.COM where there is information about dangers of our proposal and a petition to stop us from this diversion of funds.
PLEASE NOTIFY US URGENTLY OF YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THIS PROPOSAL
It was our best argument against McCain. It was an ad that was making the Republicans reel. You saw it here. It's the DNC's biggest gun yet against McCain - the 100 years ad in which John McCain says he's fine with us staying in Iraq for another century. The Republicans have been demanding that TV stations not air the ad. They're absolutely freaking out over it.
And now Hillary just killed it for us.
You see, three years ago, while having one of her "I love John McCain" schmooze fests, Hillary let out the whopper that she agrees with John McCain on Iraq, adding that it's fine with her if we stay there for another 50 years. Sure, she didn't say 100 years, she only said 50. but the point is made. Were Hillary to become our nominee, we'd no longer be able to use Iraq as an issue against John McCain because Hillary agrees with John McCain, and worse, she used his same language - the language we're using in our top ad against John McCain. (And actually, even when Obama is finally anointed, we're still going to have to face charges that McCain's position on Iraq is no different than Hillary's.) Here's what Hillary had to say:
"Senator McCain made the point earlier today, which I agree with, and that is, it's not so much a question of time when it comes to American military presence for the average American; I include myself in this. But it is a question of casualties," said Clinton. "We don't want to see our young men and women dying and suffering these grievous injuries that so many of them have. We've been in South Korea for 50-plus years. We've been in Europe for 50-plus. We're still in Okinawa with respect to protection there coming out of World War II."
So once again, Hillary's attempt to pretend she's a Republican has shot us in the ass. Then again, no one could have predicted that Hillary's refusal to admit defeat, her insistence on throwing every Democratic issue and constituency under the campaign bus, would turn around and hurt our chances in November. Oh wait a minute. Yes we did. Still think we should let this go until June? Seriously, does anyone in this party want to win any more?
PS We also can't hit McCain on his ridiculous gas-tax-holiday idea since Hillary is for it too. Nice.
This is significant for a number of reasons. Miller is a senior Democrat, he is a close ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, he heads up the Democratic Policy Committee (which Pelosi personally appointed him to), and is a House committee chair. He is a significant and powerful member of Congress, not just some guy. And he's blasting Hillary's gas tax plan (which is John McCain's plan that she simply stole), he's comparing her to John McCain, and he's calling her out for threatening members of Congress (she basically told members of Congress that she was going to force a vote and try to embarrass them - embarrass Democrats in Congress on a vote that Republicans could use against our own members of Congress in the fall elections - if they didn't support her kooky GOP political stunt of a proposal).
So Hillary's plan to foment a civil war in the Democratic party moves along as planned. Now, in addition to disenfranchising blacks and alienating the Netroots (and its messaging and fundraising potential), Hillary is now starting a civil war between herself and Dems in Congress - something the media will love. But you know what? The DNC and the Dems in Congress seem to be just fine with that. They're fine letting Hillary rip the party apart even though she's already lost the nomination, and can give us no scenario by which she wins the nomination. So now we can spend the next month-plus with the media focusing on how the Democratic party is falling apart at the seams and on the verge of civil war. Hope you're all happy, because it's only going to get worse (I promise you). And in the meantime, none of us are focusing on John McCain. And we won't, until the adults step in and put a stop to Hillary's madness. She lost. It's time for her to go away.
Here is Miller's statement:
“The call by Sens. Clinton and McCain to temporarily suspend the federal tax on gasoline is a short-sighted stunt that will hurt consumers and do nothing to reduce the price of gas.
“American consumers and our economy need a real solution to the energy crisis, not an empty trick. You can run cars on a lot of different fuels, but snake oil isn’t one of them.
“In the hopes of winning votes, the Senators are preying on consumers’ justified anxiety about the economy without offering a solution to their real problems. There’s nothing in our history to indicate that oil companies will pass on any savings to the consumer. So despite the McCain and Clinton gas tax holiday, the price at the pump will continue to rise and oil companies will take even more of the profit.
“My constituents are reeling from the highest gas prices in the country. But they understand that we can only break the oil chokehold and bring prices down by investing in highways and mass transit, new technology, renewable energy, and energy efficiency.
“Siphoning off the political energy from these necessary steps to focus instead on a plan that some political consultants favor is cynical politics. Taking a break from the federal gas tax and the hundreds of thousands of jobs it produces is harmful to the long-term economic well-being of our country.
“Sen. Clinton knows it is not easy to pass a windfall profits tax on oil companies. We have been trying to rein in record oil profits for years, and the House has repeatedly passed legislation to roll unjustified federal oil subsidies and invest instead in renewable energy – but President Bush and Senate Republicans have blocked us. Some of the subsidies we are trying to eliminate started under President Bill Clinton’s administration.
“Sen. Clinton is trying to intimidate members of Congress into validating her bad policy prescriptions. Congress should reject her and Sen. McCain’s idea. Relief from soaring gas prices will only come from smart investments and real change in our energy policy.”
Five years ago this week, President Bush exulted beneath a banner that declared "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq. McCain, under any interpretation of his words, is proposing another mission in Iraq--a long vigil--that would extend for decades. With the stakes so high, it's not enough for him to accuse critics of twisting his meaning: He needs to more clearly explain it himself....
[I]f McCain doesn't envision a 100-year American front-line combat presence in Iraq, how long is he willing to keep U.S. forces in that role? So far, all he has said is that the United States should withdraw only if it concludes that the Iraq mission is unachievable or when it has achieved success, which he defines as the establishment of "a peaceful, stable, prosperous, democratic state."
McCain hasn't said how long he would keep fighting to reach that demanding goal. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., one of McCain's closest Senate allies, recently said he thinks that McCain would maintain current U.S. troop levels in Iraq through his entire four-year presidential term if military commanders recommended that course to maintain stability there.
McCain caused quite a stir earlier today when he said that the Iraq war just about oil, and that if we could become energy independent we'd never have to send troops to the Middle East ever again. Now McCain is lying, claiming that he was referring to the FIRST Gulf War being about oil, not the current one. Only problem, the transcript and video show quite clearly that McCain was talking about the current Iraq war and not the Gulf War.
(Also, there's the issue of McCain having just abandoned Israel - I'll address that further down, but the media seems to have totally missed that bombshell.)
Here's the transcript, the video is next:
Senator Obama and Senator Clinton want to set a date for withdraw. That's what they want to do is get everybody out. I believe that would lead to catastrophe and chaos and that we would have the whole region including the whole region and the country in such turmoil that we would be required to come back to the region. And I just want to promise you this. My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will - that will then prevent us - that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East.
"No, no, I was talking about that we had fought the Gulf War for several reasons," McCain told reporters.
First off, buh bye Israel. McCain just wrote you off. Yep, no more American soldiers in Middle East wars if we can just get ourselves off of foreign oil. So you mean if Iran nukes Tel Aviv we're not getting involved? Nope, McCain said no more American soldiers. So much for defending Israel. Kind of a massive story the media missed here.
Second, McCain clearly says that Obama and Clinton want to set a withdrawal date from the war in question. Is he now claiming that he meant Obama and Clinton want to set a withdrawal for the first Gulf War that concluded 17 years ago? I seriously think McCain isn't all there anymore. Why does the media accept these things? Because he's nice (which he's not, but that's another story)?
I'm sorry to say but you slow down in your 70s. You start confusing things, forgetting things. Just because the media thinks he's a nice man doesn't mean old age isn't kicking in. This isn't the first time he's confused an issue recently. He's getting old.
No Baptists need apply. Oh, and three reporters say McCain did call his wife the c-word. I think that's a character issue conservative Christians, and a lot of Americans, might just care about. It hardly deserves being picked up by the cops and the Secret Service.
Clive businessman Marty Parrish was escorted from Sen. John McCain's town hall meeting by Des Moines police and members of the Secret Service after asking McCain if he had called his wife Cindy an expletive in 1992.
Parrish, an ordained Baptist minister who holds a master's degree in political science, was questioned by Secret Service agents before being released. He was not charged in the incident. Parrish asked whether McCain called his wife Cindy an expletive related to the female anatomy, as has been alleged in the book "The Real McCain," written by Dem strategist Cliff Schecter.
McCain's response got him a round of applause from the crowd: "There's people here who don't respect that kind of language, so I'll move on to the next questioner in the back."
In an interview with IowaPolitics.com, Parrish said his intentions were simple in posing the question to McCain. The former Joe Biden campaign worker stressed he is very concerned about the Republican presidential nominee's temperament.
"We have a man whose temper can get the best of him," Parrish said. "What I am worried about is his temper. Our country is in a serious crisis. This election is the most significant one since 1860. It appears America is asleep -- so I stood up and asked the question."
And he didn't deny it. Nor did he react with outrage at the question, which is what I would expect a normal, innocent man to do when asked if he called his wife a "c**t." The thing is, three reporters say that this is exactly what McCain did call his wife (his second wife, that is), the c-word.
# In 2005, McCain decided Iraqis resent our military presence, so we should reject a Korea-like model for long-term troop deployment. He insisted that "U.S. 'visibility' was detrimental to the Iraq mission and that Iraqis were responding negatively to America's presence — positions held by both Obama and Clinton."
# In 2006, McCain reversed course, and embraced the Korea model for a long-term military presence.
# In 2007, McCain reversed course again, saying the Korean analogy doesn't work and shouldn't be followed. "[E]ventually I think because of the nature of the society in Iraq and the religious aspects of it that America eventually withdraws," McCain told Charlie Rose last fall.
# And in 2008, McCain reversed course yet again, deciding that we should be prepared to leave troops in Iraq, even if it means 100 years or more.
These are amazing numbers and considering McCain's economic program is a third Bush term, Democrats need to finish up the primary and start focusing on November. McCain is going to wish he had a problem like Rev. Wright once the Democrats pounce on these numbers because McCain is joined at the hip with the Bush policies that Americans detest. It's all there from tax cuts for the wealthy, less regulation so we can have new problems, an insurance company free-for-all with health care (Bush's policy as well) and that's only the domestic policy. McCain is already struggling to get traction with his own party and this is hardly going to win over independents as the economy continues to sputter.
Fully 73 percent of Americans now disapprove of President Bush's handling of the economy, as his overall approval fell to 27 percent from 32 percent in March.
That represents a burden to Republican candidate John McCain. With poll respondents rating jobs as the top issue, some 61 percent of Americans say they have "major" or "moderate" concerns that McCain will be too closely aligned with Bush's agenda. That exceeds the half of Americans who express concerns over whether Barack Obama is out of touch with small-town values. A comparable 62 percent of Americans say they have concerns about figuring out where Hillary Clinton stands on the issues.
You may have heard about the TV ad that has the Republicans flipping out. It's an ad that shows John McCain saying he's fine with us staying in Iraq another 100 years. (In fact, McCain said it was okay if we stayed in Iraq for 10,000 years). Anyway, the Republican National Committee is demanding, simply demanding, that TV stations not air the ad because they say it's not true. Of course, it is true, it just hurts. Kind of sucks that the Republicans' own in-house propaganda network has said the ad is okay. This makes it impossible for other networks to say the ad isn't fair to the Republicans, now that it has FOX's seal of approval. Here's the ad. Enjoy it again for the first time.
Just read this editorial in my NY Times. It says what a lot of people are thinking. The responsibility to repudiate racism falls on all the candidates, including John McCain:
It is an injustice, a legacy of the racist threads of this nation’s history, but prominent African-Americans are regularly called upon to explain or repudiate what other black Americans have to say, while white public figures are rarely, if ever, handed that burden.
Senator John McCain has continued to embrace a prominent white supporter, Pastor John Hagee, whose bigotry matches that of Mr. Wright. Mr. McCain has not tried hard enough to stop a race-baiting commercial — complete with video of Mr. Wright — that is being run against Mr. Obama in North Carolina.
If Mr. Obama is the Democratic presidential nominee, we fear that there will be many more such commercials. And Mr. Obama will have to repudiate Mr. Wright’s outbursts many more times.
This country needs a healthy and open discussion of race. Mr. Obama’s repudiation of Mr. Wright is part of that. His opponents also have a responsibility — to repudiate the race-baiting and make sure it stops.
And, while we're at it, Hillary Clinton needs to repudiate the anti-gay slur of her top surrogate in North Carolina, which she not only witnessed, she laughed at. Or is winning the homophobe vote more important?
