John Sidney McCain III’s campaign manager’s firm was getting $15,000 a month until the government took them over.
Note that Davis is still on the board of Davis & Manafort, and two sources in the story that the money was specifically in order to maintain access to John McCain.
McCain claims to have learned from his Keating 5 experience, but now it appears that he could swim in a sea of knowledge, and emerge completely dry.
Silly me. I figured that McCain’s “suspension” of his campaign was a completely empty gesture which would contribute nothing to any bailout deal.
I was wrong. John Sidney McCain III’s high profile involvement, and the White House meeting that his his campaign engineered, just had a deal blow up, because John McCain allied with conservative Republicans in the house to propose yet another tax cut.
About the only good things to come out of his involvement are a couple of bon mots from Democrats, the first from Christopher Dodd, who said that the entire affair sounded more like, “a rescue plan for John McCain than one for the financial system,” and the other from Barney Frank, “Senator McCain has said he had to interrupt his campaign and couldn’t do a debate because he had to come here to help us. God save us from such help. But in any case, there is no sign whatsoever that Senator McCain’s got any real role here, so he certainly ought to feel free to go back and debate.”
In the mean time, Boehner aHis Evil Minions&trade make it clear that this is just another exercise in dick swinging for purely partisan gains.
Lovely fellows, I’m glad that I have a daughter, so that I can forbid her to marry them.
It appears that he believes that his campaign the country needs him to go down to Washington so that he can inject politics into the matter.
He is also calling for a delay in the first debate, doubtless because with the financial crisis, there will have to be some questions asked on the economy, though Obama is having none of this, noting that multi-tasking and delegation are crucial skills for a president.
My theory is that he knows that no one is concerned about foreign policy right now, so he wants the foreign policy debate delayed until people will pay attention.
It’s also certain that the economy would come up in the debate, even with the ostensible focus on foreign policy, so he’s looking to cut and run.
Of course, it may just all be a ploy to distract people from Sarah Palin’s disasterous interview with Katie Couric……How the hell do you get owned in an interview by the mistress of softball questions anyway?
H/T This Modern World for the pic
Let’s be clear, John Sidney McCain III has grown increasingly confused over the past few years, and he’s always been erratic, and his calling the chairman of the SEC the chairman of the FEC in a recent speech should give everyone cause for concern.
OK, the full throated condemnation of McCain’s call to fire Cox from the SEC, which calls him “Un-Presidential”, is not something I would have expected from the wingnuttiest OP/ED page in the nation.
Well Palin has now gotten her AG to instruct her employees not to honor subpoenas from the state senate, and the Anchorage Daily News cuts them a new one on this.
McCain doesn’t get it. Sarah Palin is not Cindy McCain, and the press won’t sweep this under the carpet for the “Maverick Straight Talker”.
Heck, they wouldn’t sweep it under the carpet for Cindy McCain these days, they’ve been wringing their hands about how McCain now, and when you have a cover-up this blatant, people will keep looking.
Mindless paranoid secrecy is almost always the worst course of action, which is why it’s so ironic that it bit them on the butt with Sarah Palin’s email.
It seems that she was using Yahoo Email for much of her correspondence with staff, and someone from 4chan hacked into her email (here, here, and here), and then posted what they found on Wikileaks.
Note to self: Never ever piss off anyone from 4chan.
It looks like the Obama campaign has concluded that “behold my incredible awsomeness” is not a winning strategy, so they have reversed themselves, and they are telling Democrats that they should “get serious” about contributing money to “independent” groups to attack McCain.
Nice that they finally got a clue that they need a a way to point out the many problems that McCain has with his temperament, ethics, philosophy, intellect, and health.
They are right to go after McCain’s character, after John Sidney McCain has no character, it’s just a pity that they are this late to the game.
They are claiming that the investigation approved by a unanimous bipartisan vote of the Alaska Senate is too political…Though the announcement came from the McCain Campaign, not the governor’s office.
I gotta check if Lieberman is showing up again on the Intrade Prediction Markets:
No, this is not a report from Declan “Draw By Crayon Libertarian” McCullagh, this is an actual claim from the McCain campaign:
Asked what work John McCain did as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee that helped him understand the financial markets, the candidate’s top economic adviser wielded visual evidence: his BlackBerry.
“He did this,” Douglas Holtz-Eakin told reporters this morning, holding up his BlackBerry. “Telecommunications of the United States is a premier innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce Committee. So you’re looking at the miracle John McCain helped create and that’s what he did.”
It would be less laughable if he had not become chair of the commerce committee until 1997, by which point, RIM had been in existence for seven years.
Joe Biden asks, “Whatever happened to McCain’s Principles?
There have no principals there since well before John Sidney McCain, III dumped his wife to pursue a rich heiress and enter politics.
This has been another episode of simple answers to simple questions.
We know the basic story: Cindy McCain used a charity that she set up to steal Percocet and Vicodin to feed her habit.
One of the principals in this matter is Tom Gosinski, who discovered the abuse, and discovered that Cindy McCain was using his name to get the drugs, so he went to the DEA, and John McCain used his office to call in political favors to get the US Attorney to go after him.
While it is clear that Gosinski is no fan of the McCains, they got an investigation ginned up claiming that he had tried to extort them after he had been talking with the DEA for months, the picture that he is painting, both of McCain and of his family is unbelievably grim
Well, he’s now releasing his journals to the public, and among other things, there are allegations that the McCains medicated their kids unecessarily.
Gosinski details a conversation with Jeri Johnson, Cindy McCain’s aunt, regarding Cindy’s nanny, Diane, in a July 28, 1992 entry.
Diane voice concerns regarding Cindy’s use of drugs and the effect it is having on the kids. Diane told Jeri that Meghan recently told her to “f$#@ off” after trying to discipline her. She also told Jeri that she is concerned that Cindy is giving the kids drugs which unnecessarily sedate them. I hope that is not happening.
Concerns that Cindy McCain is unnecessarily drugging her children appear again in a July 31 entry — “Cari (Cindy’s adopted daughter) told the three that she fears Cindy gives the kids prescription drugs they do not need,” Gosinski wrote.
Republican family values, my ass.
What more, it appears that the Washington Post had an article about this recently, but it was scrubbed from the web site.
The stories of McCain and his temper, he once called his wife the C-word in public, are legion, and I always assumed that it had something to do with his stint as a POW.
It appears that, in addition to the more recent stories listed in the article, he has been prone to destructive tantrums since he was an infant:
At age 2, McCain’s tantrums were so intense that he’d hold his breath for a few minutes and pass out. His parents would dunk him in cold water to “cure” him, he wrote in his memoir, “Faith of My Fathers.”
Ummmmmm….Are there any sane Republicans out there? Anywhere?
I’m sick and tired of coming up with new medical sounding names, OK? It takes more time than it does to write the articles, because this sh%$ really writes itself.
First, it appears that Palin is taking a week or so, the nominal explation is that she is spending time with her son before he ships out to Iraq, but the real reason is that she is taking time off to “get ready”, and you have to love the snark from Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo
Isn’t Palin supposed to move to Cheney’s undisclosed location after she gets elected, not before?
The good Mr. Marshall owes me a screen cleaner…big time.
Howard Finemannotes that senior McCain officials have said that they are using the time to bring her up to speed, and Todd Harris, who is working with the McCain campaign admits that she is not ready, and probably needs two weeks to get her act together, explaining that, “If she goes out and makes a mistake, that is something that [voters will] care about, and that’s something that will haunt [McCain] for awhile, so I think this is a smart move.”
Jed, or the Jed Report has even created a “where’s Sarah” widget for inclusion in your web site.
On earmarks, even the Moonie Times is calling out Palin on her double-talk on earmarks….And when you’ve lost the Washington Times on this issue…….Well, you’ve lost the Moonie Times.
And we still have the gift that keeps on given, Troopergate, we have
CREW saying that Palin is attempting to subvert the investigation of her through back door channels, the Anchorage Daily News says that she is stonewalling the investigation, and Newsweek is reporting that John McCain allies are throwing up roadblocks into the investigation too.
Meanwhile, it appears that the bipartisan committee investigating the matter will push up the date of its report from October 31 to around October 10, which is not an unreasonable response to stonewalling.
Additionally, Alaska lawmakers will plan to issue subpoenas to seven witnesses, though not to Palin, because the seven canceled interviews with the investigator, reportedly after, “Ms. Palin’s lawyer, Thomas V. Van Flein, had forbidden members of her administration to have any contact with the investigator.”
We also have the State Police Union filing a formal complaint that Palin and Her Evil Minions&trade improperly released information from Wooten’s (the guy she wanted fired) private personnel records.
Finally, Mikew Wooten has finally gone public in this matter, talking to CNN and giving a brief interview.
Olbermann apologizes, but what he should have done is ask, “Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?“
Sasha Issenberg notes that this is the death of a taboo, and it does not bode well for our political discourse:
One of the most enduring taboos in American politics, the airing of graphic images from the September 11 attacks in a partisan context, died today. It was nearly seven years old.
Republicans, at least the idealogue ones who grew up sucking at the tit of Ayn Rand, believe that there is no role for government in public life….None at all, so all that running for office is an attempt to grap power.
They believe that they can do evil to seize power, because they believe that all government is evil.
Silver State Bank in Nevada closed by state regulators and taken over by the FDIC.
Andrew McCain, the sick old man’s son, was on its board of directors for the bank and its parent, and also sat on the banks audit committee….until he resigned “for personal reasons” in July…..Very convenient that….
McCains and failed banks go together like….McCains and failed banks.
I’m not sure what the hell McCain was thinking, but my most likely reasons are that he:
My money is on the first possibility, but in any case, you have McCain staffers saying that she was not interviewed until the day before the announcement.
In any case, you have to love the irony of Dr. Laura saying that Palin is morally unfit to be VP.*, though the fact that Jamie Lynn Spears† sending a a gift of designer baby burp cloths to Bristol‡ Palin to show moral support comes close.
The strange thing is that as Josh Marshall notes, the McCain campaign appears to be doing it’s level best to pimp Levi Johnston, the alleged father of the alleged child:
Let’s be clear about what’s happening here. Overwhelmingly, reporters are pressing eminently reasonable questions — her role in troopergate, her lack of experience, her connections to the AIP, her history of earmarking and lobbyists, etc. Meanwhile, the McCain campaign is going absolutely non-stop about Palin’s daughter. It is unmistakable.
Look at the video. It’s clear that McCain is attempting to make sure that this self described “Red Neck” is front and center:
Of course, it would not be fair to mention the National Enquirer article which said that Palin was pressuring Bristol‡ to get a quickie marriage, but that, “Bristol, 17, refused to go along with the plan and that sparked a mother-daughter showdown over the failed coverup.”
Honestly, I expect that there was some shouting and screaming in such situations, but those are private matters, and the National Enquirer should be ashamed of itself.
That being said, Palin’s opposition to reality based sex education, along with her veto to slash funding from the Alaska program that helps teenage mothers get their lives together and keep their kids are legitimate policy issues that should be on the table.
Meanwhile, it appears that the state house investigation of “Troopergate” will be released a few weeks before the election, at least it will be if Palin’s private lawyer, hired at state expense, doesn’t manage to quash the investigation.
Thus far, we have already been treated to the spectacle of Sarah Palin filing an ethics complaint against … Sarah Palin in order to move the investigation to the state Personnel Board, whose members are appointed by … you guessed it … Sarah Palin!
Still, we have other ethical problems, such as her violation of state ethics laws by failing to disclose business interests.
Additionally, Time took a loor at her time as mayor of Wasilla, and found her systematically going after professional staff who were not sufficiently “loyal to the mayor”.
I believe that the translation for this is, “Heck of a job, Brownie.”
*Actually, you have to love the irony of Dr. Laura saying that anyone is morally unfit for anything.
†Yes, I know, she is, indirectly at least, one of Those Who Must Not Be Named, but there is a political context here.
‡Is it that I affect British English too much, or do other people find it odd that someone named their kid a slang term for breasts?
Or maybe it makes you go Hmm about John Sidney McCain.
A friend that I’ve never met offline who shall remain nameless* said the following:
But here’s something else. They [big name Republithug friends of my source] believe she was told she was going to be the VEEP pick on the flight to Ohio. She thought she was just speaking at the convention. We both believe McCain may have made this choice after Obama’s Thursday night speech … it sure did the trick of getting the news off of that speech … didn’t it?
If this is true, McCain is even more fracked in the head than I had previously believed.
*Yes, it is a thrill to have my own anonymous source.
Well, first we have updates on troopergate, we have documentation from the fired state police head Walter Monegan that Palins husband and senior staffers pressured him to fire Michael Wooten, who had been involved in a messy divorce with Palin’s sister.
He also claims to have emails from Sarah Palin on the matter, additionally, the Anchorage Daily News quotes him as saying that Palin talked to him personally on the matter twice.
Also, we have the Juneau Empire* is no reporting that a political appointee of the Alaska State Troopers reversed an internal investigation by professional staff in order to take disciplinary measures against him.
What’s more, this is not the first example of blatant cronyism and retribution by Palin. In 1996, while mayor of Wasilla, she fired the chief of police and directory of libraries because they suppored her opponent, which leed to an abortive recall campaign.
It also appears that the McCain campaign had not vetted Palin at all before her selection. It appears that her local paper, The Valley Frontiersman, does not have its archives online, and a Democratic Party Opposition researcher was informed by staff that their inquiry was the first such request.
It appears that Obama gave a good speech, and the sick old man, John Sidney McCain, panicked.
Even better, her mother-in-law says that she might not vote for her.
I have to agree 90% with Barack Obama when he says that a family should be off limits, so the story of Bristol Palin, her 17 year old daughter being pregnant out of wedlock should be generally off the table.
However, I will argue that the situation does point to a problem with Sarah Palin’s policies: She is strongly opposed to comprehensive sex education, and her daughter’s situation indicates that her position is wrongheaded and stupid.
In any case, this appears to be a Thomas Eagleton moment.
*I spent 4 Years in Juneau growing up, and I always thought of the paper as the Vampire…It was, at least in the 1960s, kind of right wing.
What we know about Sarah Palin, McCain’s VP pick is that she’s less corrupt than you average Alaska Republican. That’s not saying all that much.
She does have a scandal all her own though, specifically that she ordered the head of the Alaska state police to fire her ex-brother-in-law after a messy custody battle with her sister, more details here.
That is Valeria Plame without the national security aspects.
I hope that the Democrats are talking about 24-7 for the next few days, but it’s unlikely.
*Don’t complain. My first thought was, “Dick Cheney with t*ts“, which is even a worse image.†
†Oops….sorry for that image.
