John McCain is a Corruptionist. For those without a dictionary, that means that he is a politician who has protected and upheld corrupt practices throughout his political career.
His dirty work is obscured by his carefully constructed myth as a "maverick" and his false mask of a reformer. It is all hype. His reputation is built on a twisted web of lies and protected by a legion of well trained sycophants in the media.
Every now and then, a clear portrait of McCain emerges such as last week’s profile in the Phoenix New Times by Amy Silverman, who wrote about the sordid career of the Senator from Arizona—a man she has been covering for years. It is a must read.
Mark it down as yet more data points proving McCain’s deep corruptionist tendencies.
There are many more. His campaign is run by lobbyists and McCain’s bends over backwards to reward the clients of his staff with statements and policy positions.
And then there is McCain’s embrace of Ralph Reed.
WTF!
To the jump...
I know that the scandal news and hypocrisy of our era has produced an overwhelming amount of details and stories to keep track of. I know that it makes the mind spin, but really this takes the cake:
Republican presidential candidate John McCain so far is ignoring calls from several watchdog groups to cancel an Atlanta fundraiser promoted by Ralph Reed, a longtime friend and business partner of imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Public Citizen, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), and Campaign Money Watch are urging the Arizona senator to cancel plans for the Aug. 18 fundraiser at the Marriott Marquis in downtown Atlanta and remove Reed from McCain’s Victory 2008 Team. [snip]
On the campaign trail, McCain often touts his work tackling Abramoff’s corrupt lobbying practices as evidence of his commitment to cleaning up Washington and a straight-shooting style that transcends politics.
The watchdog groups reacted to a "special invitation" Reed sent to friends and political contacts, inviting them to the fundraiser and asking them to contribute to the McCain campaign by sending checks to Reed’s address.
"Attached is a contribution form and a fact sheet that details the event," Reed wrote. "Please complete the contribution form and return it to me at [address], Duluth, GA 30097. If you select (sic) to use your credit card, you may fax the form to me at [number]."
In the invitation, which was first reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Reed also said he had agreed to serve as a member of the McCain Victory 2008 team.
Ralph Reed? Are you kidding me? The "maverick" reformer is embracing this legendary Super Corruptionist as a supporter and fundraiser and it is not front page news.
This should be setting off alarm bells in newsrooms across America. Instead, they give McCain yet another pass on his record of flip-flops and hypocrisy. Obama’s neighbor who used to be in the Weather Underground is news, but Reed’s embrace of McCain is a non-story.
Really?
WTF!
Sure, McCain has surrounded himself with the worst that the conservative movement has to offer, so it should be no surprise that he is embracing Ralph Reed. After all, Reed is important to McCain’s efforts to reach out to the religious Right with fear-based dog whistles.
Time Magazine recently made the Reed connection to McCain’s ad portraying Obama as the Antichrist:
The ad was the creation of Fred Davis, one of McCain's top media gurus as well as a close friend of former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed...
And Steven Waldman elaborated on the connection on the WSJ Web site:
I do believe it’s likely that the McCain camp knew that an ad mocking Sen. Obama for having a Messianic complex would have explosive meaning and that they were aware of how much traction the Obama-as-antichrist idea had in some Christian circles. Time magazine’s Amy Sullivan reported that the ad was created by media guru Fred Davis, who, she says, is "a close friend of former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed."
My guess is that the McCain camp viewed the ad as a three-fer: some viewers would view it as a playful poke at Sen. Obama’s ego, showing Sen. McCain to have a sense of humor and Sen. Obama to be too full of himself. Other, more religious voters, would be downright offended by Obama’s Messianic complex, since, antichrist aside, it’s offensive for anyone to think he’s God-like. And still other voters would view it as validation or reinforcement of the messages they’ve heard elsewhere that Obama is the antichrist.
The Hill’s report on the Reed/McCain Dixie Fundraiser drives home why McCain needs Ralph Reed:
John Feehery, a former House GOP communications strategist who has bemoaned Abramoff’s corrupting influence on the party, said Reed maintains strong ties to Christian conservatives, a key GOP demographic McCain needs to attract. For instance, in the Indian Affairs Committee’s Abramoff report, Reed boasts of having contact information for 3,000 pastors and 90,000 religious conservative households in Alabama alone.
"He is connected with Christian conservatives and he’s a pretty savvy political operator," Feehery said. "This is the time when you’ve got to get all the forces in the party together."
The quote about the Abramoff report should set off alarm bells.
Today, McCain needs Reed. Just like he needs Grover Norquist, but just a few years ago both men were on McCain’s hit list. Back in 2000, along with their long-time pal and third member of their corruptionist triad, Jack Abramoff, they funded dirty tricks and went after McCain with a viciousness they usually reserved for Democrats. A recent article in Salon described part of their anti-McCain campaign:
During the 2000 campaign, Norquist was a vocal opponent of McCain's candidacy, holding press conferences in New Hampshire and South Carolina to denounce McCain's support for campaign finance reform. Norquist's nonprofit, Americans for Tax Reform, ran issue advertisements that echoed the talking points of then-candidate George W. Bush. The ad called McCain "the only candidate approved by the liberal New York Times" and suggested that Bill Clinton and "Big Labor" supported McCain's positions.
I could write a very long Diary about the many things these three Caballeros of the Right did to elect Bush and defeat McCain (and I expect that more details will come out before November). Their actions and money were critical to Bush’s victory and John McCain knew it.
And when he got the chance, McCain went after the boys.
His Abramoff investigation cover-up became a vehicle for McCain’s vengeance. The entire affair was classic McCain. First, the appearance of honor, integrity and action was created and hyped. Then his sycophants in the media ate it up as proof of McCain’s "Maverick" status. They marveled at the shiny coat of white paint McCain used to gloss over the scandal. Years have now passed and a fresh look at the facts shows that nothing has been done, unless you count a cover-up as action. Sure Abramoff is in jail and a few others have pleaded guilty, but the real players in the scandal have (so far) escaped justice—and John McCain held the door open for them.
Two of the worst grifters who ran through that door were Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed. They are crooks—pure and simple. Both should be in jail. Instead, both are playing key roles in John McCain’s campaign.
And McCain needs both of these super corruptionist to bring their coalition of grifters to the table. McCain needs them so much that he has gotten over their role in the 2000 campaign and he has "forgotten" about their many crimes connected to the Abramoff scandal. This is odd, because McCain himself investigated these crimes and included condemning details in his final report on Abramoff Scandal for the Senate’s Committee on Indian Affairs.
Take a moment and look at the report and source documents. Ralph Reed’s deep involvement with the Abramoff scandal is all over the document. One section is even titled: Abramoff, Scanlon, and Reed Work Against the Tigua. Page after page makes the case that Ralph Reed was a key player in the scandal. Pages 23-31 goes into detail on how Reed worked with Abramoff and Michael Scanlon to covertly fund efforts to fight proposed gambling in Alabama (it is worth noting that this effort would evolve into the Reed/Abramoff funded effort to take out Don Siegelman). Page 56 of the report underscored the covert relationship on the Reed/Abramoff connection:
Abramoff understood that gaming opponents, like Christian conservatives, would of course eschew direct contributions from the Tribe. Worfel recalled that Van Hoof "came back and told us that [sic] a guy name Ralph Reed. She was real careful about a Ralph Reed person. It can’t get out. He’s Christian Coalition. It wouldn’t look good if they’re receiving money from a casino-operating tribe to oppose gaming. It would be kind of like hypocritical."
Pages 143-147 detail Reed’s work with Abramoff and Scanlon to shut down the casinos of the Tigua Tribe in Texas (an effort that also included a timely assist from a Texas Judge named John Cornyn). After covertly working with Reed to close the Tigua Casino, Abramoff convince the Tribe to hire him to get it reopened and pages 172-175 discuss how the Tigua were convinced to fund a golf junket to Scotland that included Congressman Bob Ney—and Ralph Reed.
Over time, Abramoff moved millions of dollars to Ralph Reed from his Native American clients. Pages 269 and 270 lays out some of the details:
As the foregoing indicates, from March through May 2001, AIC paid one of Reed’s companies, called Century Strategies, $2,291,000. And, from June 2001 to February 2002, another Scanlon-controlled entity, CCS paid Century Strategies and another company owned by Reed called Capitol Media $1,723,029, for a total of $4,014,029.
And this did not include every dollar that passed between Ralph, Grover and Jack.
Reed is a super corruptionist. In fact, he was so corrupt that he even appalled Abramoff and Scanlon. Page 271 describes a series of emails between the two about Ralph Reed (emphasis added):
On January 4, 2002, Abramoff and Scanlon expressed concerns about work that Reed did for one of their Tribal clients. About that project, Scanlon asked, "Did Ralph spend all them [sic] money he was given to fight this—or does he have some left?"
Abramoff responded, "That’s a silly question! He ‘spent’ it all the moment it arrived in
his account. He would NEVER admit he has money left over. Would we?"
Scanlon replied, "No—but Id [sic] like to know what the hell he spent it on—he didn’t
even know the dam [sic] thing was there—and didn’t do shit to shit [sic] to shut it down!"
Abramoff decreed, "I agree. He is a bad version of us! no [sic] more money for him."
In the recommendations of McCain’s report is the suggestion that the Senate Finance Committee investigate the use of non-profit organizations as illegal outlets for money laundering by Abramoff and his colleagues. The investigation was conducted by the Minority (Democratic) Staff of the Committee with limited resources and support from the Republicans. The 10-12-06 final Report (PDF) underscores the crimes of Ralph Reed, Grover Norquist and others.
Both Senate reports on the Abramoff scandal left more question on the table than they answered. To say that the crimes outlined in both reports have been under investigated is an understatement. The Bush DOJ has slow-walked the case and nobody in Congress has reopened these Republican obstructed efforts to get to the truth of the Abramoff Scandal. This needs to happen in the 111th Congress!
Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist were never placed under subpoena. Their financial records were never examined and McCain made sure that the many references to the crimes of these two and the other Republicans mentioned in the 742,000 pages of suppressed Abramoff scandal documents would never see the light of day (they are now sealed in the National Archives and will be for the next 48 years).
Both Norquist and Reed are mentioned often in Abramoff’s billing records for the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands. In 1996 and 1997, Abramoff is constantly meeting with them to strategize on ways to protect the sweatshops, sex shops and institutionalized labor abuse flourishing on the rogue US Territory.
Any real investigation of the scandal would have these two scumbags in a cell for the next 50 years. Instead, McCain has placed the proof of their guilt in long-term cold storage. And now, McCain is being rewarded for his cover-up.
The extremely corrupt Grover Norquist is squarely behind Curveball John, in fact, Grover is now one of McCain’s advisors 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."
And Ralph Reed is mobilizing the Christian Right, helping to craft "Obama is the Antichrist’" dog whistles and hosting fundraisers for the Senator who stopped a real investigation into the Abramoff Scandal and the thousands of crimes that might have been uncovered.
Bill Moyers recently broadcasted an update of his investigation into the Abamoff scandal, Capital Crimes. You can watch it online here. It makes clear the depth and breath of the criminal conspiracy that John McCain and the Bush DOJ have covered-up. Sure it is just another set of crimes from the Bush years waiting for justice, but McCain should not be able to spin his inaction into an attribute. He needs to be called on his embrace of corruption.
McCain is a bought man. Lobbyists and corporate shrills own him. They control and craft the words he reads from the script. A man with a shred of integrity would shun Norquist and Reed. Instead, McCain embraces them. He needs them. He needs their skills at dirty tricks. He needs their talents for skirting campaign finance laws and laundering money. He needs their coalition of the corrupt. John McCain is a dirty old man and he needs their mud. And they need him. And they need another easily manipulated dupe in the White House. John McCain is that guy.
On September 4, 2008 John McCain will accept the Nomination of the Republican Party in Minnesota. Earlier in that day, Jack Abramoff will be sentenced in a Courthouse in Washington DC. In January 2006 he pleaded guilty to a number of crimes related to his work as a lobbyist. Since then he has been cooperating with the slow moving DOJ Investigation. As part of his plea, more details will come out. These details will add to our understanding of the scandal. They will also make clear the scope and depth of McCain’s Abramoff cover-up.
During a November 17, 2004 Hearing on the Abramoff Scandal, John McCain made a promise to the representatives of the Tigua Tribe:
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 little interests in exposing the truth.
Instead, he spun a narrative of gullible Indians, greedy lobbyists and the straight talking Senator who took them on.
In McCain’s version of the Abramoff story, Jack was an aberration—a "bad apple" if you will—in the otherwise smoothly running Republican system of a constant revolving door between lobbyists, government and think tanks. In John McCain’s world Ralph Reed, Gover Norquist and the legions of lobbyists running his campaign are all "good apples". You know, the kind of folks you would trust to run your campaign and the United States.
John McCain is a liar and a corruptionist.
We must defeat him in November. It is the only path to justice.
Organize. Register folks to vote. Donate. Work.
We have a country to take back and we have the power to it.
Yes. We. Can.
Cheers