The media appears to have left the BBQ, returned to reality and will now start reporting real stories on John McCain again... let's see where this one goes... it falls right into line with McCain's unreported history of Quid Pro Quo Land dealings involving Lobbyists, Contributors, and National Land Swaps. This is public malfisence under the guise of public service and this sort of thing should be illegal... I can't believe he has a remote chance of becoming President; God help us all...
Sen. John McCain championed legislation that will let an Arizona rancher trade remote grassland and ponderosa pine forest here 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.
Details Below. Thanks for the Rec List... Nothing like dissing the enemy for Unity eh?
John McCain, Straight Talker Express, Mr. Environment, Mr. Campaign Finance Reform... the image is far different than the man we all know and now, the truth begins to come out, again... this is nothing new, it's a pattern, and it's something that the Media will bury him with eventually.
Initially reluctant to support the swap, the Arizona Republican became a key figure in pushing the deal through Congress after the rancher and his partners hired
lobbyists that included McCain's 1992 Senate campaign manager, two of his former Senate staff members (one of whom has returned as his chief of staff), and an Arizona insider who was a major McCain donor and is now bundling campaign checks.
When McCain's legislation passed in November 2005, the ranch owner gave the job of building as many as 12,000 homes to SunCor Development, a firm in Tempe, Ariz., run by Steven A. Betts, a longtime McCain supporter who has raised more than $100,000 for the presumptive Republican nominee. Betts said he and McCain never discussed the deal.
Predictably, Betts denies any coordination. But there is a history here that can't be ignored. The article details past land swaps in which McCain and GOP Bundlers received windfall land deals, which McCain's camp defends as necessary for development and growth. The deeper problem however is that these land deals compromise protected lands which Senator McCain himself has sought to conserve.
"When the public trust intersects with private interests, basically, he has favored land development . . . in every case," said Rob Smith, director of the Sierra Club's Arizona affiliate.
This particular deal swapped 55,000 acres of rare desert woodland and animal grounds including a pronghorn antelope habitat. John McCain, Environmentalist, some of the time... available most of the time for sale.
And again, the campaign gives the boilerplate denial.
- No lobbyist Influences on the Bill
- No consultation with donor
- No coordination
This deal was originally crafted by former Housemember and Hannity Blowhard, JD Hayworth. Another major problem with the deal is that it's a major rip off of the public sector. The value of the land that was received from the swap is approx. $250M when divided and developed. While the bill called for the land swap to comprise equal value, it's not yet been appraised by US Forestry services.
Ruskin, who is a pediatrician by training, said he realized he needed to hire lobbyists "to open communications with McCain's office."
As the bill was first offered in Congress, it didn't meet McCain's standards and he worked with local towns and groups in opposition to the land deal, out of primarily environmental concern. He then modified the bill to include a provision for water protection of the Verde River, a key area in the 55,000 acres. In addition, the equal value swap clause was also added as the bill passed.
Now, with the legislation in effect, his former donors are in charge of the land development and the money required to fund the water protection group, $8M, has not yet been budgeted, i.e. earmarked.
McCain's compromises on this bill set a dangerous precident. While he upholds certain public perceptions, that of an environmentalist, his perception as a budget hawk on earmark betrays that concern. In addition, having a Quid Pro Quo for major donors cuts directly against the image of the clean Maverick the press so endears.
It's clear as with all things associated with John McCain, when it's politically expedient, he's more than will to sell out his principles for the benefit of Business.
UPDATE: A Brief History of John McCain & Land Dealings
- The Keating Five
In 1989, the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association of Irvine, Calif., collapsed. Lincoln's chairman, Charles H. Keating Jr., was faulted for the thrift's failure. Keating, however, told the House Banking Committee that the FHLBB and its former chief Edwin J. Gray were pursuing a vendetta against him.
Gray testified that several U.S. senators had approached him and requested that he ease off on the Lincoln investigation. It came out that these senators had been beneficiaries of $300,000 (collective total) in campaign contributions from Keating. McCain received $112,000 by 1987 from Keating and Keating's relatives and employees to McCain's Senate campaign, more than any of the other Senators. In October 1989 The Arizona Republic reported that in addition to campaign contributions, McCain's wife and her father had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators. The paper also reported that the McCains, sometimes accompanied by their daughter and baby-sitter, had made at least nine trips at Keating's expense, sometimes aboard the American Continental Corporation (parent of Lincoln) jet. [Hmmmm, what does that remind me of?] Three of the trips were made during vacations to Keating's opulent Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay. McCain also did not pay Keating for some of the trips until years after they were taken, after he learned that Keating was in trouble over Lincoln. Lincoln Savings and Loan's collapse is said to have cost taxpayers $3.4 billion (in 1989 Dollars, now an estimated $5,640,600,000.
John McSame?
- Donald R. Diamond/Del Webb Corp
Del Webb Corporation proposed exchanging some of its land for a 4,000-acre tract near the Red Rock National Conservation Area, a scenic stretch of desert featuring seasonal springs and clusters of Joshua trees 15 miles west of Las Vegas. But the plan hit a brick wall when the U.S. House approved legislation to expand the Red Rock National Conservation Area to include the acreage the company wanted.
One of the company’s lobbyists, Donald Moon, a burly former prosecutor with ties to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, tried to get the bill’s sponsors to exclude the land that Del Webb wanted from Red Rock, but nothing came of his efforts. He then turned to Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona. He knew McCain would help, for over the years, Del Webb had helped McCain. The company’s executives and employees, in fact, have given McCain at least $56,535 in campaign contributions, making Del Webb his No. 7 career patron.
And help McCain did. He placed a "hold" on the legislation (through a letter of notification to Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole), thus stalling it indefinitely.
- Tonto National Forest/Carl Lindner
Some Backstory
In 1996, a developer and the ranch's owners announced plans to build a golf course and a residential/hotel development at Spur Cross Ranch. Because the ranch holds significant Hohokam Indian ruins and a rare riparian area, preservationists and environmentalists were alarmed. Cave Creek annexed Spur Cross and additional land, bringing the land under the town's stringent zoning ordinance. The owners sued, and the matter remains in the courts.
Several options have been explored for preserving the ranch. Arizona Senator John McCain has championed only one, a complicated three-way trade put together by consultants for the developer, involving federal lands, state trust lands and the Spur Cross Ranch.
Proposed--Would become part of Tonto National Forest. Archaeological and environmental features of Spur Cross Ranch would be spared. Ranch owners would get a tract of equal value. But managing Spur Cross would be problematical for the U.S. Forest Service. And no one knows the real value of the ranch.
Owners--70 percent interest: Great American Life Insurance, owned by Ohio-based Chiquita Banana CEO and campaign funding angel Carl Lindner.
The Pattern is Clear...
Devalued Public Land Swaps + Lobbyists + Major Fundraisers = Environmental Conservation McSame Style