The Times published a long piece today about McSame's involvement with the gambling lobby and the Indians. It makes the point that John 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.
The ins and outs of it are pretty involved, and it covers the way McCain attempted to milk the Abramoff scandal for all it was worth in political capital and dollars. It's for someone with a sharper sense of what's kosher in all of this to go over it and identify what might be really damaging. I'll relate one incident below the flip. But I'd say as a whole the piece helps undermine McCain's maverick narrative and cast him as an insider-wheeler-dealer.
By the way, has anyone made the argument that McSame's zeal for reforming pork and campaign finance should be seen as an attempt to demonstratively remake himself after the Keating 5 scandal, and should not be seen as sincere?
A lifelong gambler, Mr. McCain takes risks, both on and off the craps table. He was throwing dice that night not long after his failed 2000 presidential bid, in which he was skewered by the Republican Party’s evangelical base, opponents of gambling. Mr. McCain was betting at a casino he oversaw as a member of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, and he was doing so with the lobbyist who represents that casino, according to three associates of Mr. McCain.
There is a long section about how McCain helped some CT politicians derail the attempt of an Indian tribe there, the Schaghticoke, to gain the recognition needed to open a casino, and the derailment was accomplished in kind of a shady way.
This is followed by a section about another tribe from CA, the Guidiville, who hired an old buddy of McSame's to lobby them.
Prospects for the proposed California project did not look promising. Then the tribe, the Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians, hired a lobbyist based in Phoenix named Wes Gullett.
Mr. Gullett, who had never represented tribes before Congress, had known Mr. McCain since the early 1980s. Mr. Gullett met his wife while they were working in Mr. McCain’s Washington office. He subsequently managed Mr. McCain’s 1992 Senate campaign and served as a top aide to his 2000 presidential campaign. Their friendship went beyond politics. When Mr. McCain’s wife, Cindy, brought two infants in need of medical treatment back to Arizona from Bangladesh, the Gulletts adopted one baby and the McCains the other. The two men also liked to take weekend trips to Las Vegas.
And one of McSam'e buddies had bought into this planned casino:
Another of Mr. McCain’s close friends, former Defense Secretary William S. Cohen, was a major investor in the Guidivilles’ proposed casino. Mr. Cohen, who did not return calls, was best man at Mr. McCain’s 1980 wedding.
The lobbyist's account of his activities is fishy, to say the least:
Mr. Gullett said he never talked to Mr. McCain about the legislation. "If you are hired directly to lobby John McCain, you are not going to be effective," he said. Mr. Gullett said he only helped prepare the testimony of the tribe’s administrator, Walter Gray, who was invited to plead his case before Mr. McCain’s committee in July 2005. Mr. Gullett said he advised Mr. Gray in a series of conference calls.
On disclosure forms filed with the Senate, however, Mr. Gullett stated that he was not hired until November, long after Mr. Gray’s testimony. Mr. Gullett said the late filing might have been "a mistake, but it was inadvertent." Steve Hart, a former lawyer for the Guidivilles, backed up Mr. Gullett’s contention that he had guided Mr. Gray on his July testimony.
When asked whether Mr. Gullett had helped him, Mr. Gray responded, "I’ve never met the man and couldn’t tell you anything about him."
While McSame's bill that the tribe needed help on died, the story goes on to relate how McSame made sure the tribe got the privilege it needed by interceding with the Dept of the Interior.
Wanted to get the word out about this piece. There's probabye more grist with which we can grind McCain into a million pieces in this story, but somebody who knows their way around lobbying practices will need to look into that.
UPDATE: Thanks to First Amendment for suggesting the addition of the first two quotes in this diary.