John McCain has an undeserved reputation as a maverick. The hype is overwhelming. For many, the great gap between his actual record and the myth he’s carefully crafted is too much to take in. They would rather embrace the myth than confront the truth. Reality hurts their brains. And yet, I am afraid that I have to hurt the brains of McCain’s media sycophants—like the equally ancient David Broder—just a bit more.
Inside the beltway McCain gets a lot of praise and credit for the exposure and investigation of the Abramoff Scandal. It is undeserved.
When it comes to the Abramoff Scandal, the real work has been done by some fine investigative reporters and the Department of Justice. I’ll also give props to the various Congressional Committees that have revealed very narrow slices of information and several thousand pages of documents, but none of these Congressional-based inquirers could be called a full investigation of the scandal. That has not happened and it may never happen.
The reason is John McCain.
He morphed a nascent investigation into a cover-up and went on to embrace Abramoff’s most corrupt cronies.
To the jump...
I’ve been over the ground of McCain’s Abramoff investigation cover-up before. For those who want a more detailed look I would suggest this Diary.
I have been researching the Abramoff scandal since 1998 and writing about it on Daily Kos since 2004.
The Senate Indian Affairs Committee began an investigation into Jack Abramoff after an explosive article appeared on the front page of the Washington Post on February 22, 2004. Basically, the article laid out the case that Abramoff had stolen more than $35 million from his Native American clients. That was enough money to motivate action even in Washington. McCain quickly took charge of the investigation and he promised to get to the truth. While McCain thought about what to do next, the media was hot on the case and it looked to be the biggest corruption scandal to hit Washington in decades if not generations. Reporters kept uncovering new details almost daily—and those details made it clear that the Abramoff Scandal involved widespread corruption in the House, Senate and Executive Branch.
At this moment, John McCain had a choice:
He could pursue the truth and let the investigation go where it went regardless of who it exposed
or
He could use the investigation to shape a narrative, to create a "myth" and limit the damage to a small circle of designated fall guys.
In the early days of the investigation it almost looked like McCain was going to take the first option. During a November 17, 2004 Hearing on the scandal, John McCain made a promise:
I pledge, as a member of the Committee on Indian Affairs, that we will not stop until the complete truth is told.
It was a promise—like all John McCain promises—that McCain quickly broke. Before the same hearing was over, it was clear that McCain had chosen the latter course.
He chose to embrace the narrative suggested by the first news story and shaped the facts to support it. The focus of his investigation cover-up became a story of gullible Indians, greedy lobbyists and the straight talking Senator who took them on.
And that was that. The SIAC investigation was incomplete by design. It raised thousands of questions that were never answered (and to this day no Committee of the House or Senate has been willing to explore the Abramoff Scandal fully and completely). An oddly rushed final SIAC report was released in June of 2006 and in August 2006 McCain had the 750,000 pages of documents gathered by the SIAC investigation sealed and shipped to the National Archives were they will be released to the public according to standard archive protocol in 2056.
That was McCain’s gift to his colleagues in the Republican Caucus running for reelection in the 2006 cycle. It is a gift that keeps serving the GOP this year as well. More than any other Republican, John McCain is responsible for the slow pace of the Abramoff Scandal Investigation. He created an investigation and report that would give the appearance of doing something, while actually doing nothing.
The scandal was too big to sweep it under the rug, so the GOP went to their "Maverick" to make it go away. McCain easily dazzled the beltway gasbags with his maverickiness and with his slight of hand he succeeded—he cause a real inquiry into the Abramoff Scandal to vanish.
It still would be nice in the 110th Congress or the 111th Congress would keep McCain’s broken promise to America:
I pledge, as a member of the Committee on Indian Affairs, that we will not stop until the complete truth is told.
As of tonight, Congress has stopped investigating the Abramoff scandal and the truth has been buried. It is an outrage. A joint Senate/House Committee or a special prosecutor should have been given the mandate to run this scandal to ground years ago. It is not too late, but time is running out for the 110th Congress. Still, the truth and justice wait for somebody to break the "code of silence" protecting the Guilty in the halls of power.
I live in Baltimore. Criminal gangs here (the real ones, not the ones on The Wire) have pioneered a Stop Snitchin’ campaign to keep their members out of jail and intimidate anybody who might talk. The Republican Party under George W. Bush, Tom DeLay and Karl Rove have their own version of the Stop Snichin’ campaign and John McCain’s Abramoff Investigation embraced that never-give-up-a-member-of-the-gang ethic.
And covering up their crimes was not all McCain did for members of his Party deeply tied to the Abramoff Scandal. He campaigned for them in 2006 and embraced them as supporters in 2008.
Richard Pombo is an example. He was one of the most corrupt Republicans we defeated last cycle. Abramoff was just one of the many scandals Dick Pombo was involved in. Since he has been gone long obstructed legislation is finally moving through Congress. The Washington Post reported the other day that:
With the support of several senior Republicans, including Sen. Larry Craig (Idaho) and then-Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, the Wild Sky bill passed the Senate three times, but Pombo repeatedly blocked it in the House.
"It was a failure of American democracy, where you had one man who prevented the will of the American people from being fulfilled," said Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.), who battled Pombo on the Resources Committee. "What you're seeing right now is this one-man dam has broken."
And back in 2006, McCain actively supported this intense anti-environmentalist. He even recorded robocalls for Pombo during the Republican Primary. An action that betrayed an old friend, Pete McCloskey, a moderate Republican who was running to defeat Pombo and challenge the DeLay/Abramoff web of corruption that was destroying his Republican Party. One would think a "Maverick" like McCain would have a REAL Maverick’s back. Nope. Mother Jones reported on how McCain stuck the knife in the back of an old friend:
Then Senator John McCain, one of the few GOP politicians McCloskey considered environmentalists, "began making calls, telling people to vote for Pombo. That finally reduced my wife to tears. We couldn't think of a single thing that McCain and Pombo agreed on. But I got the picture. I was persona non grata."
A man of honor would have sat that race out. A man committed to protecting the environment would never campaign for Richard Pombo, but then again we are talking about John McCain. Not only did he campaign for Pombo, he is now embracing Pombo’s long-term goals like offshore drilling:
[Senator] Nelson claimed that "speculators" are the biggest problem and should be the biggest target in order to lower prices. He added, "This is the Richard Pombo plan being pulled up the shelf for his speech today. That was soundly defeated back then."
Pombo lost his reelection bid to Jerry McNerney in 2006. Defenders of Wildlife called Pombo "the biggest anti-environmental extremist in the House of Representatives."
One wonders what other Team Abramoff goals are making their way into McCain’s policies, but I digress.
Next door to Pombo in the CA-04, one of Jack Abramoff’s closest allies in Congress was fighting to hold onto his seat in the face of news reports and a DOJ investigation that was (and still is) circling him. I’m talking about John Doolittle.
McCain’s own weakass SIAC report on the Abramoff Scandal (PDF) clearly links John Doolittle and his wife Julie to Abramoff’s work concerning his Native American clients. News reports connected Doolittle to many other aspects of the scandal from Saipan to Malaysia to Tom DeLay’s office. If anybody in the fall of 2006 should know the truth about John Doolittle it should have been John McCain.
Over on the Democratic side of the isle, we had a Congressman from Louisiana with his own corruption scandal and I think everybody stayed away from supporting his campaign. I stand to be corrected, but I do not think any of our Candidates for President raised money, made a call or wrote a letter to support William Jefferson. The Republican Party has a very different idea about members of their caucus involved in scandal—they circle the wagons and offer support. I guess it is just part of their collective Stop Stichin’ mentality.
An honest man would not have anything to do with Doolittle. A reformer would find Doolittle and his ilk as just the kind of rats that need to be run out of Washington regardless of Party.
So guess what John McCain did?
Yep, he wrote a letter and humped his tired myth up the hill to help the dishonest beady-eyed little weasel:
The lies here are breathtaking.
And I’ll bet that there are many other examples of McCain campaigning for Abramoff’s Congressional pals back in 2006.
And this year, all is forgotten. In fact, McCain seems to be embracing Team Abramoff in 2008. His campaign is run by Jack’s fellow lobbyists. Men like Charlie Black who created the revolving door between campaigns, lobbyists and elected officials and their staffs. Without Black there would have never been a Jack.
Or take the ethically challenged Conrad Burns. When McCain needed help in Montana, who did he turn to? Why Conrad Burns of course.
Oh, and did I mention that as of last February, that John McCain had received over $100,000 from Jack’s old lobbying firm, Greenberg Traurig. A real investigation into the Abramoff Scandal would have had that firm following the Alexander Strategy Group into oblivion. Instead, the firm survives and now they’re able to tip McCain six figures for letting them slide.
These are but a few examples. I am sure that there are more.
Perhaps the most amazing Abramoff/McCain Team-up is the way the Grover Norquist has come around to supporting John McCain and his run for the White House. Just a few years ago, McCain was threatening Norquist with subpoenas and indictment. Now, Grover Norquist is a supporter and advising McCain on Tax Policy:
One of those McCain is listening to is Grover Norquist, the anti-tax crusader who demands that candidates sign his "pledge" not to OK a tax increase. McCain refused to put his name on it. Yet in recent months, his advisers devised a tax plan with input from Norquist and others. First, McCain said he'd fight to make the Bush tax cuts permanent—even though he originally opposed them. Then, before New Hampshire, he unveiled a plan to cut corporate and investment taxes and to abolish the alternative minimum tax. "I'd still like to get it in writing," Norquist tells me, "but I'm pleased with McCain's tax-cut position now."
Once Grover Norquist said:
''What the Republicans need is 50 Jack Abramoffs ... then this becomes a different town.''
Now Grover tells us that what we need is John McCain in the White House.
Grover Norquist is many things, but through the years he has been consistent in his views. He does not change. John McCain does.
Norquist looked McCain straight in the eye and stared him down over the Abramoff Scandal. McCain blinked. Now John McCain is Grover’s new plaything. When Grover tells McCain to jump on Tax cuts, the only answer "Maverick" John can muster is "How High".
McCain has surrounded his campaign with the most corrupt and divisive players in Washington. They are willing to say and do anything to win. This will be a very ugly campaign. George Bush is the figurehead at the front of a group of thieves capturing our government for the profits of the few. John McCain is running to replace Bush as the leader of that parade of thugs.
Barack Obama is running to drive them out of town. He understands that the corruption must end if we want a chance to Take this Country back from decades of Republican misrule.
He has my support. We must stop John McSame.
Cheers