John McCain is famous for many things. One of those is the McCain-Feingold Act designed to limit the role of corporate money in politics. But his actions suggest an eagerness to accept corporate money as a means to his political ends.

Here are three:

• Protects campaign contributor from S&L regulators costing government billions. In the 1980s, McCain intervened to keep regulators away from Charles Keating, a Savings & Loan operator, who contributed to McCain's campaign and let McCain's wife co-invest in a real estate deal. Keating's Lincoln Savings and Loan ultimately failed, costing taxpayers $3.4 billion.
• Sways $100 billion U.S. Air Force contract to European company. In February the Air Force awarded a $100 billion contract for refueling Tankers to EADS, the parent of Airbus, and Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC). As I posted, McCain's campaign finance chair was a lobbyist for EADS who arranged to send much of this contract to non-U.S. workers. McCain now employs the people who lobbied for EADS on his own staff. EADS retained The Loeffler Group to lobby for the tanker deal in 2007. Loeffler Group lobbyists on the project included Tom Loeffler, who lobbies for EADS and serves as McCain's national finance chairman and Susan Nelson, who left Loeffler and is now the campaign's finance director. EADS employees donated $14,000 to McCain's presidential campaign, more than any other member of Congress this election cycle; and

• Uses wife's corporate jet to get big discounts on campaign travel. Today, we learn from the New York Times that McCain took advantage of a loophole in campaign finance law to get cheap access to his wife's corporate jet for campaign purposes. The Times estimates McCain paid nothing for 20 flights worth $140,000 on his wife's jet -- based on the plane's $2,000 hourly operating cost times the estimated cost of just those 20 flights, which took over 70 flight hours. He paid a discounted $241,149 for the use of that plane for seven months between August 2007 through February 2008 -- roughly the cost of chartering a similar jet for a month or two.

The Times reports that McCain's spokesperson said that his use of his wife's plane did not represent a shift in his position on campaign finance-related issues. I agree with that assessment. If he can find a way to use campaign finance loopholes to achieve his ends, he'll do so.

Nobody's perfect. But if McCain is going to appoint himself as an ethics watchdog, he might try to set a better example.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in the securities mentioned.