A big thank you to Mitch McConnell
Joe Sonka February 23rd, 2008
(crossposted at BlueGrassRoots)
Speaking of John McCain's big lobbyist mega-scandal, we have to give credit to someone for helping dig McCain's giant hole that he's fallen into. Yes, he may be a genuinely bad person, down to the black rotting soulless core of his being, but we have to give credit where credit is due.
Let's all thank Mitch McConnell for his lawsuit against John McCain's campaign finance efforts in 2002. Because we've caught McCain in some very non-straight-talk. (from the uber-awesome emptywheel)
Just hours after the Times's story was posted, the McCain campaign issued a point-by-point response that depicted the letters as routine correspondence handled by his staff—and insisted that McCain had never even spoken with anybody from Paxson or Alcalde & Fay about the matter. "No representative of Paxson or Alcalde & Fay personally asked Senator McCain to send a letter to the FCC," the campaign said in a statement e-mailed to reporters.
But that flat claim seems to be contradicted by an impeccable source: McCain himself. [snip]
[Floyd] Abrams [] asked [McCain during a deposition for a Mitch McConnell lawsuit fighting McCain's campaign finance reform]: "Did you speak to the company's lobbyist about these matters?"
McCain: "I don't recall if it was Mr. Paxson or the company's lobbyist or both."
Abrams: "But you did speak to him?"
McCain: "I'm sure I spoke with him, yes."
Rut roh!
At another point Abrams asked McCain if, "looking back on the events with Mr. Paxson, the contributions, the jets, everything you and I have just talked about, do you believe that it would have been justified for a member of the public to say there is at least an appearance of corruption here?"
"Absolutely," McCain replied. "And when I took a thousand dollars or any other hard-money contribution from anybody who does business before the Congress of the United States, then that allegation is justified as well. Because the taint affects all of us." Elsewhere McCain said about his dealings with Paxson, "As I said before, I believe that there could possibly be an appearance of corruption because this system has tainted all of us."
Big ups to Mitchie!!!
- John McCain , Mitch McConnell
- Comments(24)
The straight jacket express never tells the truth.
Broadcaster Lowell “Bud” Paxson yesterday contradicted statements from Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign that the senator did not meet with Paxson or his lobbyist before sending two controversial letters to the Federal Communications Commission on Paxson’s behalf.
Paxson said he talked with McCain in his Washington office several weeks before the Arizona Republican wrote the letters in 1999 to the FCC urging a rapid decision on Paxson’s quest to acquire a Pittsburgh television station.
d’oh! i blame the NYT for McCain lying!!
McPain doesn’t associate with lobbyist hell he is one!!
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican U.S. Rep. Richard Renzi of Arizona, a state co-chair for Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign, was indicted on corruption charges stemming from land deals in his state, Justice Department officials said on Friday.
His campaign manager, Rick Davis, co-founded a lobbying firm whose clients have included Verizon and SBC Telecommunications. His chief political adviser, Charles R. Black Jr., is chairman of one of Washington’s lobbying powerhouses, BKSH and Associates, which has represented AT&T, Alcoa, JPMorgan and U.S. Airways.
Senior advisers Steve Schmidt and Mark McKinnon work for firms that have lobbied for Land O’ Lakes, UST Public Affairs, Dell and Fannie Mae.
McCain In Oct. 2006: Rick Renzi Has ‘ Tenacity, Honesty, And Integrity Beyond Reproach’
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/22/politics/politico/thecrypt/main3867460.shtml
Yes, there is corruption, but the following notes that Kentuckians from Fort Campbell are still needlessly dying in Iraq:
“Governor Beshear Directs Flags to Half-Staff
“Gov. Steve Beshear has directed that flags at all state office buildings be lowered to half-staff in honor of three Fort Campbell soldiers who died Feb. 20 supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. According to the Department of Defense, Sgt. Conrad Alvarez, 22, of Big Springs, Texas; Cpl. Albert Bitton, 20, of Chicago; and Spc. Micheal B. Matlock, Jr., of Glen Burnie, Maryland; died from wounds suffered when their vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device in Baghdad, Iraq.
“The soldiers were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell. Flags will remain at half-staff until sunset on the day of the funerals, for which arrangements are incomplete.
“Individuals, businesses, organizations and government agencies are encouraged to join in this tribute by lowering flags to half-staff.”
Let’s Ditch Mitch.
John McCain and his Straight Jacket Express say “screw you” to the FEC.
FEC Wants Some Answers About McCain Loan
The government’s top campaign finance regulator and the campaign of Sen. John McCain are at loggerheads with each other over McCain’s use of a loan to keep his campaign alive during his candidacy’s dark days in the winter of 2007.
Jim Kuhnhenn reports at Townhall.com that Federal Election Commission Chairman David Mason says, in a letter to McCain this week, “John McCain can’t drop out of the primary election’s public financing system until he answers questions about a loan he obtained to kickstart his once faltering presidential campaign.”
Mason says in the letter to McCain that he needs to assure the FEC that he did not use the promise of public money to secure the $4 million line of credit he got in November.
But the McCain campaign said it was going to ignore the FEC and that it has already dropped out of the system.
Court fight to follow….
thats all we need another one like bushit might as well tare up the constitution
“John McCain said Monday that to win the White House he must convince a war-weary country that US policy in Iraq is succeeding.”
Why the hell can’t he quit lying through his teeth about Iraq (and Iran), and join the two thirds of us who want to end this waste of precious lives, and resources?
McCain’s rhetoric about Iraq has been nothing short of total bullshit!
Now let’s pray that those ridiculous claims about Obama turn out to be false.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVeFVtcdSYY&eurl
and here what the GOP has
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjbknhX383A
… can you give any compelling reason why you post that ridiculous tripe anonymously and troll it here and elsewhere?
Oh please… nice job patching the two unrelated quotes… but they ultimately don’t matter AS WE HAVE A COPY OF THE “CONTROVERSIAL” letter he sent to the FCC. You know, the one that says “I stress to you I am not advising or asking you to vote one way or another, I am just asking you to VOTE on the issue before you.”
Yeah… I’m sure that his asking the FCC TO DO THEIR FREAKIN’ JOB is really that controversial. All the Leftwing media had done with this hack job story is unite the Republican base and remind us who the Dem’s real power-players are: the press.
Pathetic… this is all you have on the McCain?
Meanwhile, let’s ask Obama’s neighbor (the semi-mobster one in jail for money-laundering/extorition from soliciting campaign donations for senators then buying them off with the money) about how come he bought his house at an inflated price while Obama got his at a discount at the same time) about his ties to Obama.
Or maybe we should take a look into the Rev. Wright’s afro-centric political spews and how that would affect his “christian” church’s tax-exempt status. Oh wait… we only threaten churches’ who support Republicans.
Or we could just look at Obama’s record… voting “present” on such hard to decide issues like “should carrying a gun to school be a felony” (afterall, one other state senator of Illinois couldn’t bring themself to vote for such a “controversial” issue). Or maybe we could just talk about his support of allowing anyone to take a 13 year old across state lines to avoide parental consent laws required for Abortions… I’m sure middle America will support the right for an adult to sneak a 13 year old across state lines without their parents consent to kill a baby to bypass a law supported by the state and overwhelming majority of the public.
And you thought the photo of him dressed as a Somali elder was “important enough to be defused”… ha! That’s just the “Dukakis in the Tank” moment that mearly underlines everyone’s fear that he lacks judgement.
Obama’s just an empty suite.
The left has made him into anything and everything anyone wants because he has such a lack of a record… but his record is out there, it’s just Clinton knows she can’t alienate half of the Dem base by bringing it up. The Republicans will have no such problem as they have few Black votes to lose by pointing out his lack of Record.
Oh, and let’s not forget… Dan Quayle had twice (okay, three times) as much experience as Obama back in ‘88 when he ran for V.P. (8 years in the Senate, 4 years or so in the House, the same Harvard law degree, years of experience in business and media).
I guess you will deny that W kissed McCain too !!!
from factcheck.org
A political patron from whom he bought a strip of land is under federal indictment, but there’s no evidence Obama did anything improper.
Here’s what happened: In 2005, Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, bid $1.65 million for a house on the south side of Chicago. According to newspaper reports, the owner was also trying to sell an undeveloped parcel of land adjacent to the property Obama was buying, and he wanted the sales of the two to close on the same day. Obama has said that he mentioned he was buying the house to a longtime political patron, Antoin (Tony) Rezko, a developer. Rezko’s wife wound up buying the lot adjacent to Obama’s. At the request of the Obamas, who were seeking a bit more space for their yard, she later sold them a 10-foot wide strip, or about one-sixth, of her land. The Obamas paid $104,500 for it, or about one-sixth of what Mrs. Rezko had paid for the entire property.
Obama doesn’t appear to have reaped any financial advantages from the transactions.
http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/does_obama_have_a_real_estate_problem.html
The sellers hadn’t previously made their side of the story public out of concern for their privacy, according to Bill Burton, a spokesman for Obama’s campaign. They approached Obama’s Senate office 15 months ago and agreed to break their silence now through the campaign out of concern that the story was being distorted in the media, Burton said.
It also says that “in the course of the negotiation over the sales price,” Obama and his wife, Michelle, “made several offers until the one accepted at $1.65 million, and that this was the best offer you received on the house.”
Wondisford has declined to talk directly about the matter.
The Obamas submitted three bids: $1.3 million on Jan. 15, 2005; $1.5 million on Jan. 21; and $1.65 million on Jan. 23, according to a copy of the sale contract shown to Bloomberg News. Obama received more than $1.2 million in book royalties and a book advance in 2005, the year he was sworn in to the U.S. Senate, his financial disclosure statement shows.
You (and presumbably factcheck) left out where Obama got his land at a discount (from average land value AND asking price) from the original owner while the neighbor-to-be Rezko paid MORE then his land was worth. One can presume it was a nice little deal where the owner of the two lots got the total price he wanted for the land, but Obama got a discount. Paid for by the convicted criminal Rezko.
That is the very definition of reaping a financial benifit. He saved money because of Mr. Rezko’s involvement. Of course Rezko’s keeping his mouth quite–afterall he has connections to what he thinks is the next president.
Now it appears the Dems want to rule out McCain from running for President because he was born on an Army Base.
The Dems pretend to support the troops but will quickly shuck away the rights of the soldier and their families if it benefits the Dems’ political agenda.
Shameful. But what else would you expect from a lunatic like Dean.
That’s been one that has floated around for years, Herodotus. Where do you find evidence of this being re-hashed other than by McCain’s campaign itself, Romney, etc?
Hero was that all of the lot are just 10 ft??????
here what some vet think
http://votevets.org/pages/?id=0006
McCain was one of only 13 senators to vote against adding $430 million for inpatient and outpatient care for veterans. [S Amdt. 3642 to HR 4939, Vote 98, 4/26/06]
Senator McCain has consistently opposed any plan to withdraw troops from Iraq
Senator McCain repeatedly voted against a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq. [S. Amdt. 3876 to S.Amdt. 3874 to H.R. 2764, Vote #438, 12/18/07; S.Amdt.. 3875 to S.Amdt.. 3874 to H.R. 2764, Vote # 437, 12/18/07; S.Amdt.3164 to H.R. 3222, Vote # 362, 10/3/07; S.Amdt. 2898 to S.Amdt. 2011 to H.R. 1585, Vote #346, 9/21/07; S.Amdt. 2924 to S.Amdt.. 2011 to H.R.1585, Vote #345, 9/21/07; S.Amdt.2 087 to S.Amdt. 2011 to H.R. 1585, Vote #252, 7/18/07; S.Amdt. 643 to H.R. 1591, Vote #116, 3/27/07; S.Amdt. 4320 to S. 2766, Vote #182, 6/22/06; S.Amdt. 4442 to S. 2766, Vote #181, 6/22/06; S.Amdt.. 2519 to S.1042, Vote # 322, 11/15/05]
votevets is a joke…
Remember moveon.org and other groups (made possible by McCain-Feingold loopholes) have raised $20 Million with the expressed purpose of smearing McCain.
The lefty blogosphere all started talking about McCain’s elegibility yesterday… at once.
I wonder where that talking point came from….?
Oh, and caught in their own smear tactic the Dems are now putting forth some less-offensive members to try to make the party look good, but also to keep McCain’s birthplace in the news…
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/29/america/29mccain.php
I don’t see his birth pace as a issue since his father was in the military,and on a military base.
what about your website comparing Obama to Hitler are you a member of the KKK???just click on his name(above) if you want to see where Hero come from.
Freedom’s Watch may spend up to $250 million in 2008 election
Group founded to support Bush’s surge in Iraq and encourage military action against Iran gearing up for November
President Bush has been to Las Vegas nine times since he was first inaugurated, but last Wednesday was the first time he ever stayed overnight in Sin City. He and his aides (and the traveling press corps) did so in luxury, staying at the Venetian, the palatial casino resort run by Sheldon Adelson, the chairman of Las Vegas Sands Corp. and a big force in GOP and philanthropic circles. (He is part of the money behind Freedom’s Watch,
http://www.mediatransparency.org/story.php?storyID=227
You could certainly see your enthusiasm in the work you write. The world hopes for more passionate writers such as you who aren’t afraid to mention how they believe. At all times follow your heart.