The New York Times has published a thorough examination of lifelong gambler John McCain's ties to the gambling industry and to the casinos overseen by his Indian Affairs Committee. While it is a tangled web, here are some of the highlights:
- John McCain, anointed candidate of the "traditional family values" party, is a lifelong gambler. He gambles at least once a month, often flying to Las Vegas for weekend betting marathons.
- The NYT described one late-night gambling session at the Foxwoods Resort Casino, in Joe Lieberman's home state of Connecticut. In a room reserved for high-stakes gamblers, McCain tossed out $100 chips at the craps table of a casino he oversaw as chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.
- McCain was accompanied on this gambling jaunt by Scott Reed, the lobbyist who represents Foxwoods, the world's second-largest casino, and by Rick Davis, McCain's current campaign manager, among others.
- Not surprisingly, McCain and his entourage emerged with thousands of dollars in winnings.
- Worried advisers warned McCain about the appearance of impropriety created by gambling in the very casinos McCain regulates. A former senior campaign official described a typical conversation:
Do we really have to go to a casino? I don't think it's a good idea. The base doesn't like it. It doesn't look good. And good things don't happen in casinos at midnight.McCain's response: "You worry too much."
- McCain, a two-time chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee, is credited with helping to transform the Indian gambling business into "a $26-billion-a-year behemoth with 423 casinos across the country." McCain is considered "one of the founding fathers of Indian gaming."
- More than 40 top fund-raisers and top advisers to McCain's current campaign have worked or lobbied for gambling interests, including tribal and Las Vegas casinos, lottery companies, and purveyors of online poker.
- McCain protected one Connecticut casino from competition by killing off another tribe's proposed casino, a favor to his long-time friend, Joe Lieberman.
- McCain greased the skids for another tribe's "off-reservation" California casino after the tribe hired Wes Gullett, a long-time close friend and associate of McCain. In exchange for the fees, Gullett claimed he helped prepare the testimony of a witness. However, the witness denied that account, saying "I never met the man and couldn't tell you anything about him."
- Former Defense Secretary William Cohen, another long-time close friend of McCain and the best man at his 1980 wedding to trophy wife Cindy McCain, was a major investor in the California casino project.
- McCain later helped slow the development of Indian casinos at the behest of Las Vegas casinos, among his biggest contributors.
- McCain's vaunted "investigation" into the misdeeds of the Jack Abramoff/Ralph Reed/Grover Norquist triumvirate was prompted by lobbyists and political operatives in McCain's inner circle. These McCain operatives then "cashed in" by acting as consultants to the aggrieved Indian tribes.
- McCain's chief strategist, John Weaver, was put on a tribe's payroll to the tune of $100,000, supposedly "to provide representation for the tribe before the U.S. Senate." However, Weaver never registered as a lobbyist on the issue, offering the lame excuse that he merely "assist[ed] ... in developing an aggressive crisis management and communications strategy."
- McCain's "investigation" of Abramoff/Reed/Norquist conveniently omitted gifts and donations lavished on members of Congress, but delved extensively into money-laundering by Grover Norquist and a phony anti-gambling campaign by former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed, who had run the smear campaign leading to McCain's South Carolina primary defeat in 2000.
- According to one associate, the payback on Reed and Norquist "was like hitting pay dirt."
And face it - McCain [was] maniacal about Ralph Reed and Norquist. They were sticking little pins in dolls because those guys had cost him South Carolina.
- Las Vegas casino executives are among McCain's closest friends and most prolific fundraisers.
- McCain helped write the law that led to Indian gambling, and pushed for the expansion of Indian gambling through federal recognition of additional tribes.
- McCain voted twice to give casinos tax breaks estimated to cost the government more than $326 million.
- Key gambling lobbyist Scott Reed, like the better known and unrelated Ralph Reed, began his career with Virginia Beach televangelist Pat Robertson's so-called Christian Coalition. Do these guys believe anything they tell the evangelical base, or is it all just crap(s)?
John McCain presents himself as a maverick reformer. He's really a vengeful politician with a gambling problem. America can't afford to bet her future on John McCain.
Cross-posted at www.vagreatblueheron.wordpress.com