McCain's brazen hypocrisy on gambling, lobbyists

As I noted last week, McCain undertook a ruthless personal vendetta against lobbyist Jack Abramoff. McCain's Senate office produced a 373 page report on Abramoff's supposed misdeeds.

His targeting Abramoff is rank hypocrisy and rather disinenguous. Just look at Sunday, September 28's New York Times article by Jo Becker and Don Van Natta, Jr., "For McCain and Team, a Host of Ties to Gambling." McCain targeted Abramoff, for other things, allegedly stealing from Native American casinos. Gallingly, McCain (a two-time chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee) himself had thick, intertwined relations with Native American gaming outfits and associated lobbyists. He and his lobbyist allies benefited from the Native Americans. Rick Davis,' McCain's chief strategist, walked away with $100,000 from a tribe in the Abramoff organization.

As a two-time chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee, Mr. McCain has done more than any other member of Congress to shape the laws governing America’s casinos, helping to transform the once-sleepy Indian gambling business into a $26-billion-a-year behemoth with 423 casinos across the country. He has won praise as a champion of economic development and self-governance on reservations.

And, McCain has been swayed by [gambling] special interests, contrary to the maverick myth he and champions in the media have propagated:

Mr. McCain portrays himself as a Washington maverick unswayed by special interests, referring recently to lobbyists as “birds of prey.” Yet in his current campaign, more than 40 fund-raisers and top advisers have lobbied or worked for an array of gambling interests — including tribal and Las Vegas casinos, lottery companies and online poker purveyors.

When rules being considered by Congress threatened a California tribe’s planned casino in 2005, Mr. McCain helped spare the tribe. Its lobbyist, who had no prior experience in the gambling industry, had a nearly 20-year friendship with Mr. McCain.

And McCain was selective in his investigation. He kept it focused on Abramoff, yet as the Times article reports, he announced that he would not investigate members of Congress, "whom Mr. Abramoff had lavished with tribal donations and golf outings to Scotland."

We are still awaiting greater press and web attention to journalist Gary S. Chafetz's book on Abramoff, McCain, "Perfect Villain: John McCain and the Demonization of Lobbyist Jack Abramoff."

TOP TEN GAMBLING INDUSTRY DONORS TO JOHN MCCAIN
The same issue of the Times reported that McCain received nearly $500,000 from gambling interests since 1990.
As reported in the New York Times, September 28, 2008:

The following is a list of the top ten highest campaign contributors to Senator John McCain since 1992 in the gambling industry, based on analysis of data from the Center for Responsive Politics.

1. MGM Mirage
$108,450

2. Mashantucket Pequot Tribe
$56,950

3. Wynn Resorts
$39,800

4. Las Vegas Sands
$32,500

5. International Game Technology
$19,450

6. Harrah's Entertainment
$14,000

7. Station Casinos
$13,800

8. Mandalay Resort Group
$10,000

9. (tie) Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizona
$8,000

Stockbridge-Munsee Community
$8,000

THE DNC'S AD REPONSE
The Democratic National Committee, along with the Barack Obama campaign, issued a 42-second video in the late night hours prior to the newsstand deliver of the Times.
The DNC press release, via the Huffington Post:

The Democratic National Committee today released a new web video highlighting John McCain's history of stacking the deck in favor of his favorite gambling industry lobbyists. The video comes on the heels of a new report outlining McCain's pattern of using his position as the chairman of a key Senate committee to tip the scales in favor of casino lobbyists with connections to his family and campaigns -- even if it meant reversing long held positions.

The video, called "Betting on McCain," shows McCain stacking the deck in favor of friends and former campaign aides who lobbied for the casinos with business before McCain's committee. In return, those casino lobbyists organized gambling trips to casinos for McCain (whose reputation as a high roller is well known), steered hundreds of thousands of dollars to his campaign, and at least 40 of them went to work for or are helping raise money for McCain's current campaign.

McCain pulls second surreal campaign maneuver

This is just absurd. I just heard the John McCain statement about suspending the campaign on the Rachel Maddow Show. Initially, I thought that this was a joke, compiled of snippets of his speech.

McCain's move to "suspend his campaign" is crass grandstanding.

What John McCain should have been doing previously has been attending Senate sessions for votes. McCain has not been in the Senate for a vote since April. Admittedly, Obama has been away from Washington, but only since July.

Secondly, what McCain should have been doing was giving serious attention to the economy. Instead, as recently as nine days ago, he said "the fundamentals of the economy are strong." Maybe McCain is exercising damage control, trying to erode the memory of this unfortunate and clumsy assessment of the economy.

True, the financial system is in a dire condition, but you do not flee from crises during election time. Let's look at past moments of crisis and election campaigns. In 1864, when Abraham Lincoln was facing a formidable challenge from the Copperhead Democrats, he did not suspend his campaign. In the 1930s, in the depths of the depression, did Hoover, Roosevelt or Roosevelt's challengers suspend their campaigns. In World War II, Roosevelt did not suspend his campaign.

McCain's Sarah Palin choice was surreal and an unsettling enough demonstration of his maverick character, this new campaign-suspension maneuver suggests that McCain is impulsive character --not someone you want as a leader in crises. It suggests that he cannot handle multiple crises, as presidents and presidential candidates must be prepared to do. This wild move by McCain provides one more indication that he is not the right person for the job, and is lacking in sound judgment. As David Bender said tonight, filling in for Rachel Maddow, on Air America, panic is not the feeling that one should be spreading in this period. McCain, by this irresponsible move, is acting in a way that lends to panic, and does not lend to public confidence.

Just to offer a speculative consideration (and offering an analysis by one of Binder's radio guests tonight), Sarah Palin is scheduled to debate Joe Biden next week, on October 2. Palin is a disaster, and is unprepared to face Washington veteran Biden in a debate on the issues. Suspension of the campaign offers the chance to sideline Palin out of the scrutiny of an unscripted debate.

This campaign interruption sidelines the (McCain campaign top advisor) Rick Davis disaster. The press on Davis and his hefty lobbying payments from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are a public relations disaster for the McCain campaign. Perhaps McCain was fishing for any move that he imagine would do anything to deflect attention from Davis.

Barack Obama and the Democratic Party should not fall for McCain
responsible, reckless gambit.
The Obama campaign is remaining steadfast for this Friday: "Obama: The Debate is On."

UPDATE: At Truthdig, we have the contributor who writes, "Now McCain Wants to Cancel the VP Debate."
The intro paragraphs of the post,

Was this the plan all along? CNN reports that Team McCain wants the first presidential debate to “take the place of the VP debate, currently scheduled for next Thursday” if there’s no bailout deal by Friday.

Senate Democrats appear to have made a deal with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, and President Bush has invited both of the presidential candidates, along with other lawmakers, to the White House on Thursday to discuss the proposed solution to the financial crisis.

Fannie & Freddie execs denounce McCain's smears

The John McCain campaign has been running television advertisements accusing Barack Obama of being advised by Franklin Raines, the former chief executive of Fannie Mae.
In reality, this accusation is a bald-faced lie. Both Raines and the Obama campaign deny this charge.
This lie is possibly a maneuver to divert attention from the actual relationship between the McCain campaign's Rick Davis and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Past and current executives for the two companies went public to express their disgust with the McCain campaign's inaccurate ads. They spoke on and off the record, to the "New York Times" as reported this morning in "Loan Titans Paid McCain Adviser Nearly $2 Million," by David D. Kirkpatrick and Charles Duhigg. The executives pointed out that Rick Davis received $30,000 per month from an advocacy organization (Homeownership Alliance) with the mission to represent Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Davis is McCain's campaign manager, and operates by distortion and smear in the mold of Roger Ailes and Karl Rove.
Christy Hardin Smith aptly called Rick Davis the "uber-lobbyist."
Illustrating the Republicans' galling hypocrisy, Davis in turn, helped thwart federal regulations that would have affected the two companies. Underscoring how McCain represents corporate interests instead of the public's interest is this quote:

“The value that he brought to the relationship was the closeness to Senator McCain and the possibility that Senator McCain was going to run for president again,” said Robert McCarson, a former spokesman for Fannie Mae . . . .