Please Pay Attention

While our media has been lapping up the Tea Bag freak show and sniffing Sarah Palin’s skirt, a rather nasty bill has been filed in the Senate. And folks, you just know it’s got to be bad when you see the co-sponors are John McCain and Joe Lieberman. It’s called (cue “Psycho” strings) the Enemy Belligerent, Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010. So far the only folks I see talking about this are lefty-socialist-types like Glenn Greenwald and the Marxists at AlterNet, who warn the bill’s passage would

set this country on a course to become a military dictatorship.

Among the bill’s more troublesome passages:

An individual, including a citizen of the United States, determined to be an unprivileged enemy belligerent under section 3(c)(2) in a manner which satisfies Article 5 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War may be detained without criminal charges and without trial for the duration of hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners in which the individual has engaged, or which the individual has purposely and materially supported, consistent with the law of war and any authorization for the use of military force provided by Congress pertaining to such hostilities.

Basically what this means is that Congress would be giving the President the power to indefinitely detain anyone declared an “enemy belligerent,” anyone at all, without a trial, in a military prison. Even a U.S. citizen.

This is the kind of Constitution-shredding, civil liberties abolishing, tyrannical legislation you’d think would have the Tea People screaming at the top of their lungs and Sarah rethinking her support for its sponsor, John McCain. That it has slid by unnoticed with the largest screamers on the national stage right now is perhaps more troubling than the bill itself, which let’s hope dies a quick death.

Pay attention, people. Yes, I’m talking to you idiots in the tri-cornered hats yammering about crap of which you have no clue. Giving citizens access to a private, for profit health insurance market is not fascism, tyranny, or totalitarianism. Declaring U.S. citizens “enemy belligerents” and detaining them in military prisons indefinitely without trial is.

If there is anyone sensible in the Tea Bag movement they will step away from their crazy compatriots and work to grind this heinous piece of legislation into the dust. And then let’s work to get its sponsors, one John McCain Republican of Arizona and one Joseph Lieberman Independent of Connecticut, out of the U.S. Senate so they can’t do any more damage.

Kabuki Theater

Does anyone dispute the notion that our nation’s political discourse is mere Kabuki Theater designed to distract from what’s really important? If so, this should dispel all doubts:

Former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin announced today that she will campaign for a handful of prominent conservative candidates this year, including her former running mate Sen. John McCain.

Are you fucking kidding me? After all the election post-mortems and passing of blame, after "Going Rogue,” which was basically one big venting of campaign spleen, to retaliation by McCain campaign head Steve Schmidt, and all the agita in between?

Remember McCain intentionally not mentioning Sarah Palin in his list of "GOP stars”? Remember Sarah Palin on vacation in Hawaii this Christmas wearing a campaign visor with McCain’s name X’d out?

I guess it’s all bygones.

So I’m thinking we’re all pretty much stage props in this theater of the absurd called American Politics. What do you think?

So Much For Country First

I just read the Vanity Fair article on Sarah Palin. Nothing that liberal bloggers and news junkies didn’t already know, of course, save the part about the conservative cruise ship:

Palin had been on the national Republican radar for barely a year, after a cruise ship of conservative columnists, including The Weekly Standard’s William Kristol, had stopped in Juneau in 2007 and had succumbed to her charms when she invited them to the governor’s house for a luncheon of halibut cheeks.

OH. So that’s what you did on your vacation. Hopped off the cruise ship in Juneau, picked up a few knick-knacks for the in-laws, some Inuit trinkets for the kids, and oh by the way, here’s your vice presidential running mate.

Glad to know conservatives take this shit seriously.

And really that’s what continues to surprise/offend me about the whole Sarah Palin narrative. I care less about the gossipy tidbits than the fact that everyone, the writer included, seems to treat Sarah Palin like she’s the star of a Hollywood blockbuster who's being difficult at Cannes. No one seems to realize that a person completely unsuitable for high national office (or even high state office, if you believe half of what’s in the article) was trying to be Vice President of the United States. You know, a heartbeat away from the presidency and all that. They knew she was all wrong, dangerously wrong, and they forged ahead anyway.

In a campaign titled “Country First,” no less. Irony is the first casualty of political ambition, I guess.

I have to wonder, amid all of the last minute scrambling and rescheduling as the seasoned politicos realized that Sarah Palin was not ready to campaign for vice president, did it dawn on anyone that she was not ready to be vice president?

As they toured the country under the slogan “Country First” with the woman they nicknamed “Little Shop of Horrors,” did no one stop to think about, you know, putting country first?

You have to read nearly to the end of the article to get that question answered:

In recent rounds of long conversations, most made it clear that they suffer a kind of survivor’s guilt: they can’t quite believe that for two frantic months last fall, caught in a Bermuda Triangle of a campaign, they worked their tails off to try to elect as vice president of the United States someone who, by mid-October, they believed for certain was nowhere near ready for the job, and might never be. They quietly ponder the nightmare they lived through.

Oh no, you don’t. You DO NOT ask for sympathy. For the love of all that is holy, do you people have any idea of what you were doing? Do you not have a scintilla of perspective?

Survivors guilt, my ass. You people should be on your knees begging America for forgiveness. You almost turned the keys to the White House over to the psychodoodle faction of the Republican Party. You folks in the McCain campaign knew that better than anyone.

This is America we’re talking about here! Country first, remember? Hello?

They all know that if their candidate—a 72-year-old cancer survivor—had won the presidency, the vice-presidency would be in the hands of a woman who lacked the knowledge, the preparation, the aptitude, and the temperament for the job. To ask why none of them dared to just walk away is to ask why Colin Powell did not resign in protest over the Bush administration’s foreign policy, or why none of Bill Clinton’s disillusioned aides resigned after he lied to them about Monica Lewinsky. The question cannot comprehend the intense bonds that the blood sport of modern politics produces.

No, no, no. Getting a blow job is not the same thing as working your butt off to elect someone wholly unsuitable to be president or vice president.

And that is ultimately what scares me about America. The riches of political victory have become so vast that people will tell themselves anything if it means their side will win.

Country First is, after all, just a slogan. Words used in a political pitch, like “good to the last drop” or “breakfast of champions.” Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t.

If Sarah Palin comes back with a 2012 run, there will be people who think she’s fabulous and there will be other people, insider people, who know she lacks “the knowledge, the preparation, the aptitude, and the temperament for the job,” but will work their tails off regardless because no one steps outside the bubble long enough or far enough to realize the implications of what they are doing. They all lack perspective.

And Sarah, well, she might like to think she’s some kind of “outsider” who’s a “maverick” who doesn’t do things the “Washington way” and that might be true to a certain extent, but honey you’re going through the same sausage factory as every other politician. Don’t delude yourself.

Consequence Shmonsequences

Things have gotten decidedly frosty over at the McCain-Palin campaign:

I’ve heard from one well-placed source that McCain has snubbed her on one long bus ride aboard the Straight Talk Express, to the embarrassment of those sitting nearby.

Good grief. God help us if these two actually win next week.
How do they expect to govern? They can’t even share a bus ride together.

You know, maybe if McCain had spent more than five minutes getting to know this person before picking her to be his Veep candidate ... awww, who am I kidding. Mavericks don’t make big important decisions like the rest of us! They’re fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants kind of folks. You know, gut instinct, baby! No regrets! Fire away, and ask questions later!

Right. Something to keep in mind.

Suffragette City

2008 edition:

Say It Ain’t So, Joe

[UPDATE]:

Here's the tape of the 911 calls by Joe McCain.....

--------------------------

It appears Joe McCain, John McCain’’s brother, called 911 because he was stuck in traffic this week:

The October 21 call went to the city of Alexandria, Virginia emergency operations. This is the transcript of the call:

Operator: 911 state your emergency

Caller: It's not an emergency but do you know why on one side at the damn drawbridge of 95 traffic is stopped for 15 minutes and yet traffic's coming the other way?

Operator: Sir, are you calling 911 to complain about traffic? (pause)

Caller: "(Expletive) you." (caller hangs up)

The 911 operator, apparently, unnerved by use of the 911 emergency number to complain about bad traffic, called back the phone number that placed the call.

The operator reached a voice mail message that said, "Hi this is Joe McCain I can't take this message now because I'm involved in a very (inaudible) important political project... I hope on Nov. 4th we have elected John."

The irony is that in an interview with the Boston Globe in May, Joe McCain said he would avoid campaigning out of fear that “he might say something that will cause his brother a problem.”

Oooops.

(h/t, Oxdown Gazette.)

Unwelcome Endorsements

Not to put too much stock in this report, but it can't be good news for the McCain campaign:

John McCain 'endorsed by al-Qaeda supporters'

In a message broadcast on the password-protected al-Hesbah site, the group said they would also welcome a pre-election terror attack on the US because that would make a McCain win more likely.

In an endorsement that will not be welcomed by Mr McCain's flagging campaign, the group said that if al-Qaeda wants to exhaust the USmilitarily and economically, the "impetuous" Republican presidential candidate is the better choice.

"This requires presence of an impetuous American leader such as McCain, who pledged to continue the war till the last American soldier," the message said.

"Then, al-Qaeda will have to support McCain in the coming elections so that he continues the failing march of his predecessor, Bush."

"If al-Qaeda carries out a big operation against American interests," it said, "this act will be support of McCain because it will push the Americans deliberately to vote for McCain so that he takes revenge for them against al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda then will succeed in exhausting America till its last year in it."

Mark Salter, a senior McCain adviser, had no immediate comment.

No comment? As Drudge would say, "developing ...."

Fun With Photoshop

Some people with way too much time on their hands had fun with this photo, from the end of the last debate:

You can see them all here. But a few of my favorites:

He's Mad As Hell And He's Not Taking It

John McCain really lowered himself into the gutter by calling those phony Acorn allegations (which I railed against here) the “worst voter fraud perpetrated on the American public in 200 years” or some such.

Yes, registering Mickey Mouse to vote so someone can collect $2 is so much worse than denying an entire race of people the right to vote simply because of the color of their skin. And then orchestrating a violent intimidation campaign against those who tried to register Southern blacks to vote.

Anyway, the truth is now starting to sink in that these are all phony allegations started by the GOP in an attempt to throw as much mud as possible in the final weeks of the election. And I’m happy to see the Obama campaign isn’t going to take it:

Obama lawyer calls for investigation over ACORN charges

(CNN) – Obama campaign general counsel Bob Bauer called Monday for a government investigation into whether the White House is working with John McCain’s campaign to raise allegations of voter fraud, telling reporters attorney general Michael Mukasey needed to step in to ensure investigators are "not misused for partisan purposes."

A special prosecutor is investigating similar charges against the Justice Department over the controversial dismissals of several U.S. attorneys, including David Yglesias, who said he was fired for resisting pressure to prosecute ACORN, the embattled community group at the center of a sustained Republican campaign alleging voter fraud among supporters of Barack Obama.

I hope the Obama campaign broadcasts this loud and clear. There is nothing wrong with registering poor and minority citizens to vote. There have been plenty of problems with Republican-focused voter registration drives, too.

For example, this one:

Ontario police arrest man in voter fraud case

SACRAMENTO -- The owner of a firm that the California Republican Party hired to register tens of thousands of voters this year was arrested in Ontario over the weekend on suspicion of voter registration fraud.

State and local investigators allege that Mark Jacoby fraudulently registered himself to vote at a childhood California address where he no longer lives so he would appear to meet the legal requirement that all signature gatherers be eligible to vote in California. His firm, Young Political Majors, or YPM, collects petition signatures and registers voters in California and other states.

Anyone know how many ACORN folks have been arrested?

Zero.

Pretty funny that the one guy arrested for voter registration fraud worked for the Republican Party!

Oh lookie, here’s another one from across the aisle:

Investigation into Trashed Voter Registrations

(Oct. 13) -- Federal, state, and local officials are gathering information about allegations of voter registration fraud that were first raised Channel 8 Eyewitness News.

An employee of a private voter registration firm alleges that his bosses trashed registration forms filled out by Democratic voters because they only wanted to sign up Republican voters.

The allegations have set off a political firestorm stretching from Las Vegas to Washington D.C., and beyond. 

As with everything else in this election year, it's now become a political football being tossed between the two parties, with charges and countercharges, but at its core, there still remains the matter of registration forms that were ripped up and tossed in the trash.

A similar thing happened right here in Nashville during the last presidential election.

This kind of voter registration fraud is a lot worse than what has happened to Acorn. Because while Mickey Mouse isn’t going to show up to vote on election day, the people whose registrations ended up in the trash were expecting to vote. And if their forms were never turned in, they would be unable to do so.

Since John McCain has chosen to get down in the gutter with his Rove acolyte and participate in the mud-slinging, I fully expect he will be forced to eat his words when this and every other smear is revealed for what it so obviously is: a partisan political attack.

What Happened Here?

Lefty bloggers have been all over this moment at the end of the debate:


Here's another angle on it:

I have to say, I missed this. As soon as the debate was over I ran to watch the Project Runway finale which we'd TiVo'd.

So, what happened here? Did he trip? Have a seizure? Pull a George H.W. Bush moment and puke?

I'll be watching the Tubes to see if anyone knows.

(h/t, The Impolitic.)

[UPDATE]:

Yeesh. Via Sadly, No!, apparently McCain was checking his gag-reflex multiple times during the night.

John McCain’s Tanker Trouble

At tonight’s debate you may hear John McCain once again brag about how he went after government waste by blocking the Pentagon’s troubled Boeing tanker contract that ended with people going to jail. John McCain is very proud of this fact: he mentioned it at the last debate, and he keeps bringing up like it’s the crowning achievement of a mavericky taxpayer avenger.

Sure, when all was said and done, former Pentagon procurement officer Darleen Druyun was given nine months in prison, Boeing CFO Michael Sears went to prison for four months, Boeing’s CEO Phillip Condit was fired, and the Air Force cancelled the contract. But that's not the entire story.

I've blogged about this saga before, lots of folks have. But it's one of those things that seems to be fading from the collective memory. Because every time John McCain brings it up, you'd think someone would say, "hey, isn't that the deal where you ended up looking like a walking case of lobbyist intervention at the expense of American jobs?" The fact that no one does make me think it's time to send folks a little reminder about John McCain's real role in this whole thing.

So yes, McCain launched the Senate investigation that uncovered the fraud and shut the deal down, so kudos to him for that. But I’m not sure I’d be bragging about this when subsequent investigations have revealed a few disturbing facts.

Newsweek did an excellent story on this back in June. If you want to debunk the myth that John McCain single-handedly slayed the dragon of Pentagon waste by virtue of his mavericky-ness, give it a read. And you can start with the headline:

McCain’s Boeing Battle Boomerangs

Yes, it seems the Boeing tanker story did come back to bite McCain on the ankle, more than once. For one thing, when the Pentagon put the contract up for bid again, it got awarded to Boeing’s big rival, Northrop Grumman, and the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. (EADS).

So in other words, John McCain sent American jobs overseas and, as MarketWatch noted, gave a big wet kiss in the form of a $35 billion piece of America’s defense budget to a European firm.

This was back in June and even I remember the hullabaloo this created. Why would John McCain do such a thing? Doesn’t he love America and American workers? Funny thing:

The auditors' ruling has also cast light on an overlooked aspect of McCain's crusade: five of his campaign's top advisers and fund-raisers—including Tom Loeffler, who resigned last month as his finance co-chairman, and Susan Nelson, his finance director—were registered lobbyists for EADS.

Oh, say it ain’t so!

But it gets worse. John McCain personally intervened to ensure the bidding process was favorable to EADS:

Critics, including some at the Pentagon, cite in particular two tough letters McCain wrote to Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England in 2006 and another to Robert Gates, just prior to his confirmation as Defense secretary. In the first letter, dated Sept. 8, 2006, McCain wrote of hearing from "third parties" that the Air Force was about to redo the tanker competition by factoring in European government subsidies to EADS—a condition that could have seriously hurt the EADS bid. McCain urged that the Pentagon drop the subsidy factor and posed a series of technical questions about the Air Force's process.

"He was trying to jam us and bully us to make sure there was competition by giving EADS an advantage," said one senior Pentagon official, who asked for anonymity when discussing a politically sensitive matter. The assumption within the Pentagon, the official added, was that McCain's letters were drafted by EADS lobbyists.

"There was no one else that would have had that level of detail," the official said.

Of course, the uproar over awarding a defense contract to a European firm and the funny business with McCain’s advisors caused this deal to be cancelled, too. Back in September Defense Secetary Robert Gates passed the decision off to the next administration:

“We can no longer complete a competition that would be viewed as fair and objective in this highly charged environment,” Mr. Gates said in a statement. “The resulting ‘cooling off’ period will allow the next administration to review objectively the military requirements and craft a new acquisition strategy” for the tanker program.

If John McCain wins the election, three guesses as to who’s going to get that tanker contract.

Putting The “Nut” In Wingnut

Yes, I’m still embarrassed by my fellow Tennesseans:

Baby named Sarah McCain Palin

A new father has secretly named his baby girl Sarah McCain Palin after the Republican ticket for president and vice president.

Mark Ciptak of Elizabethton put that name on the documents for the girl's birth certificate, ignoring the name Ava Grace, which he and his wife had picked earlier.

"I don't think she believes me yet," he told the Kingsport Times-News for a story to be published Tuesday. "It's going to take some more convincing."

Ciptak, a blood bank employee for the American Red Cross, said he named his third child after John McCain and Sarah Palin "to get the word out" about the campaign.

"I took one for the cause," he said. "I can't give a lot of financial support for the (McCain/Palin) campaign. I do have a sign up in my yard, but I can do very little."

You, sir, are a moron.

And speaking of names, I know the wingnuts love to make fun of Barack “Hussein” Obama. But it’s amazing to me how few people are aware that “Barack” is a name from the Old Testament, the Book of Judges to be precise. The Biblical Barack (or “Barak”) and the prophetess Deborah defeated the Canaanites.

You’d think some of the conservative Christians mocking Obama’s name would know that.

Size Matters

Looks like the McCain-Palin campaign is still lying about the size of the crowds at their rallies:

The Virginia Beach Fire Marshal's office estimated the size of the crowd to be 12,000. A McCain campaign spokeswoman claimed the crowd size was 25,000, but the Convention Center's capacity is only 16,000.

This has been an ongoing issue with the campaign. Olbermann even did a piece on it.

That's just pathetic, but not surprising. McCain has even had trouble "fill[ing] the ballroom” for an upcoming fundraiser.

McCain Was For ACORN Before He Was Against It

In fact, he was so “for” it, he was the headliner at an ACORN event two years ago, where this photo was taken:

States ACORN's Bertha Lewis:

“It has deeply saddened us to see Senator McCain abandon his historic support for ACORN and our efforts to support the goals of low-income Americans."

"We are sure that the extremists he is trying to get into a froth will be even more excited to learn that John McCain stood shoulder to shoulder with ACORN, at an ACORN co-sponsored event, to promote immigration reform," she said.

(h/t, AmericaBlog.)

Your Modern Republican Party

Attaturk called my attention to this item over at The Washington Monthly:

The McCain/Palin ticket is the first in American history in which both candidates were found to have violated ethics standards before a national election.

McCain, of course, was admonished by Senate Ethics Committee "for exercising 'poor judgment' for intervening" with federal regulators on behalf of Charles Keating, as part of the infamous Keating Five scandal.

And now McCain's running mate has also been found to have violated state ethics laws and abused the powers of her office, as part of the "Troopergate" scandal.

The nation has had 102 major-party tickets covering 51 presidential elections over more than two centuries. And we've never had a ticket in which both candidates on the same ticket were responsible for ethics violations before a national election. McCain/Palin is the first.

My, how the party of “accountability” and “moral values” has fallen. I do believe we’re seeing the beginning of the end of the Republican Party.

I think every person in my neighborhood with a McCain/Palin yard sign should be asked if they are aware they are supporting the first ticket in American history in which both candidates have violated ethics standards before the election.

It goes without saying that no Democrat with these kinds of ethics questions in his or her background could ever get out of the primary. The media would be vicious. But as always, the rule of American politics is IOKIYAR. There’s one (terribly high) standard for Democrats, one (much lower) standard for Republicans.

Buckley For Obama, Kooks For McCain

Christopher Buckley, son of conservative scion William F. Buckley, has endorsed Barack Obama.

Quietly. Apparently he doesn’t want to get attacked by the same “kooks” that went after conservative pundit Kathleen Parker when she described Sarah Palin as “an embarassment.”

As for Kathleen, she has to date received 12,000 (quite literally) foam-at-the-mouth hate-emails. One correspondent, if that’s quite the right word, suggested that Kathleen’s mother should have aborted her and tossed the fetus into a Dumpster. There’s Socratic dialogue for you. Dear Pup once said to me sighfully after a right-winger who fancied himself a WFB protégé had said something transcendently and provocatively cretinous, “You know, I’ve spent my entire life time separating the Right from the kooks.” Well, the dear man did his best. At any rate, I don’t have the kidney at the moment for 12,000 emails saying how good it is he’s no longer alive to see his Judas of a son endorse for the presidency a covert Muslim who pals around with the Weather Underground. So, you’re reading it here first.

Those “kooks” are the folks we now see crawling out from under the rocks McCain and Palin lift at their rallies:

LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) — Some of the anger is getting raw at Republican rallies and John McCain is mostly letting it flare. A sense of grievance spilling into rage has gripped some GOP events as McCain supporters see his presidential campaign lag against Barack Obama. They're making it personal, against the Democrat. Shouts of "traitor," "terrorist," "treason," "liar," and even "off with his head" have rung from the crowd at McCain and Sarah Palin rallies, and gone unchallenged by them.

That’s not entirely true. McCain might be getting a little freaked out about what he’s unleashed, and called Obama “a decent person” at a recent event, a remark met with jeers by the crowd. Seems you can’t stuff the creepy crawlies back under the GOP rock once you’ve let them out, Senator McCain.

That One

John McCain's "offa my lawn" moment came when he referred to Barack Obama as "that one" while jabbing a thumb in his direction.

It's all over but the snarling.

Palins Owe “Tens Of Thousands” In Taxes

The Wall Street Journal’s blog has the goods.

Apparently, the Palins are due a visit from the IRS:

Jack Bogdanski (Lewis & Clark) & Bryan Camp (Texas Tech) have independently reviewed the tax issues raised by the release of Gov. Palin's 2006 and 2007 tax returns and financial disclosure form, as well as the remarkable opinion letter issued from Washington D.C. tax lawyer Roger M. Olsen.  Jack and Bryan conclude that there are serious errors in Gov. Palin's returns as filed and that she and her husband owe tens of thousands of dollars in additional taxes.

And:

There is no serious debate (at least, none that has been brought to our attention) about the fact that at least the amounts paid for the children's travel -- $24,728.83 in 2007, according to the Washington Post -- are taxable. The campaign's tax lawyer has got at least that much of the law, and perhaps more, wrong. ...  The Palins, who had their tax returns done by HR Block, simply got it wrong. And the fact that the state payroll office got it wrong, too, doesn't erase the Palins' unpaid tax liability.

HR Block did the governor’s taxes?

Really?

Okie dokie.

At least the Republican ticket is being consistent. The McCains defaulted on their property taxes, if you'll recall. Of course, they had an excuse: with that many homes, it’s easy to lose track.

McCain’s Ties To Indian Gaming

Well, this explains the McCain campaign’s pre-emptive war on the New York Times last week.

Seems the Times was working on a story that reveals the Senator’s gambling addiction and ties to Indian gaming.

It’s an interesting read and I urge everyone to head over to the NYT to check it out. I can’t help but think of how the wingnut right would call for the fainting couches were it a Democrat hitting casinos once a month in “weekend betting marathons,” while at the same time overseeing these same casinos as a member of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

It’s another example of “mavericky” McCain’s bullshit lies. On the one hand he’s milking his reputation as a “reformer” who took down corrupt Indian gaming lobbyist Jack Abramoff. But at the same time, his top aides and fundraisers profited handsomely when Abramoff was out of the way, fleecing the Indian tribes in an almost identical fashion:

But interviews and records show that lobbyists and political operatives in Mr. McCain’s inner circle played a behind-the-scenes role in bringing Mr. Abramoff’s misdeeds to Mr. McCain’s attention — and then cashed in on the resulting investigation. The senator’s longtime chief political strategist, for example, was paid $100,000 over four months as a consultant to one tribe caught up in the inquiry, records show.

[...]

For McCain-connected lobbyists who were rivals of Mr. Abramoff, the scandal presented a chance to crush a competitor. For senior McCain advisers, the inquiry allowed them to collect fees from the very Indians that Mr. Abramoff had ripped off. And the investigation enabled Mr. McCain to confront political enemies who helped defeat him in his 2000 presidential run while polishing his maverick image.

[...]

David Sickey, the tribe’s vice chairman, said he was “dumbfounded” over the bills submitted by Mr. Hance’s firm, Hance Scarborough, which had been hired by Mr. Sickey’s predecessors.

“The very thing we were fighting seemed to be happening all over again — these absurd amounts of money being paid,” Mr. Sickey said.

Mr. Hance’s firm billed the tribe nearly $1.3 million over 11 months in legal and political consulting fees, records show. But Mr. Sickey said that the billing statements offered only vague explanations for services and that he could not point to any tangible results. Two consultants, for instance, were paid to fight the expansion of gambling in Texas — even though it was unlikely given that the governor there opposed any such prospect, Mr. Sickey said.

Even more awkward is McCain’s own love of gambling, which seems to border on addiction:

For much of his adult life, Mr. McCain has gambled as often as once a month, friends and associates said, traveling to Las Vegas for weekend betting marathons. Former senior campaign officials said they worried about Mr. McCain’s patronage of casinos, given the power he wields over the industry. The officials, like others interviewed for this article, spoke on condition of anonymity.

“We were always concerned about appearances,” one former official said. “If you go around saying that appearances matter, then they matter.”

The former official said he would tell Mr. McCain: “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.”

“You worry too much,” Mr. McCain would respond, the official said.

I dunno, I’m not much of a gambler. But none of this sounds very presidential. And it certainly would be a source of outrage were it the Democratic presidential candidate involved.

The article states that McCain’s gambling connections have been a source of concern with evangelicals. It will be interesting to watch this story develop and see if anything comes of it, or if it gets buried by the Wall Street bailout story.

Here He Comes To Save The Day, Part 2

Josh Marshall gives a recap of John McCain's savior complex, which was on full display this week.



Meanwhile, it seems Democrats and Republicans very nearly had a deal hammered out until McCain decided to inject presidential politics into the crisis.