Washington Post Continues McCain Smear

Red State ^ | Feb. 22, 2008 | Staff

[jdm]

ACTION NOTE: You can email the reporters here. Given the information below and their failure to be the least bit skeptical, you might want to do so.
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So much for your media friends, Senator McCain. The Washington Post piles on this morning in a most disingenuous way.

In McCain's case, the fact that lobbyists are essentially running his presidential campaign -- most of them as volunteers -- seems to some people to be at odds with his anti-lobbying rhetoric. "He has a closer relationship with lobbyists than he lets on," said Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics ["CREW"] in Washington. "The problem for McCain being so closely associated with lobbyists is that he's the candidate most closely associated with attacking lobbyists."

Michael D. Shear and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum carried this off without ever hinting that CREW might be more than what it seems.

As Green Mountain Politics notes

we think it's only fair - in the interest of sunlight - to point out that Ms. Sloan has worked in the past for Democrat John Conyers, Democrat Chuck Schumer and Democrat Joe Biden.

And now Ms. Sloan wants to pass judgment on the Republican nominee for President as if her career sprang up in a vacuum?

Likewise, the reporters never mentioned CREW is heavily funded by liberal interests.

Read on . . .

In February 2006, CREW asked the Senate Finance Committee to investigate the Center for Union Facts, an anti-union group, and its sister organization, the Center for Consumer Freedom, which CREW claimed are “front organizations for for-profit industry entities.” The complaint noted that the Center for Union Facts Web site had “negative information about unions,” including the Service Employees International Union. …On Sept. 1, 2006, CREW received $75,000 from the SEIU, according to documents that the union filed with the Department of Labor.

In February 2007, CREW also asked the GAO to investigate whether broadcasts of Radio Martí beamed from Florida to Cuba violate federal laws against dissemination of propaganda in the U.S.

While CREW will not release its donor records, since 2003 the group has received $125,000 from the Arca Foundation, according to the foundation’s annual reports. Over the same period, Arca — a family foundation that has backed a host of liberal causes — has provided about $1 million to organizations to advocate opening ties to Cuba and reducing barriers to travel.

Arca also supports the Center for Independent Media, founded in 2006 to promote “citizen-driven journalism” through blogs. The center established two Web sites as test-beds — Minnesota Monitor and Colorado Confidential.

Three weeks before the 2006 Congressional elections, CREW filed a complaint with the IRS alleging that a Minnesota pastor had violated his church’s tax-exempt status by endorsing conservative Republican Michele Bachmann

The Gill Foundation is heavily invested in organizations advocating gay and lesbian rights. One of the prime antagonists of the gay rights movement is Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.), who introduced the Federal Marriage Amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

Two weeks before the 2004 election, CREW filed a complaint with the Department of Justice alleging that Musgrave’s campaign was operating out of her district office in Loveland, Colo. … The Gill Foundation donated $125,000 to CREW in 2006, according to the foundation’s annual report.

[Condor51]

*** You know, I've read the actual NYT story, and I still am not sure what they are saying he did wrong. Maybe you can enlighten me. ALl I read was some unsubstantiated innuendo, not even a straightforward allegation of improper behavior. ***

Excuse me for butting in, but this may help explain on what 'Mr Clean' McCain did wrong. It goes back to 2005, I found it yesterday..

Captain's Quarters
Sen. John McCain pressed a cable company's case for pricing changes with regulators at the same time a tax-exempt group that he has worked with since its founding solicited $200,000 in contributions from the company.

Help from McCain, who argues for ridding politics of big money, included giving the CEO of Cablevision Systems Corp. the opportunity to testify before his Senate committee, writing a letter of support to the Federal Communication Commission and asking other cable companies to support so-called a la carte pricing.

McCain had expressed interest in exploring the a la carte option for years before Cablevision advocated it, but did not take a formal position with regulators until after the company's first donation came in.

There's more at the link and all pertains to the female Lobbyist in question. It sure looks like quid pro quo to me and a redux of the Keating Five Scandal.

And from a guy who has the (blank) to say this....

“I would rather have a clean government than one where quote 'First Amendment rights' are being respected that has become corrupt,” McCain said. “If I had my choice, I’d rather have the clean government.”

He actually said 'quote' First Amendment rights.

(That's it, sorry for the interruption. Carry on)

[org.whodat]

BTTT,

You are correct!

[CA Conservative]

You need to listen to the news more often. He made calls on the woman's behalf and wrote letters demanding a vote and/or approval for the company she represented.

Okay, but what about that was unethical or illegal? From what I read in the article, even in those two cases his actions were consistent with his own stated positions. The article also doesn't give any information about the dozen or so times he took actions that were adverse to her client's interests.

The implication the NYT is trying to make is that McCain allowed a romantic/sexual relationship to influence his performance of his public duties. So far, there is absolutely no evidence of a sexual or romantic relationship, nor any evidence that he was influenced to do anything unethical or inconsistent with his own beliefs. If you have any such evidence, please provide it, because no one in the media has done so yet. It is all innuendo and implications...

[CA Conservative]

This seems to be the key sentence:

McCain had expressed interest in exploring the a la carte option for years before Cablevision advocated it, but did not take a formal position with regulators until after the company's first donation came in.

I'd have to read more about it, but the fact that this was a position he had been advocating for years seems to belie the idea that his support was merely a quid pro quo. This also had nothing to do with the story in the NYT.

I am not a McCain supporter (I voted for Fred), and I don't like him for a number of reasons. However, this NYT story is the worst case of yellow journalism since the TANG story in 2004.

[Grunthor]

Anybody else running low on popcorn?

[Jacquerie]

. . . what he did was wrong if not illegal . . .

Another unsubstantiated quip from the McCain Deranged.