Commence the poo flinging! With elections approaching, secrets and scandals about candidates are running wild.
So what can we dig up on McCain, the Republican front runner for the moment? Apparently he’s had a female lobbyist “turning up with him at fund-raisers, visiting his offices and accompanying him on a client’s corporate jet.” His advisers have warned him that this does not look good and have had to step in to “protect him from himself.” They have been blocking the woman’s access from McCain, privately warning her, and confronting McCain on the seriousness of the matter.
McCain and lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, 40 have both said that neither of them have ever had a romantic relationship. But, McCain’s advisers have been weary ever since McCain had written letters to government regulators on behalf of the lobbyists client. Apparently this type of relationship is too close for comfort, seeing as it reflects a similar problem which nearly ended McCain’s political career ten years ago. McCain helped a friend out with something and was apparently dragged into the Keating Five Scandal. “In the years that followed, he reinvented himself as the scourge of special interests, a crusader for stricter ethics and campaign finance rules, a man of honor chastened by a brush with shame.”
Could McCain be falling into old patterns even though he has vowed to hold himself to the highest ethical standards? Is McCain as honest as he claims to be?
Mr. McCain promised, for example, never to fly directly from Washington to Phoenix, his hometown, to avoid the impression of self-interest because he sponsored a law that opened the route nearly a decade ago. But like other lawmakers, he often flew on the corporate jets of business executives seeking his support, including the media moguls Rupert Murdoch, Michael R. Bloomberg and Lowell W. Paxson, Ms. Iseman’s client. (Last year he voted to end the practice.)
Mr. McCain helped found a nonprofit group to promote his personal battle for tighter campaign finance rules. But he later resigned as its chairman after news reports disclosed that the group was tapping the same kinds of unlimited corporate contributions he opposed, including those from companies seeking his favor. He has criticized the cozy ties between lawmakers and lobbyists, but is relying on corporate lobbyists to donate their time running his presidential race and recently hired a lobbyist to run his Senate office
“He is essentially an honorable person,†said William P. Cheshire, a friend of Mr. McCain who as editorial page editor of The Arizona Republic defended him during the Keating Five scandal. “But he can be imprudent.â€
Mr. Cheshire added, “That imprudence or recklessness may be part of why he was not more astute about the risks he was running with this shady operator,†Charles Keating, whose ties to Mr. McCain and four other lawmakers tainted their reputations in the savings and loan debacle.
During his current campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, Mr. McCain has played down his attacks on the corrupting power of money in politics, aware that the stricter regulations he championed are unpopular in his party. When the Senate overhauled lobbying and ethics rules last year, Mr. McCain stayed in the background.[NY Times]
* Photo by Soggydan via Flickr
3 responses so far ↓
1 Mahatma Kane Jeeves // Feb 21, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Oh my! But you forgot to mention that this alleged McCain “affair†was said to have occurred over 8 years ago, and only anonymous sources have so far been quoted. Also, what he allegedly did, for the cute, blond lobbyist woman, was to request that her client get a hearing in some matter after a two year wait–not that the esteemed high commissioners should rule one way or the other. And all the candidates are known for their peccadilloes. Oh my goodness gracious! Hillary Clinton has allegedly been sleeping with her hottie-tottie-titty aide, Huma Abedin– and the two of them are said to have been at witches covens that eat cats. And John Edwards has allegedly impregnated his former videographer, Rielle Hunter, and has her locked in a dungeon presently. And Mr. Obama! Anonymous sources have now established proven gossip that it was HE, in fact, who was the driver for Osama Bin Laden– not the poor fellow locked up at Gitmo! And “Huckleberry Slim†Huckabee was caught bitch-slapping his poor wife at an Arkansas dog-fight last week!
My opinion is that America needs several thousand years of yoga and meditation, so it can finally achieve the cultural maturaty we have in India today.
2 Jeff Barrick // Feb 22, 2008 at 9:57 am
The cultural maturity of India and their ongoing tif with Pakistan that flares into a nuclear showdown every other year or so. I don’t know if India is exactly on the “cutting edge” of socio-politeness. Perhaps one of India’s Untouchables can park their rickshaw and give us a little enlightenment.
3 Rambo Goddam // Feb 22, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Good point Jeff.
Also, I for one commend the Times for Pulling a FOX news at a good moment - perhaps they will have the balls to announce the winner of the presidency before FOX gets a chance to install McCain. this November.
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