Posted on 02/03/2008 10:04:54 AM PST by BurbankKarl
On Sept. 19, 2000, John McCain rose in the Senate to rail against what he called the "staggering" sums that the federal government planned to spend to help Salt Lake City stage the 2002 Winter Olympics.
"The American taxpayer is being shaken down to the tune of nearly a billion and a half dollars," McCain said.
The Arizona Republican vowed to "do everything in my power" to delay or kill "this pork-barrel spending" and to end the "fiscal abuse" related to the Olympics. "This is preposterous and it must stop," he said.
Mitt Romney, who headed the Olympics, counseled calm when reporters from Utah's Deseret Morning News reached him in Sydney, Australia. Romney challenged McCain's arithmetic, arguing that taxpayers would provide only $250 million. In any case, he asserted that he already had obtained backing in Congress.
"I'm expecting the funding we need to host the Games," he said. "I'm quite confident."
The clash over Olympics spending, which dragged on for two years, helps explain some of the acrimony that now characterizes the race between the two front-runners for the Republican presidential nomination. The dispute provided an early preview of the fissures that still divide McCain and Romney as they face what may be decisive contests Tuesday.
"It may be a source of the sniping between the two," said Quin Monson, assistant director of the Center for Elections and Democracy at Romney's alma mater, Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Kelly Patterson, the center's director, agreed: "People have long memories in politics."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
As we saw, Mitt was right. McCain was vainly wrong, again. McCain really is a slug.
I even am beginning to suspect his backing of the military, while it may be heartfelt to some degree, may also be cover for how he conducted himself while in capture.
Too many sources write too many things about that time not to at least wonder about McCain. I wonder.
Well, I think trying to save the Olympic Games is better than pulling political strings for your own personal gain.
Straight talk express my a$$.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1963955/posts?page=11#11
http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2006/03/20/daily7.html?jst=b_ln_hl
Arizona Cardinals, Anheuser-Busch ink sponsorship deal
http://www.phxnews.com/fullstory.php?article=33423
Under terms of the deal, Budweiser ...will serve as the exclusive alcohol sponsors of the NFL team, and the brands will have a major presence in the new Cardinals Stadium through 2010.”
WHO IS THE DISTRIBUTOR?
“Budweiser will also have a presence on the new stadium’s video replay boards, scoreboard and concourses, and local wholesaler Hensley Distributing will distribute 150,000 English and 50,000 Spanish team pocket schedules.”
Q: Which politician worked to get the FAA to approve the domed Cardinal Tempe Stadium?
A: John McCain
Q: Who just landed the alcohol deal for the Cardinals?
A: Anheuser-Busch
Q: Who has the distribution rigths for Phoenix area?
A: The Hensley Company
Q: Who is Hensley’s Chairman of the Board?
A: Cindy Hensley McCain http://www.abwholesaler.com/hensley/AboutUs/AboutUs
You Too Can Connect The Straight-Talking Dots...
Is Pork barrel Romney the fiscal conservative he claims?
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/specials/romney/articles/part5_side/
All told, Romney reaped more than $1.5 million in campaign funds during his governorship from individuals and families with ties to the Olympics.
Many of his Olympic-related donors have since joined a massive fund-raising movement for Romney’s presidential campaign. Utah residents have contributed a significant proportion of Romney’s presidential campaign financing this year.
‘’It would be hard to underestimate how significant his role in the Games has been in terms of his fund-raising ability in Utah,’’ said Jeff Hartley, former executive director of the Utah Republican Party. ‘’Even our long-term senators haven’t had the success he has had pulling money out of Utah. He’s a fund-raising rock star in Utah.’’
I wonder just where Mitt’s OPM (other people’s money came from). An arm of the LDS Church perhaps? They never disclose where exactly their investments lay, or who is investing for them.
I contend that Mitt made millions investing LDS money. I can’t prove it of course, but can he prove otherwise. Where did Mitt’s silent investors come from?
MittCare is just a problem for residents of Massachusetts, but his mishandling of the gay marriage issue may eventually result in the courts imposing same-sex marriage on the entire country.
Romney is pretending to be a conservative now, but he's a snake in the grass.
> People who have chosen to follow [Romney], are selling out to a cult candidate <
Thanks for the warning.
Built on a mountain of earmarks.
The stadium in AZ which McCain was fully behind, cost the taxpayers $305 Million in taxpayer money. McCain got the FAA to appove the domed stadium and his wife’s company got the beer distributorship rights. That’s $350 million folks.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601079&sid=amFtu.nYknRQ&refer=home
The Arizona Cardinals have finally found a way to get in on a Super Bowl: build a stadium and host it.
The franchise paid $100 to become a charter member of the American Professional Football League in 1920, won the championship in 1947, lost the title game the following year and hasn’t had a whiff of a championship since.
National Football League owners voted to play this year’s Super Bowl in Arizona five years ago after the Cardinals reached an agreement to build their $455 million state-of-the-art stadium with $305 million in taxpayer money.
Sorry my friend, the Olympics were not in trouble. They were gunning for the two original organizers, one of whom is a friend. Reason? Not Mormon Royalty. Plain as that. Those two had pulled off a miracle in just getting the games.
Please. Spare us the Day in the Life of John McCain threads. Just had breakfast.
> I contend that Mitt made millions investing LDS money. <
So LDS money is tainted?
$305 Million is the correct amount of taxpayer money for the stadium. Want to be accurate.:)
No one was ever convicted in any “Olympic” scandal. It was a creation of an anonymous letter delived covertly to LDS owned KSL TV in Salt Lake City. I was working on the Olympics bid committee, it was going fine, on financial target, and building was advancing as scheduled. If not for the “bombshell” discovery of “bribes” by the committee, the Olympics would still have been a success. The supposed scandal of bribes was what put the Olympics in danger.
The scandal could well have been organized precisely so Mitt Romney could be the Olympic Savior, advance his political career and send him on his way to POTUS. A brillian move on his (and his operatives) side don’t you think?
No, it is as good as anyone's money. But we have many on FR touting that Mitt is a self-made man, when in fact he has been a member of the LDS heirarcy from the day he was born with that particular silver spoon in his mouth. In all honesty, Mitt is a product of great LDS achievement.
You are well within your rights to vote for him even as a great LDS power-broker. But the public should quit deceiving themselves about what Mitt is precisely.
Just say no to gun grabbing NE liberals.
> The scandal could well have been organized precisely so Mitt Romney could be the Olympic Savior, advance his political career and send him on his way to POTUS. <
Sure. And I’ll bet Pope John Paul II was somehow involved as well.
You want to close your eyes to Mormonism adn its history. Do you realize that anti-trust laws were targeted precisely at the LDS theocracy in Utah. Google it and see.
I don’t care if you want to remain ignorant about the power=brokering that goes on inside the LDS office buildings....it’s up to you.
And no, the Pope has nothing whatsoever to do with it. Any other question?
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