McCain: Experienced in the ways of Washington lobbyists

John McCain yesterday said "I'm not the youngest candidate, but I'm the most experienced." True enough, but from the very start of his Congressional career McCain's experience has involved chasing after lobbyists' money. In the case of Vicki Iseman at least, it may also have meant chasing after her.

One part of the NYT story (bolstered now by the WaPo) perfectly encapsulates what it's about, and what McCain is all about. It comes right after the Times notes that some current aides to McCain contend that "the senator sided with Ms. Iseman’s clients only when their positions hewed to his principles." (McCain himself refused to be interviewed for the story.) It turns out that in the late 1990s there was an awful lot of hewing to McCain's "principles" going on.

A champion of deregulation, Mr. McCain wrote letters in 1998 and 1999 to the Federal Communications Commission urging it to uphold marketing agreements allowing a television company to control two stations in the same city, a crucial issue for Glencairn Ltd., one of Ms. Iseman’s clients. He introduced a bill to create tax incentives for minority ownership of stations; Ms. Iseman represented several businesses seeking such a program. And he twice tried to advance legislation that would permit a company to control television stations in overlapping markets, an important issue for Paxson [another Iseman client].

In late 1999, Ms. Iseman asked Mr. McCain’s staff to send a letter to the commission to help Paxson, now Ion Media Networks, on another matter. Mr. Paxson was impatient for F.C.C. approval of a television deal, and Ms. Iseman acknowledged in an e-mail message to The Times that she had sent to Mr. McCain’s staff information for drafting a letter urging a swift decision.

Mr. McCain complied. He sent two letters to the commission, drawing a rare rebuke for interference from its chairman. In an embarrassing turn for the campaign, news reports invoked the Keating scandal, once again raising questions about intervening for a patron.

Mr. McCain’s aides released all of his letters to the F.C.C. to dispel accusations of favoritism, and aides said the campaign had properly accounted for four trips on the Paxson plane. But the campaign did not report the flight with Ms. Iseman [on the Paxson corporate jet, in February 1999]. Mr. McCain’s advisers say he was not required to disclose the flight, but ethics lawyers dispute that.

So, McCain uses undue pressure to try to force the FCC to grant a sweetheart deal to Iseman's clients (involving several Pittsburgh TV stations). He's so far out of line that he gets rebuked by the FCC Chairman. The episode becomes known and draws public comparisons to McCain's efforts on behalf of Charles Keating a dozen years earlier. And McCain tries to dispel allegations of wrongdoing by...suppressing information about a cozy flight he took with Iseman after a Miami fundraiser earlier that same year.

In 1999, CIPB filed this rather more detailed report about McCain's efforts on behalf of Paxson in the Pittsburgh case. CIPB was demanding an investigation of McCain's activities.

On November 17, 1999 the Senator and Presidential candidate instructed the FCC commissioners to take action on the deal no later than December 15, 1999. "If in your judgment the Commission cannot meet this request, please advise me of this fact in writing, with a specific and complete explanation, no later than November 18, 1999," wrote McCain.

In a second letter, dated December 10, 1999, written to FCC Chair William Kennard, McCain was even more forceful in his resolution. He demanded, "if the license applications were not acted upon" that Chairman Kennard "...explain why." Obviously feeling the pressure, the commissioners voted to approve the application. However, the FCC press release indicated that the 30-page opinion included four separate dissenting opinions.

Kennard responded to McCain's letter by saying, "It is highly unusual for the commissioners to be asked to publicly announce their voting status on a matter that is still pending." He said such inquiries "could have procedural and substantive impacts on the Commission's deliberations and, thus, on the due process rights of the parties."

Save Pittsburgh Public Television campaign's director Jerry Starr, said, "This is the latest and most flagrant example of Washington insiders riding rough-shod over community sentiment. The pressure to resolve this by December 15th comes from the applicants, Paxson Communications, WQED, and Cornerstone TeleVision, whose contract expires at the end of the year." Starr added, "McCain is making big statements about taking the money out of politics, but we have discovered that Paxson, his people and his attorneys have contributed at least $15,000 to McCain's campaign in the past few months."

Hoo boy, that's some kind of hewing. Not one, but two inappropriate letters to the FCC in less than a month. One letter asked that the Commission (a) hurry up, and (b) tell McCain in advance that they'll get the job done for him. The second letter demands an explanation if they fail to hurry up. This is a Senator whom somebody has lit a flame under; that somebody was Vicki Iseman.

When McCain published his autobiography three years later, he had this to say about those "principles" that everybody in this story was hewing to (Worth the Fighting For, pp. 159-160):

Learning from my unhappy experience [with the Keating Five], I have refrained from ever intervening in the regulatory decisions of the federal government if such intervention could be construed, rightly or wrongly, as done solely or primarily for the benefit of a major financial supporter of my campaigns.

Heh.

Maverick? No. Straight-talker? Not on your life. Experienced? Sure, in the charms of Washington lobbyists.