It is unfortunate that few members of the current Arizona press and media are willing to tell the rest of the country the truth about McCain and critically evaluate him. During this election season, I was hoping for some great investigative journalism from our local Arizona press--the people who know him best. I've been sorely disappointed so far. Instead we are getting fluff pieces about McCain. There is practically nothing critical coming out about him from Arizona. One of my contacts who is a reporter at one of the major local media outlets told me recently how unprecedented the controlled coverage of McCain is this time around by the local media. They are being kept under wraps. It is no surprise why this is the case when you look at reporters and editors who have known and covered McCain from the past--and to these I turn to help get out the message about our home state failure.
Let's first start with a quote from our often-mocked pundit, David Broder, who warned us about heeding the local Arizona press on McCain. This occured back when McCain ran for president in 2000, and I'm sure Broder has demured since then. But this Broderism rings true:
One who hasn't been so quick to fall in line is Washington Post columnist David Broder, who warned on NBC's Meet the Press that "after the experience we all had with President Clinton [ignoring Arkansas reports of his misdeeds], I'm not inclined to discount the view of home-state reporters and journalists who have covered a candidate over the years."
One of those journalists is Pat Murphy who is the former editor and publisher of "The Arizona Republic," McCain's hometown newspaper. He is now a journalist for an Idaho newspaper. Mr. Murphy knew McCain for many years and was actually a friend of McCain's until things got ugly. Mr. Murphy talks about his previous relationship with McCain:
I'm among the swelling ranks of onetime McCain acquaintances ostracized for not being slavishly loyal. After McCain settled in Arizona with his young second wife, a millionaire, he asked me at dinner for help with a political career. As editorial page editor (and later publisher) of the Arizona Republic, I declined to be his political coach. However, we socialized, including dinners at his home. We even discussed writing a book. The relationship ended, however, when our newspaper exposed McCain as a liar who used an underhanded political trick.
Please note that this article was written by Mr. Murphy back in March 2000, and here we have a respected member of the press calling McCain a "liar" back then. Things haven't changed much about McCain in 8 years have they?
What exactly was this "underhanded political trick" that McCain did that destroyed his relationship with Mr. Murphy? Here is a brief summary:
Here is what happened: McCain boasted to my wife and me over lunch in Washington that he had planted complex questions with the Senate Interior Committee chairman to sabotage the testimony of Arizona Gov. Rose Mofford, a Democrat, about the Central Arizona Project, the multibillion-dollar Colorado River water delivery system for Arizona urban areas. When I protested to McCain that the project had enjoyed bipartisan support for nearly 50 years, from conservative Barry Goldwater to liberal Morris Udall, McCain retorted: "I'm duty bound to embarrass a Democrat whenever I can."
When reporters later asked McCain about planted questions, he feigned insult and injury and denied any such ploy. Editors in Phoenix were informed of McCain's deceit. After a news story and editorial appeared, McCain went into meltdown, shrieking on the phone: "I know you're out to get me!" (Several years later, McCain admitted the dirty trick and apologized to Mofford, who was then out of office.)
So McCain is "duty bound" to embarass Democrats whenever he can--sound familiar? That seems to conflict with that Maverick, bipartisan persona he's trying to portray. And let's not talk about his paranoid rantings.
Former Governor Rose Mofford is a class act. When she was asked about this incident by another, long-time Arizona reporter, Amy Silverman, (Ms. Silverman has covered McCain for 15 years for the "Phoenix New Times"), Governor Mofford replied:
Mofford, who lives in Phoenix and is involved with local charities, is hesitant to say much negative.
"I've known Cindy since she was a little girl, and the Hensleys have always been very good to me," she says of McCain's wife and her family. "I don't hold grudges."
But, she adds, regarding the CAP hearing, "that hurt me more than anything . . . to be set up like that."
Want another clue on how McCain treats women--there ya go. A former aid to Governor Mofford was more direct in her description of the event:
Karen Scates was on that trip and in that hearing room, as an executive assistant to Mofford. (A one-time Udall aide, she's worked in many capacities over the years, including for American Express and Kids Voting; she's now in the Napolitano administration.) Scates does hold a grudge.
"Senator McCain did the unthinkable," she says. "He orchestrated a partisan, mean-spirited, and utterly inexcusable hearing designed to embarrass Governor Mofford by unfairly pressing her, only a week into her new job, for minute details on the Central Arizona Project, which was the most sacrosanct of all issues critical to Arizona."
Yep, that's our maverick Senator at work. But let's go back to what Mr. Murphy thinks of John McCain. Maybe Mr. Murphy has a grudge to bear as well, but his insightful comments about his former friend, McCain,are scathing:
McCain is a man obsessed with political ambitions but plagued by self-destructive petty impulses...
But this sort of blame-fixing works where it counts--with reporters who've come to blindly lionize McCain as a high-minded champion of political virtue fighting demons of political corruption. Perhaps McCain's master stroke in inoculating himself from serious media scrutiny was his early fusillade of confessions--his adultery ruined his first marriage, the Keating Five scandal was a blemish on his reputation, he indulged in wild and reckless misbehavior as an Annapolis midshipman. He finally endeared himself to the media with his Quixotic promise to reform campaign financing and by holding court with reporters aboard his "Straight Talk Express" bus.
Ouch. But Mr. Murphy doesn't stop there. Again, remember this was written about McCain back in 2000. Clearly, things haven't changed much about him:
More of McCain's style:
McCain indulges in hypocrisy with a flair. He attacks tobacco but ignores alcohol. Why? His wife's millions flow from the family beer and wine distributorship, Arizona's largest.
The affable, candid, gregarious candidate, who mingles with reporters and yuks it up in the back of the bus, is no friend of free speech, and merely tolerates and uses the press as part of his political strategy. In Arizona, McCain tries to subdue reporters by threatening to have them fired when he's displeased with their pieces. Upset about critical reporting in the Phoenix New Times by Amy Silverman, McCain complained to her father, Richard, general manager of the Salt River Project, an Arizona hydroelectric utility. McCain's intent seemed clear: muscling the federally chartered SRP in hopes Silverman would pressure his daughter to back off.
McCain promised Arizona voters, "I've never tried to exploit my Vietnam service to my country because it would be totally inappropriate." But his presidential campaign is festooned with reminders of his POW years, from campaign videos to speeches to best-selling books, trying to capture the veterans vote.
Even as he moralizes about corrupt corporate money, McCain rakes in hundreds of thousands of dollars from Washington lobbyists and asks corporations for use of their jets for campaigning. As a peevish lobbyist told Newsweek: "He sees no connection between twisting our arms for money and then talking about how corrupt the system is."
Take note on the following comments Traditional Media. Mr. Murphy gives a foreboding warning about McCain:
Those of us who’ve known John McCain since he began his Arizona political career made two mistakes.
First, overestimating the Washington media’s willingness to look beyond a politician’s self-serving façade.
Second, underestimating McCain’s skill in camouflaging his bullyboy ways and reincarnating himself as a lovable maverick glowing with political virtue.
And then Mr. Murphy gives a litany of more things about McCain:
* When NBC refused to support his TV rating system, McCain wrote NBC president Robert Wright threatening to work to have the FCC lift NBC licenses of locally owned stations.
* When Barbara Barrett, wife of Intel CEO Dr. Craig Barrett, ran against McCain’s protégé, Arizona Gov. J. Fife Symington III, McCain offered to buy her out of the 1994 GOP primary. Barrett refused. Furious, McCain threatened revenge, which materialized only in minor ways. Barrett lost, but Symington later was forced out of office after being convicted on seven counts of fraud. Barrett, meanwhile, continues a successful international law practice and serves on major corporate boards.
* Maricopa County (Phoenix) schools superintendent Sandra Dowling, a Republican, refused McCain’s demand to abandon support of Barrett. Dowling told Morley Safer during a "60 Minutes" interview about Arizona politics that McCain exploded and threatened to "destroy" her. Thereafter, her son lost his appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, where McCain sits as an ex-oficio member of the Board of Visitors. McCain denied any connection.
* He recruits Republicans to run against Arizona GOP officeholders whom he considers insufficiently loyal to him. McCain’s candidates inevitably lose.
* As he lectured about campaign finance corruption, McCain’s handpicked candidate for Arizona attorney general, state Sen. John Kaites, was being investigated for violating Arizona’s campaign finance law.
* McCain attacks tobacco addiction, but ignores alcohol addiction. No surprise: his wife’s fortune stems from the family beer and wine distributorship, Arizona’s largest.
* While serving Arizona’s First Congressional District, McCain lived in a modest townhouse in suburban Mesa. Impatient for bigger things, he took over a lavish home owned by his wife’s father in a pricey Phoenix neighborhood 25 miles away. Papers taken out for renovations were in the name of "Smith." McCain denied deceiving voters, and blamed others—architects—for using "Smith."
* McCain’s friendship with master swindler Charles Keating wasn’t his only misjudgment in friends. McCain’s Arizona protégé, Gov. Fife Symington, claimed to be a successful tycoon. In fact, he was bankrupt, later convicted on seven counts of fraud and forced to resign. McCain’s wife was a front row regular at Symington’s criminal trial in Phoenix. McCain still calls Symington "my friend."
* McCain picked my publisher predecessor, Duke Tully, to be godfather of his first child. Tully boasted he was an Air Force hero of the Korean and Vietnam wars—but ultimately was exposed as a phony who never served in the military. McCain says he considers Tully "my friend."
* McCain is no friend of free speech. He favors the "flag desecration amendment" that would criminalize "abuse" of Old Glory, and the number of news reporters he’s threatened to have fired because of stories he dislikes would staff a large newspaper.
* McCain bullied Arizona legislators into creating a Republican-only presidential 1996 primary to benefit Sen. Phil Gramm at a cost of more than $2 million to all taxpayers. Gramm pulled out, and never showed up for the Arizona election.
* A person who was there tells how McCain reacted when a delegation went to his Senate office in 1991 to discuss liberalizing flight duties for women in military aviation. After greeting them with "Hi, honey, Hi sweetie," McCain launched into an angry diatribe, disparaging the women as "a bunch of Pat Schroeders"—the Colorado Democrat known for championing feminist causes.
Wow so much crap that the Traditional Media is too cowed to cover. Imagine if even a small percentage of this was in Barack Obama's background? We'd hear about it non-stop.
Mr. Murphy is still writing about John McCain, but now for the Idaho press. He claims McCain is completely capable of cheating (right up there with calling him a "liar"), when discussing the "cone of silence" scandal at the Saddleback church forum:
Please, it's not "outrageous" that McCain could cheat.
McCain in fact confessed during his Saturday appearance that his worst failure was his first marriage. McCain returned from Vietnam to find his wife Carol, a former swimsuit model, horribly crippled by an auto accident. He admits he cheated on her with several affairs while still married, including with his present wife Cindy, and even lied in his divorce papers. That's a former POW cheating.
And Mr. Murphy also has a few words to say on the Palin VP pick:
McCain began adulthood brawling, drinking heavily, gambling and breaking Annapolis rules. He would've been expelled had his grandfather and father, also Navy black sheep, not been admirals.
He crashed four Navy jets, not including his final Vietnam mishap. Back home he embarked on adulterous flings on his first wife, then married one of his paramours, whose fortune has helped create the McCain legend.
In Washington, he sprinkles the "F" word in angry outbursts at colleagues who consider his tempestuousness dangerous. His volcanic temper cowers critics. Senate colleagues rebuked him for becoming a captive of master swindler Charlie Keating.
In selecting Palin, McCain acts impulsively again (he had only one upclose meeting within hours of picking her), gambling she'll stir up votes and distract media attention from crises blamed on the GOP.
Finally, Amy Silverman who is a journalist for the "Phoenix New Times" and who has been covering McCain in Arizona for the past 15 years also has some recent insights about McCain (she is also on the persona non gratis list currently):
I've been a writer and editor at New Times for 15 years. For much of that time, I wrote about Arizona politics, which is to say that I wrote about John McCain. It's still odd to see the guy in the spotlight, because for quite a while, I was pretty much the only one covering him.
I never did fall for him in the way reporters fall for politicians, probably because he wasn't much to fall for back in the early 1990s. In those days, McCain was still rehabilitating the image he'd later sell to the national media. He was known then for cavorting in the Bahamas with Charlie Keating, rather than for fighting for campaign finance reform and limited government spending.
That's the thing about covering John McCain. Someone always wants you to give him the benefit of the doubt. And there's usually a pretty good case for why he deserves it, though that doesn't mean he should be let off the hook completely.
Even now that McCain's the one whining that Obama's getting all the good press in this presidential race, you still don't see a lot in the national media really damning the guy. It could be that in this postmodern political world, there's not much you can say anymore that will get the attention of the American people. Ever since Monica Lewinsky crawled under that desk in the Oval Office, it's been hard to shock this country.
It's a great article to read that covers all the myths and flip-flops of John McCain, several of which were also discussed by Mr. Murphy. Ms. Silverman ends her article with this anecdote about John McCain's victory speech in Arizona when he secured the Republican nomination this year:
Watching him up on the stage, struggling with the teleprompter, Cindy looking miserable next to him, I almost pitied the GOP's presumptive nominee. No more nasty jokes, no public outbursts. He's reduced to talking about climate change and accusing Obama of being the media's flavor of the day.
"Don't feel sorry for him," a friend said. "The guy might wind up president."
Hear, hear! As many Arizonans know, including the press that covered him here, we must never let this happen.