McCain and Team Have Many Ties to Gambling Industry

NY TImes ^ | 9/27/08 | Jo Becker

[pissant]

Senator John McCain was on a roll. In a room reserved for high-stakes gamblers at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut, he tossed $100 chips around a hot craps table. When the marathon session ended around 2:30 a.m., the Arizona senator and his entourage emerged with thousands of dollars in winnings.

A lifelong gambler, Mr. McCain takes risks, both on and off the craps table. He was throwing dice that night not long after his failed 2000 presidential bid, in which he was skewered by the Republican Party’s evangelical base, opponents of gambling. Mr. McCain was betting at a casino he oversaw as a member of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, and he was doing so with the lobbyist who represents that casino, according to three associates of Mr. McCain.

The visit had been arranged by the lobbyist, Scott Reed, who works for the Mashantucket Pequot, a tribe that has contributed heavily to Mr. McCain’s campaigns and built Foxwoods into the world’s second-largest casino. Joining them was Rick Davis, Mr. McCain’s current campaign manager. Their night of good fortune epitomized not just Mr. McCain’s affection for gambling, but also the close relationship he has built with the gambling industry and its lobbyists during his 25-year career in Congress.

As a two-time chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee, Mr. McCain has done more than any other member of Congress to shape the laws governing America’s casinos, helping to

[Tublecane]

“McCain is an impulsive risk-taker, a dangerous gambler.”

Won’t this dampen the old man message? Or are liberals that compartmentalized?

[Corporate Law]

Hey Pinch, why don’t you look into Dingy Harry while you are at. Moron.

[Ciexyz]

so what.

[modest proposal]

lol.

They complain about the gambling industry when the opposition is Obama?

[dr_who]

Just another Obama campaign press release.

[Tublecane]

“And now many more “scandals” like this are they sitting on?”

There’s one more. McCain did coke as a kid. No, wait, he shirked national guard duty. No, no, I’ve got it, he had sex with an alien and punched a hole in the ozone.

[timestax]

Oh my goodness! He was throwing dice eight years ago! That is terrible. I bet he even has pulled tags off of mattresses !

[nobamanada]

Hit piece #Infinity.

[keepitreal]

Let’s see, McCain plays dice, sometimes wins, and regulates the tribes.

Compare that to every fat cat dem who has his hand in the Fannie/Freddie cookie jar (and of course ACORN), which will now cost us 700 billion dollars.

[padre35]

Nope, and they are lying about several things concerning Obama, Jonah Goldberg nails them:

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZTlhNzBhZTVkNDc0NDQzNGQwNzU5YjU1ZmExNmYwNGE=&w=MQ==

“According to Politico, Obama spokesman Bill Burton called Schmidt’s attack on the Times “laughable.” Burton released a list of 42 “probing stories” from the Times. Among these allegedly hard-hitting exposés were the following headlines: “In Law School, Obama Found Political Voice,” “Charisma and a Search for Self in Obama’s Hawaii Childhood” and “In Illinois, Obama Proved Pragmatic and Shrewd.””

Yep, hardhitting stuff that.

I love it when the NYT stock chart is posted, and the decline is nearly vertical, anyone who owns NYT shares is a fool, and everyone knows the saying about a fool and their money...

[lewislynn]

To imply that McCain (or anyone, for that matter) could be bribed through a good night at the tables is not only libelous, but utterly ridiculous.

Not to mention the honesty and integrity of not just that casino but ALL casinos.

To suggest a casino has some control over table games is pure ignorance.

And, how would any casual observer know that an entire "entourage" was winners?

[PosterQue]

If he's such a gambler, why isn't he pushing to get rid of the UIGEA?

As a poker player and a (non-native) Nevadan, I would love to see that. Besides, *real* high rollers don't throw hundred-dollar chips around, they throw $5000 chips around!

[Enchante]

NY Times: “John McCain Once Golfed at a Golf Course That Does Not Admit Women as Members”

(of course it was in the 1960s before he lost full use of his arms due to enemy torture, but WTH, it’s still a useful attack point)

/sarcasm

[Hugin]

I’m waiting for them to bring back that son of a KGB agent who claims McCain was never in solitary in Hanoi, and that his dad put McCain up in a luxury apartment with hookers during that time.

[Tublecane]

Did the hookers break his arms, or has he been faking for forty years?

[BooBoo1000]

So what, Gambling is legal in Nevada, and I can tell you every slimy, no name politican, from Presidents to dog catchers come to Las Vegas to get donations. Every time I look up here comes another plane load of Washington Wanna Bees and Never Weres with their hand out. They all know where the money is and come here to plead their case. I know because I live in Las Vegas, and I see all of the pandering, pleading, and plain old begging every day..

[sonic109]

Just sent a pleasant little email to Mr Becker
care to join me ?
http://www.nytimes.com/gst/emailus.html

[Brown Deer]

Gambling buddies: Obama flush with poker prowess

SPRINGFIELD, Illinois (AP) -- Barack Obama's triumph in the 2004 U.S. Senate race earned him a memorable send-off from his friends in the Illinois Legislature -- they emptied his wallet in a take-no-prisoners night of poker.

Obama was a regular at the low-stakes games -- sometimes stud poker, sometimes draw -- designed to break up the tedium of long legislative sessions. Poker, beer and cigars were staples; Democrats and Republicans, lawmakers and even the lobbyists who Obama sometimes rails against dealt the cards and placed their bets.

The traits Obama displayed around the card table those many nights are ones he brings to his presidential bid and are certain to be evident -- and analyzed -- if he wins the White House.

The poker nights -- sometimes called the "committee meeting" by the players -- began around 1997 as a way to kill time during long legislative sessions in the small capital city of about 115,000. Under state law, it's illegal to play poker for money, but the law is seldom enforced when low-stakes games are involved.

[Cementjungle]

This should help with the American Indian vote... I would think, since he’s helped them get their very lucritive casinos (or so this implies).