Today's Washington Post reports on the latest successful purchase of John McCain's services -- yielding a sweet real estate deal for an Arizona developer in the wake of his $100,000 campaign contribution. But that railer against the role of money in politics appears to have been bought many times before -- and American workers and taxpayers have paid the price.
The Washington Post reports that McCain pushed legislation that let an Arizona rancher trade remote grassland and ponderosa pine forest there for acres of valuable federally owned property that is ready for development, a land swap that now stands to directly benefit one of his top presidential campaign fundraisers. Specifically, Steven A. Betts, who raised $100,000 for McCain, got the job of developing rancher Fred Ruskin's land after McCain's legislation helped Ruskin pick it up at below market rates.
But this is at least the fifth transaction where a campaign contributor has benefited from McCain's power. Here are five others:
- $100 billion U.S. Air Force contract to European company, EADS. In March 2008, McCain used his position on the Senate Armed Services Committee to help EADS, parent of Airbus, a former client of his national finance chairman, win a $100 billion Air Force contract against Boeing Inc. (NYSE: BA) after receiving $14,000 in donations from EADS employees.
- Del Webb land deal. In 1994, McCain helped a lobbyist for land developer Del Webb Corp. pursue an exchange in the Las Vegas area.
- Diamond land deal. In 1991 and 1994, McCain sponsored two bills sought by donor Donald R. Diamond that yielded the developer thousands of acres in trade for national parkland.
- Lindner land deal. In the late 1990s, McCain promoted a deal in Arizona's Tonto National Forest involving property part-owned by Great American Life Insurance, a company run by billionaire Carl H. Lindner Jr., a big contributor to national political parties and presidential candidates.
- $3.4 billion Keating S&L bailout. In the 1980s, he 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.
I think it may be worth investigating whether there are any documents that connect the McCain campaign donations to these favorable business outcomes for the donors. Otherwise, they might just be coincidences.
Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter
The Wal-Mart Weekly: Examining shareholder resolutions, Part 2
Earnings expectations for JC Penney, Nordstrom, Macy's, Abercrombie and others
Comfort Zone Investing: Financial stocks: Is the worst over yet?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-09-2008 @ 9:00PM
Taan said...
Ok, we ALL get it. You have a personal vendetta against John McCain. It's remarkabely clear that you'll do whatever is in your power, throw down whatever wild accusations you find, to smear the man. You know, it's amusing. I don't even like him, yet I find myself defending him here.
The following is a list of all the bloggingstocks articles written about john McCain, found within a three month period from febuaray to now:
Peter Cohan's atricles:
1.How to buy John McCain
2.Is John McCain the fox guarding the campaign finance henhouse?
3.Did Bush and McCain give the $100 billion tanker project to Airbus?
4.Did John McCain's staff help the French win $100 billion Air Force 5.contract?
6.Did John McCain deny Boeing a $100 billion contract for an Alabama endorsement?
7.Is John McCain telling the truth?
8.Did John McCain have an affair with a lobbyist and use his power for her client?
Every other blogger on bloggingstocks:
Media World: New York Times may have done John McCain a favor
New York Times hit-job on McCain hits stock more than McCain
Rush Limbaugh rushes to John McCain's defense
McCain is not your father's Republican Party nominee
McCain bashes executive compensation gone wild
If McCain had a sense of humor
John McCain gets it right on the mortgage mess
Steinhem's nerve to question McCain as POW
Taking another look at the New York Times' John McCain story
------
Notice the trend? not only does Peter hold a monolopy on the "John McCain" stories, far outweighing every other single blogger, but every SINGLE one of his stories is skewed to convey the man in a negative light.
Commenters have also pointed out Continuouly that many of his points, or points from his 'secret sources' are clearly not accurate, picking and choosing information in order to mislead the reader, or simply making it up.
Replying to the "$100 billion U.S. Air Force contract to European company" article:
"[...]people went to jail over that "earlier deal that would have let Boeing build the next generation of Air Force refueling tankers." that McCain "scuttled". Are you suggesting that McCain should not have done anything to address blatant corruption in the USAF procurement process? If so, this is surely a case if "damned if you do, damned if you don't".
"Whird, which is more important: That the military gets the best equipment for its money, or that military procurement be nothing more than a jobs program? If the AF is supposed to include the location of the jobs as a factor in its decision (it explicitly isn't), then congress should just be open about it and mandate it. To say that they must have an "open and fair" competition, so long as only the US company wins, is just asinine.
"Boeing lost fair-and-square after if it got caught trying to rig the fight the first time. The 767 is a 25 year old design whose commercial life is in its twilight and hasn't faired well in the commercial market for quite some time."
Again, I'm not a republican; I wouldn't ever consider voting for him, but you sir are an ass and deserve to be called out. People, he has an absolutely huge bias and isn't worth reading. Enough is enough.
5-09-2008 @ 9:01PM
Chris said...
"McCain used his position on the Senate Armed Services Committee to help EADS, parent of Airbus, a former client of his national finance chairman, win a $100 billion Air Force contract against Boeing Inc."
Can you point me to any evidence to back this claim up? I have a hard time believing that there aren't some people at Boeing who are McCain supporters as well.
Good thing the Clinton's never used their power to help their friends make money. No, wait....
5-10-2008 @ 1:14PM
Beltway Greg said...
Obama is going to open McCain up like a trout. We don't even have to go back to the Keating Scandal do we? No, don't worry you'll read about it soon...but that simplistic gas tax measure holiday is just about the extent of McCain's economic knowledge. Anyone who would support the Bush tax cuts is goofy. A a former Marine I respect the hell out of John McCain for his service to our country and his obvious strength and valor during his time as a POW. Truth be told though, and McCain has told it himself, that his refusal to talk about the flag flying over the state house in South Carolina, cost him the election in 2000. Also, the way he allowed Rove to push poll him to death in the South during that same election speaks volumes. McCain is going to have to pick Romney to be his VP choice otherwise Wall Street will not have any confidence in him and this election will be over in October. The Republicans refuse to admit the damage that eight years of Bush has done to this country. If they refuse to allow McCain to speak the truth about it he'll lose plain and simple. In many ways he is trapped in a rhetorical box of his own making. If he really was a maverick he would've become Kerry's running mate in 2004 and saved us from four more years of Bush and Co. That would've been brave.
Beltway Greg
A.K.A.
The Prophet of Profits