Via MyDD. From Washington Post’s “The Fix”:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) continues to recruit top GOP political operatives in expectation of a presidential run. According to a source close to the McCain operation, the candidate has lined up Terry Nelson to serve as campaign manager…

Does the name Terry Nelson sound familiar? Besides producing the racist anti Harold Ford “bimbo” ad, he was the key point of contact between Tom Delay and the RNC during the time of the TRMPAC scandal. In fact, MyDD reports that he was an indicted co-conspirator.

It is almost cliche at this point, but it appears the straight talk express has left the building.

Seems his associates in Texas have been up to no good:

Sen. John McCain’s Straight Talk America PAC returned $20K in contributions from Sam and Charles Wyly after the STA finance team learned that the Wylys were under federal investigation for alleged tax evasion.

McCain attended a May 15 fundraiser in Austin, TX co-hosted by the Wyly brothers.

“After the checks were received from Sam and Charles Wyly, it was discovered through the normal vetting process here at Straight Talk America that a federal inquiry is ongoing into the two gentlemen,” said STA exec. dir. Craig Goldman in a statement. “Once that was discovered, we have a policy internally not to accept contributions from people in that situation, so the checks were returned.”

Good on McCain for returning the tainted money, but shouldn’t he have known beforehand that these folks were under federal investigation?

Much about a person’s character can be deduced by the company they keep.

When Senator John McCain recently visited New Hampshire, he conveniently refused to mention that his New Hampshire State Director pled with a judge for leniency for the Republican convicted in the 2002 Phone Jamming Scandal:

Last week, Republican lobbyist Mike Dennehy, Senator McCain’s New Hampshire State Director, sent a letter to Judge Steven McAuliffe that asked the judge for a lenient sentence and called Tobin the “the most ethical man I know” despite the fact that Tobin was convicted of multiple felonies over his role in the 2002 phone-jamming crime. The letter was the only such letter from any Granite Stater.

Dennehy’s appeal on behalf of Tobin comes weeks after Senator McCain hired Terry Nelson–Tobin’s supervisor at the Republican National Committee and National Republican Senate Committee–as a senior political strategist. Even after learning about Nelson’s possible involvement in the phone jamming scheme, McCain later said that he had “no qualms” about Nelson’s ethics and that he considers Nelson to be “a fine man” who was “very helpful to President Bush.”

No sign of the “Straight Talk Express.”  If Senator McCain was really interested in reforming the campaign process, he would not have hired staff that are closely tied to dirty campaign tricks.

Congressman John Sweeney has been a busy guy. Many folks on the blogosphere know him from his infamous drunken photo-op at a frat house in New York. Then there’s Sweeney’s lobbyist skiing trips and defense of Tom DeLay. When his opponent, Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand stood up and called Sweeney on his nonsense, Sweeney responded with patronizing sexism.

So, what does this have to do with John McCain? You guessed it, the Senator from Liberty is swinging by New York for a fundraiser with Sweeney. Let me get this straight: McCain’s shilling for a corrupt Congressman who parties with frat boys, goes on skiing retreats with lobbyists, votes the party line, and refers to his female opponent as “a pretty face”? Yep, looks like “The Straight-Talk Express” has left the station.

Cornered GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff is facing some jail time, and it looks like he’s determined to bring some of his cronies down with him:

“Any important Republican who comes out and says they didn’t know me is almost certainly lying.”

Apparently this includes Mr. Maverick Reformer John McCain. McCain denies it, though:

“Mr. Abramoff flatters himself,” Mark Salter, McCain’s administrative assistant, tells Margolick. “Senator McCain was unaware of his existence until he read initial press accounts of Abramoff’s abuses, and had never laid eyes on him until he appeared before the committee.”

Abramoff’s response?

Abramoff says, “As best I can remember, when I met with him, he didn’t have his eyes shut. I’m surprised that Senator McCain has joined the chorus of amnesiacs.”

I’m not. McCain has a media halo as a champion of government reform. When it comes out that he met with the super-corrupt Abramoff, just like the rest of his GOP cronies, it will destroy his image. Not only is McCain corrupt, but he has lied.

Looks like John McCain and his buddy Arnold might be under investigation for violating campaign finance laws:

The California Democratic Party said Friday it will ask government regulators to investigate Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sen. John McCain for allegedly violating campaign-finance law. The allegations center around a scheduled March 20 fundraiser in Beverly Hills, in which donors have been asked to contribute up to $100,000 for Schwarzenegger and the state Republican Party…At issue is whether McCain’s appearance runs afoul of restrictions on federal officeholders taking part in events that solicit political funds. Ironically, McCain is being accused of violating a law he helped write.

This fundraiser with Schwarzenegger is just one example of Two-Faced John McCain. All over the country, he’s preaching reform while he’s got his hand in the cookie jar.

Well, gosh, I almost teared up watching McCain drool all over Rick Santorum. Seems McCain thinks that Senator Man-on-Dog is a “good and decent person” who “represents family values.”

Well, I know my family has always valued our sham charity. Yes, it would appear that Mr. GOP Ethics is using a fake charity to funnel money to his political operation. And the more we learn, the dirtier this story gets. A new development emerged today:

The largest known giver to a controversial charity founded by U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum made its $25,000 donation as the senator was working to win as much as $8.5 million in federal aid for the donor’s project in Delaware County.

In other words, Santorum set up his charity so that business interests could write unlimited checks to his campaign, then deduct them from their taxes. As McCain said, Santorum definitely represents “the next generation of leadership of the Republican Party.” Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

John McCain isn’t serious about reforming the political process. Like every other Republican in Congress, McCain wants to maintain the status quo. Rick Santorum is for sale, and he’s ripping off American taxpayers. Instead of taking a principled stand, John McCain is playing politics. I, for one, am not surprised.

Anyone vaguely familiar with the political career of John McCain knows about the “Keating Five” scandal. For those not clear on the specifics, we’ll do a quick review:

• In the midst of the savings and loan implosion of the 80s, federal auditors begin investigating the practices of S&L magnate Charles Keating.
• McCain, along with four other Senators, meets with Keating to discuss ways to derail the investigation.
• McCain and his colleagues meet with Ed Gray, the chairman of the regulatory board, and persuade him to delay seizing the S&L.
• Two years later, regulators finally have to seize the S&L for a federal bailout, costing taxpayers $2.6 billion. In the meantime, 17,000 investors in Keating’s S&L lose $190 million.

For someone with a stainless “reform” halo, McCain looks pretty dirty here. So, what does the “straight-talker” do? Take responsibility? Apologize? Nah:

McCain defended his attendance at the meetings by saying Keating was a constituent and that Keating’s development company, American Continental Corporation, was a major Arizona employer. McCain said he wanted to know only whether Keating was being treated fairly and that he had not tried to influence the regulators…

Oh, well we have no problem, then. After all, McCain’s job is to look out for his constituents, right?

But Keating was more than a constituent to McCain–he was a longtime friend and associate…Keating raised money for McCain’s two congressional campaigns in 1982 and 1984, and for McCain’s 1986 Senate bid. By 1987, McCain campaigns had received $112,000 from Keating, his relatives, and his employees–the most received by any of the Keating Five…

Okay, so that’s pretty fishy. Still, I guess you could say that just because someone gives you money doesn’t make you best buds…

After McCain’s election to the House in 1982, he and his family made at least nine trips at Keating’s expense, three of which were to Keating’s Bahamas retreat. McCain did not disclose the trips (as he was required to under House rules) until the scandal broke in 1989…And in April 1986, one year before the meeting with the regulators, McCain’s wife, Cindy, and her father invested $359,100 in a Keating strip mall.

Cripes! This is some Tom DeLay stuff, folks. So, here we have McCain conspiring with a campaign crony to rip off shareholders and American taxpayers. What does McCain do to atone for his sins?

…he contributed $112,000 (the amount raised for him by Keating) to the U.S. Treasury.

Oh, thanks John. Now, according to my calculations, you only owe American taxpayers about $2,599,880,000.00. We’d like that in cash, please.

While on NBC’s Today Show, Senator John McCain made claims that at best are misleading and at worst are outright lies. Media Matters reports:

NBC Today co-host Matt Lauer failed to challenge Sen. John McCain’s misleading claims that “members of Congress — including Democrats — were briefed” on President Bush’s warrantless domestic spying program “and there didn’t seem to be … any public outcry until recently.” In fact, of the seven Democratic lawmakers known to have been briefed on the domestic spying program prior to its disclosure by The New York Times, three have said they objected privately at the time, and three more have said they weren’t given adequate information about the program. Moreover, these lawmakers could not have raised “any public outcry,” because the briefings were classified.

Why does McCain feel it is necessary to mislead the American people. Where is that “Straight Talk” that we hear so much about?