McCain's sell-out complete, redux...
Yesterday, I wrote about former McCain nemesis Grover Norquist's capitulation to the Straight-Talk Express, clearly in exchange for McCain subverting the Senate Indian Affairs Committee investigation into Jack Abramoff, but I'd forgotten about the third Musketeer, Ralph Reed. Fortunately, at least one other blogger has McCain's SIAC misdeeds on her radar:
CNN's last debate before Super Tuesday gave overt preference to John McCain and Mitt Romney, while Ron Paul, and Mike Huckabee were given precious little time to speak.This is the same CNN that has recently placed the former director of Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition, Ralph Reed behind a CNN news desk as a news analyst.
Such realizations were simultaneously odd and seemingly unrelated, until I looked closer at "Honest" John McCain, Candidate for President of the United States of America.
As chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, John McCain directed the Congressional investigation of the Indian gaming scandal which stole over $80 million from American Indian Tribes. The scandal led to the imprisonment of Lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Congressman Bob Ney (R-OH), and a number of other lobbyists and federal officials, yet some people criticized McCain for failing to call people like Ralph Reed (who were near the center of the scam) before the committee to testify.
As a result of this investigation, McCain refers to himself as an "agent of change," yet he limited the scope of the gaming investigation to lobbyists' improper gifts. Now if the lobbyists were guilty of giving improper gifts, trips and money, a natural follow-up question for McCain could have been, "who received those gifts?" Why were members of Congress (usually the recipients of such favors) not investigated? Why wasn't Ralph Reed brought before the McCain investigation? After all, wasn't he paid $4 million to shut down an Indian casino by Reed's friend and convicted felon, Jack Abramoff?
As I tried to answer my own questions, I found that McCains' reluctance to get to the bottom of the scandal is predictable, especially in light of how McCain has financed his political career.
Maybe Ralph Reed will raise such questions to McCain as a news analyst for "the most trusted name in news," CNN.
Why is Reed at CNN instead of in prison with Abramoff?
