Family Values McCain

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-19-2007
Family Values McCain
9
Sat, 09-27-2008 - 9:54pm

Typical Republican politician- completely in the pocket of the gambling industry and its lobbyists.



McCain and Team Have Many Ties to Gambling Industry



Published: September 27, 2008

 

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 transform the once-sleepy Indian gambling business into a $26-billion-a-year behemoth with 423 casinos across the country. He has won praise as a champion of economic development and self-governance on reservations.


“One of the founding fathers of Indian gaming” is what Steven Light, a University of North Dakota professor and a leading Indian gambling expert, called Mr. McCain.


As factions of the ferociously competitive gambling industry have vied for an edge, they have found it advantageous to cultivate a relationship with Mr. McCain or hire someone who has one, according to an examination based on more than 70 interviews and thousands of pages of documents.


Mr. McCain portrays himself as a Washington maverick unswayed by special interests, referring recently to lobbyists as “birds of prey.” Yet in his current campaign, more than 40 fund-raisers and top advisers have lobbied or worked for an array of gambling interests — including tribal and Las Vegas casinos, lottery companies and online poker purveyors.




Edited 9/27/2008 9:55 pm ET by glitter_girl_5000
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-03-2008
Sat, 09-27-2008 - 10:07pm
LOL, his song should be "Lord I was born a Gambling man"
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-19-2007
Sat, 09-27-2008 - 10:17pm
Ain't that the truth. You know he gets treated like a king in those casinos he goes to once a month. I really wonder
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-20-2008
Sat, 09-27-2008 - 10:30pm

You know, speaking of family values, it was a big deal that Reagan was divorced. A big deal. But we could forgive him because his first wife Jane Wyman left him, and it was because she was liberal and he was too conservative for her, and Reagan was obviously devoted to Nancy and in love with her.

So let's review McCain's lack of fidelity and ethics:

1. Cheating on his first wife and dumping her for a pretty, rich trophy wife. The Reagans never forgave him. His son wouldn't talk to him for a year. And the only Republican on this board I've heard respond to this fact flat out denies it, despite all the evidence. How does this reflect on McCain? This is not the same kind of divorce for which the American public forgave Ronnie. McCain had a history of being a ladies' man, to put it kindly. By all accounts, he aggressively went after Cindy while married - he couldn't deal with the fact that his wife was injured in a disfiguring horrible car accident so he dumped her for a younger, richer, newer model. How is that for family values? And by the way, McCain was so insensitive even to his new wife that he claims he didn't know she was addicted to drugs for years and years during their marriage.

2. Calling his wife the C word in front of reporters because she made an innocent joke about his thinning hair. The only Republican on this board who would speak about that one said it was no biggie. Incidentally, that Republican poster was a male. He also thought McCain's jokes about Chelsea Clinton, older people and the like were all funny.

3. Joking about women getting violently raped and wanting more. The only Republican poster on this board to talk about that one denied it.

4. The Keating 5 scandal. This is not the only lobbying problem of McCain's. His whole campaign is run by lobbyists even though he keeps having to fire them like flies for all their conflicts of interest.

5. Seeking the endorsement of Parsely and Hagee and then dumping them for things they said way before he sought their endorsement.

6. Saying gay people should not be allowed to adopt, and then sending a spokesperson out to quietly admit it's okay if no one else is available because even if they are inferior, they are better than nothing as parents.

7. Coming in 5th to last in the Navy Academy out of a class of about 900. As Republicans have argued, McCain is not stupid. He obviously thought doing well in school didn't matter. And it wasn't all attributable to the school being out to get this son of a famous Admiral, obviously.

8. Cursing out his fellow Senators to the point where at least one Republican Senator said McCain is unfit to be President.

9. Not bothering to learn how to use a computer or about the Internet (the future of America and the world) and admittedly using your wife as a secretary instead.

10. Making direct unseemly attacks on his opponent's patriotism and caring for the troops. It's sad that McCain would do this after being the victim of such attacks in South Carolina in the 2000 Primaries.

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-12-2007
Sat, 09-27-2008 - 10:39pm

1. You know, it is hilarious to watch a democrat talk about infidelity when their leader Clinton can't keep his pants on.

   

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-20-2008
Sat, 09-27-2008 - 10:48pm

"You know, it is hilarious to watch a democrat talk about infidelity when their leader Clinton can't keep his pants on. He is the poster child for infidelity. McCain's personal life is his business."

Why is McCain's personal life his personal business after you charge that Clinton can't keep his pants on? And I thought Republicans were supposed to be the only moral ones that cared about fidelity and the sanctity of marriage. That is why Reagan's infidelity was such a big deal, and McCain's should be.

As for Clinton, I agree what he did was worse than what McCain did. Unlike many, I am honest and consistent. Bill Clinton was out of control and it snowballed on him. He never would have been talking about his extramarital relations under oath had he not sexually harassed (or much worse) Paula Jones. I will say this however. What Bill did never involved our national security the way Bush and McCain's screw ups do. The Republican guys going after Bill were just as sleezy as he was, and DeLay and Gingrich were having their own extramarital affairs as they prosecuted Bill for his. Gingrich even dumped his wife on her deathbed in the hospital. Unforgivable hypocrites that DeLay and Gingrich are. And maybe that is the reason that Bill's popularity rating stayed high, while Bush's lack of popularity is the lowest and longest in recorded history for an American President.

Here is the proof on the incident you somehow never heard about:

"The Real McCain by Cliff Schecter, which will arrive in bookstores next month, reports an angry exchange between McCain and his wife that happened in full view of aides and reporters during a 1992 campaign stop. An advance copy of the book was obtained by RAW STORY.

Three reporters from Arizona, on the condition of anonymity, also let me in on another incident involving McCain's intemperateness. In his 1992 Senate bid, McCain was joined on the campaign trail by his wife, Cindy, as well as campaign aide Doug Cole and consultant Wes Gullett. At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain's hair and said, "You're getting a little thin up there." McCain's face reddened, and he responded, "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you ." McCain's excuse was that it had been a long day. If elected president of the United States, McCain would have many long days.
The man who was known as "McNasty" in high school has erupted in foul-languaged tirades at political foes and congressional colleagues more-or-less throughout his career, and his quickness to anger has been an issue on the presidential campaign trail as evidence of his fury has surfaced.

As Schecter notes, McCain's rage is not limited to the political spectrum, and even his family cannot be spared the brute force of his anger."

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2008/McCain_temper_boiled_over_in_92_0407.html

Let me know if you don't agree with any of the other facts stated in my thread. There is a strong basis for all of them.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-19-2007
Sat, 09-27-2008 - 10:50pm
I agree with you that McCain's ethics are awful. However, I think you should provide links or other support for the things you're claiming about McCain otherwise people will dismiss your post. I know the support is
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-12-2007
Sat, 09-27-2008 - 11:14pm

**Why is McCain's personal life his personal business after you charge that Clinton can't keep his pants on? **


Because Clinton's pants were laying on the Oval office floor more often than not.

   

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-15-2008
Sun, 09-28-2008 - 1:00am

I must have let something else slip by me.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-26-2008
Sun, 09-28-2008 - 1:20am
At Saddleback - McCain could not say in mixed company that he did the "horizontal bop" with Cindy, but said his biggest failing was his first marriages failure....