Allan J. Lichtman: Sex, Lies, and John McCain
[Allan J. Lichtman is a professor of history at American University in Washington, D.C. His six books include Prejudice and the Old Politics: The Presidential Election of 1928 and The Keys to the White House.]
I admired John McCain a great deal in 2000. In my view, McCain was one of the very few politicians who talked straight to the American people and was the victim of an unforgivable hatchet job by the Bush campaign.
I don’t admire McCain any longer. Forget about the ill-advised mention of a rumored sexual affair between John McCain and lobbyist Vicki Iseman in a recent New York Times story about McCain’s connections with the lobbyist and her clients. In fact, this story and subsequent reporting by the Times, the Washington Post, Newsweek, and ABC News raises serious questions about influence peddling by John McCain. Worse yet, explanations offered by the Senator and his campaign have entwined the once straight-talking McCain in a web of deception.
The story begins in the 1980’s when McCain intervened with federal regulators on behalf of crooked Savings and Loan operator Charles Keating after Keating and his associates had poured some $112,000 into McCain’s campaign coffers. A decade later, McCain similarly intervened on behalf of Ms. Iseman’s wealthy clients – who likewise had contributed many tens of thousands of dollars to his campaigns.
In 1998, when McCain chaired the Commerce Committee, which had oversight over the Federal Communication Commission (FCC), he wrote an extraordinary letter to the FCC Chair that threatened to overhaul the Commission if it closed a regulatory loophole that would allow one of Iseman’s clients to circumvent federal rules barring companies from owning more than one television station in a single city.
The following year, McCain wrote to the FCC on behalf of Iseman client Lowell W. Paxson who was trying to get approval for adding a Pittsburgh television station to his media empire. McCain said that he was only urging the FCC to reach a decision on the acquisition after a long delay and was not advocating on Paxson’s behalf.
But influence peddling in Washington doesn’t work in such blatant ways. It didn’t take an Einstein to read between the lines the intent of a letter from the Chair of the Commerce Committee which demanded that “each member of the commission” write to him “no later than the close of business on Tuesday, December 14, 1999, whether you have already acted upon these applications.” The FCC Chair wrote back to McCain to protest that “Your letter comes at a sensitive time in the deliberative process as the individual commissioners finalize their views and their votes on this matter. I must respectfully note that it is highly unusual for the commissioners to be asked to publicly announce their voting status on a matter that is still pending.”
After publication of the Times story, McCain said he never met with Paxson or a representative of Paxson’s company before dispatching his letter. Yet Paxson said in a widely reported interview that he had met personally with McCain on the matter. The Senator was contradicted by yet another source: himself. According to a 2002 deposition that Newsweek uncovered, McCain said, “I was contacted by Mr. Paxson on this issue.…He wanted their approval very bad for purposes of his business.”
The McCain campaign also explained that his staff “met with public broadcasting activists from the Pittsburgh area” who opposed the Paxson acquisition. Yet Jerold Starr, the co-chairman of the Save Pittsburgh Public Television Campaign, who led the activist opposition, said flatly that “It never happened.” According to an ABC News report by Avni Patel, Starr said “we had no idea that McCain had any interest in our local matter.” Starr further condemned as “a bold face lie” the assertion by the McCain campaign that the opposition, like Paxson, was seeking to expedite the stalled FCC proceedings. “The longer it took, the better our chances were,” Starr said. “It meant that the FCC was paying serious attention to our complaint.”
McCain was not advocating for the common good in these cases. Rather, he was aiding and abetting the pernicious concentration of the nation’s media in the hands of a few large corporations.
McCain’s tight relationship with lobbyists continues during his time as a presidential candidate. According to former Washington Post reporter Thomas Edsall, “11 current or former lobbyists working for or advising McCain, at least double the number in any other [presidential] campaign.” No problem, said Senator McCain, “These people have honorable records, and they’re honorable people, and I’m proud to have them as part of my team.”
This last remark reveals the truth about John McCain. In one sense McCain is an authentic reformer who has bucked his party’s establishment to push for reforms on campaign finance, congressional earmarks, and lobbying. But he is also a supremely self-righteous individual who believes himself to be above the rules and regulations he imposes on others. It is that arrogance of power that would make John McCain a very dangerous man as president of the United States.
Read entire article at Britannica Blog
I admired John McCain a great deal in 2000. In my view, McCain was one of the very few politicians who talked straight to the American people and was the victim of an unforgivable hatchet job by the Bush campaign.
I don’t admire McCain any longer. Forget about the ill-advised mention of a rumored sexual affair between John McCain and lobbyist Vicki Iseman in a recent New York Times story about McCain’s connections with the lobbyist and her clients. In fact, this story and subsequent reporting by the Times, the Washington Post, Newsweek, and ABC News raises serious questions about influence peddling by John McCain. Worse yet, explanations offered by the Senator and his campaign have entwined the once straight-talking McCain in a web of deception.
The story begins in the 1980’s when McCain intervened with federal regulators on behalf of crooked Savings and Loan operator Charles Keating after Keating and his associates had poured some $112,000 into McCain’s campaign coffers. A decade later, McCain similarly intervened on behalf of Ms. Iseman’s wealthy clients – who likewise had contributed many tens of thousands of dollars to his campaigns.
In 1998, when McCain chaired the Commerce Committee, which had oversight over the Federal Communication Commission (FCC), he wrote an extraordinary letter to the FCC Chair that threatened to overhaul the Commission if it closed a regulatory loophole that would allow one of Iseman’s clients to circumvent federal rules barring companies from owning more than one television station in a single city.
The following year, McCain wrote to the FCC on behalf of Iseman client Lowell W. Paxson who was trying to get approval for adding a Pittsburgh television station to his media empire. McCain said that he was only urging the FCC to reach a decision on the acquisition after a long delay and was not advocating on Paxson’s behalf.
But influence peddling in Washington doesn’t work in such blatant ways. It didn’t take an Einstein to read between the lines the intent of a letter from the Chair of the Commerce Committee which demanded that “each member of the commission” write to him “no later than the close of business on Tuesday, December 14, 1999, whether you have already acted upon these applications.” The FCC Chair wrote back to McCain to protest that “Your letter comes at a sensitive time in the deliberative process as the individual commissioners finalize their views and their votes on this matter. I must respectfully note that it is highly unusual for the commissioners to be asked to publicly announce their voting status on a matter that is still pending.”
After publication of the Times story, McCain said he never met with Paxson or a representative of Paxson’s company before dispatching his letter. Yet Paxson said in a widely reported interview that he had met personally with McCain on the matter. The Senator was contradicted by yet another source: himself. According to a 2002 deposition that Newsweek uncovered, McCain said, “I was contacted by Mr. Paxson on this issue.…He wanted their approval very bad for purposes of his business.”
The McCain campaign also explained that his staff “met with public broadcasting activists from the Pittsburgh area” who opposed the Paxson acquisition. Yet Jerold Starr, the co-chairman of the Save Pittsburgh Public Television Campaign, who led the activist opposition, said flatly that “It never happened.” According to an ABC News report by Avni Patel, Starr said “we had no idea that McCain had any interest in our local matter.” Starr further condemned as “a bold face lie” the assertion by the McCain campaign that the opposition, like Paxson, was seeking to expedite the stalled FCC proceedings. “The longer it took, the better our chances were,” Starr said. “It meant that the FCC was paying serious attention to our complaint.”
McCain was not advocating for the common good in these cases. Rather, he was aiding and abetting the pernicious concentration of the nation’s media in the hands of a few large corporations.
McCain’s tight relationship with lobbyists continues during his time as a presidential candidate. According to former Washington Post reporter Thomas Edsall, “11 current or former lobbyists working for or advising McCain, at least double the number in any other [presidential] campaign.” No problem, said Senator McCain, “These people have honorable records, and they’re honorable people, and I’m proud to have them as part of my team.”
This last remark reveals the truth about John McCain. In one sense McCain is an authentic reformer who has bucked his party’s establishment to push for reforms on campaign finance, congressional earmarks, and lobbying. But he is also a supremely self-righteous individual who believes himself to be above the rules and regulations he imposes on others. It is that arrogance of power that would make John McCain a very dangerous man as president of the United States.