It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a really rich wife

The most difficult thing to do when writing about John McCain is keeping all of his Straight Talk^TM straight.  Here is Mr. Maverick, from the floor of the U.S. Senate in January, 2007:

We can begin to restore faith in this institution by divesting ourselves of some of the perks and privileges that have somehow crept into public service...Another critical aspect requiring reform is the ability of a Member to travel on a corporate jet and only pay the rate of a first class plane ticket...I have no doubt that the average American would love to fly around the country on very comfortable corporate owned aircraft and only be charged the cost of a first-class ticket. It is a pretty good deal we have got going here. We need to face the fact that the time has come to end this Congressional perk.

That was when he was leading the pack to become the Republican nominee for president and could afford to be concerned about ethics.  But seven months later, with his poll numbers dropping and his fundraising drying up, it was time to face a different fact:

...with his campaign in straitened financial circumstances [McCain] has decided it can no longer afford such scruples —

So, with restoring faith in Congress and his scruples put on the back-burner, McCain elected to do what the average American would love to do...if the average American happened to have a filthy rich wife...he went corporate plus:

...Mr. McCain’s cash-short campaign gave itself an advantage by using a corporate jet owned by a company headed by his wife, Cindy McCain, according to public records.

Now this was completely legal since the law exempted "aircraft owned by a candidate or his family or by a privately held company they control" (lucky break for the co-sponsor of the bill, eh?), and according to a campaign spokesman:

The campaign carefully followed all the relevant laws and F.E.C. regulations on air travel at all times, and paid for travel exactly as required by those rules.

So if not ethical, it was legal. Of course it's funny that the campaign was able to carefully follow the law because, shortly before McCain started flying around on his wife's dime, he said that he wouldn't use her money to keep his campaign going, and that:

I have never thought about it. I would never do such a thing, so I wouldn’t know what the legalities are.

Oh well.  That was then and the decision to use her jet to keep his cash-strapped campaign alive was...well, it was a few days later.  

So, no harm, no foul, right?  And besides, when you're a straight talking maverick, why worry about shelving your scruples for money and going back on your word?  After all, the press rarely notices.