McCain and Team Have Many Ties to Gambling Industry

[DogPoundPup]

Source: NYT

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.

Mr. McCain supported tax breaks for casinos over the years, including one that helped Foxwoods in Connecticut. He has also gambled there.

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.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/us/politics/28gambling-web.html?ref=politics

[snappyturtle]

1. Well, isn't THAT interesting! nt

[glinda]

2. Abramhoff

or however you spell his name

[snappyturtle]

10. Yep! Immediately came to my mind too. I wonder who taught who? nt

[Gman]

15. Exactly. Jack Abramoff

But Abramoff would like to live to finish his prison term.

[rainbow4321]

19. McCain withheld controversial Abramoff email

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/25/mccain-withheld-controver_n_88304.html

On the stump, Sen. John McCain often cites his work tackling the excesses of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff as evidence of his sturdy ethical compass.

A little-known document, however, shows that McCain may have taken steps to protect his Republican colleagues from the scope of his investigation.

In the 2006 Senate report concerning Abramoff's activities, which McCain spearheaded, the Arizona Republican conspicuously left out information detailing how Alabama Gov. Bob Riley was targeted by Abramoff's influence peddling scheme. Riley, a Republican, won election in November 2002, and was reelected in 2006.

In a December 2002 email obtained by the Huffington Post -- which McCain and his staff had access to prior to the issuance of his report -- Abramoff explains to an aide what he would like to see Riley do in return for the "help" he received from Abramoff's tribal clients.

-------------

http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2008/02/mccain-lets-riley-off-hook.html#links

As many folks focused on Sunday night's 60 Minutes segment about the prosecution of former Alabama governor Don Siegelman, Sam Stein of Huffington Post was preparing to break a story that sheds much light on how the Siegelman case came to be.

Stein's scoop should go way beyond the borders of Alabama. In fact, it should become a major issue in the presidential campaign because it casts presumptive Republican nominee John McCain in a most unfavorable light.


McCain led a 2006 Senate investigation into the activities of disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff. But Stein reports that McCain left information out of the report that detailed how Alabama Governor Bob Riley was targeted by Abramoff's influence-peddling scheme.


McCain and his staff had access to this information before issuing their report--showing a direct link between Abramoff and Riley. But McCain's committee sat on the information.



---------------

http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2008/09/will-dominoes-start-to-tumble-in.html

The Star doesn't mention Alabama Governor Bob Riley, and the ample evidence that he received about $13 million of Mississippi Choctaw money for his 2002 election--all of it freshly laundered by Captain Jack Abramoff. The Star also does not mention that Republican presidential nominee John McCain knew about Riley's connections to Abramoff and kept them out of a Senate report on the scandal.

[bobd0]

26. The Abramoff scandal should have been a HUGE story

but all the MSM reported were snippets. Abramoff spent more time in the White House than Bush! But again they played ball with the Bush administration and swept it under the carpet. A scandal that big would have brought down any other administration in memory.

[glinda]

45. Here's more info....

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/palins_lobbyist_has_abramoff_t.php

[JDPriestly]

3. This explains to me how McCain got the 2008 nomination.

He intimidated the opposition and eliminated some of its most important supporters from the political scene.

[JDPriestly]

4. Also Schaghticoke -- Scag to coke -- and the names of the board

members of this tribe. Are they Indian names?

Chief Richard L Velky
Vice Chief Michael Pane
Council Member & Secretary Betty Kaladish
Council Member & Treasurer Joseph Velky Jr
Council Member Catherine Velky
Council Member Toni Hoffmann
Council Member Dean Pomeroy
Council Member Tony Crone
Council Member Erin Lamb-Meeches


http://www.schaghticoke.com/index.html

[rainbow4321]

17. Native Democrats tie Abramoff to McCain campaign

http://www.indianz.com/News/2008/010501.asp


Also has a bunch of other Native American/McCain/Reed/Abramoff links

http://www.indianz.com/News/2008/010413.asp

http://www.indianz.com/News/2008/010371.asp


http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/2008/08/15/reeded.html

[starroute]

5. Scott Reed is not tied to Abramoff -- but is just as dirty in his own way

I've been collecting notes on Reed for years. First, here's a brief snippet from an August 15, 2003 Washington Post item that doesn't seem to be online:

Chesapeake Government Relations is the brainchild of Scott Reed, who was Robert J. Dole's 1996 presidential campaign manager and is a well-connected Republican who provides state government consulting services nationwide. Wayne Berman, who served in the first Bush administration and advised the transition team for the second Bush administration, is also a partner.

During that 1996 campaign, Reed came under suspicion of illegally coordinating campaign advertising with the Republican National Committee:

http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/jphuck/BOOK1Ch4.html

Many television ads, which were run by the RNC in 1996, were actually produced by Dole's presidential campaign and run solely to boost his candidacy. In a June 5, 1996 memo, then-RNC chair Barbour wrote to RNC staffers that the issue ad budget was controlled by Scott Reed, Dole's campaign manager. Barbour wrote: "I will reach out to Scott Reed to ask him to consider whether the Dole campaign would want us to … reduce other spending, such as the issue advocacy television advertising by $800,000."

In addition to his long-time involvement with the GOP and the RNC, Reed also runs the American Taxpayers Alliance, which has often served as an industry front group. Here's just one example:

http://www.cleanupwashington.org/documents/astroturf.pdf

Run by Scott Reed, a lobbyist and manager of Robert Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign, the American Taxpayers Alliance spent about $1.8 million in 2001 on advertisements attacking Gov. Gray Davis for his handling of the state’s energy issues. The group went to court to fend off demands by Davis that it disclose donors that funded that campaign. Newsweek subsequently reported that the entire campaign was funded by Reliant Energy and Duke Power, two companies at the heart of California’s energy crisis. Reliant and Duke have subsequently agreed to pay more than $700 million combined to state and federal regulators to settle allegations they manipulated markets during the 2000-2001 California energy crisis. In addition, Reliant Energy Services was criminally indicted in 2004 for its role in causing the energy crisis and the case is ongoing.

But the really juicy stuff has to do with Scott Reed, Roger Stone, and the Indian tribes:

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0416,barrett,52802,1.html

A Dirty Trickster's Bush Bonanza
The man who stopped Miami recount makes gaming millions
by Wayne Barrett
April 13th, 2004

Roger Stone, the dirty-tricks hobgoblin of Republican politics, has exploited his Bush connections to become an influence-peddling force in the $13 billion Indian gaming industry. . . . The longtime GOP consultant's reward for fomenting the "Brooks Brothers mob" that shut down the Miami-Dade recount in 2000 was an invitation within days of Bush's election to serve on the Department of Interior transition working group—helping, in his own words, to staff its Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Stone has since used this unannounced perch to market himself to tribes and developers from Louisiana to California, earning fat fees and contingent percentages of future casino revenue. . . .

Hiding himself from the burden of public disclosure, Stone has brought an old lobbyist friend, Scott Reed, who already represented Connecticut tribes, into the incestuous world of California gaming. He got Buena Vista and the developers doing the Lytton and Enterprise ventures to retain Reed's firm, Chesapeake Enterprises. The campaign manager for Bob Dole in 1996, Reed, unlike the tarnished Stone, actually registers on behalf of the tribes he represents, only works on retainer, and is now doing cable appearances as a GOP insider. Since 2001 Reed has represented a dozen tribes and developers, many unconnected to Stone.

What's particularly interesting about the Reed-Stone connection is that through the 80's and most of the 90's, Roger Stone was a partner in the lobbying firm of Black, Manafort, and Stone. That's Charlie Black -- now highly-placed in the McCain campaign -- and Paul Manafort, the partner of current McCain campaign manager Rick Davis in the firm of Davis, Manafort (from which Davis has recently been attempting to claim he severed all ties in 2006.) Those three guys have a history together going back to their College Republican days in the early 70's, when they jointly ran a campaign against Karl Rove that was almost as dirty on their part as on Rove's. Wayne Berman -- mentioned in the first quote above as Scott Reed's partner -- also worked for Black, Manafort, Stone in the 80's -- and is also currently with the McCain campaign.

[Kaleko]

7. Wow, thanks for collecting all this info! Useful, to say the least...

[Maine-ah]

14. this kind of information should be in the research forum.

fabulous work, you should consider compiling all your info and post it in the research forum here on DU.

[bobd0]

27. It certainly should be. Instead of McCain's fairly tales and misrepresentations why isn't this

brought up in the debates? Does the Obama campaign have all this information? Members here dug it up in minutes. How could anyone not have it? Why isn't this being investigated and reported on by the MSM?

This is bullshit. The MSM helps this crook by repeating their mantra of his fairy tale yarns while ignoring facts like these and so many others that should and hopefully would certainly end McCain's chances.

[debbierlus]

6. KIck

[LiberalFighter]

8. Is the Maverick representing Arizona or Connecticut?

Is that one reason Lieberman likes McCain so much?

[BigAnth]

9. I would live to see Obama run an ad just before the election that highlights

McLame's gambling (either subtly or explicitly) and which would end with the punchline: "Don't let John McCain gamble with our country's future."

[MadrasT]

11. Whoa, holy crap! New York Times?

Six (web) pages long? :wtf:

[ForrestGump]

49. Craps,

actually. :P

[pitchforksandtorches]

12. I'm sorry but MKKKain is just

a smarmy piece of $hit.

[Frisbee]

13. Because we all know...

how often people walk out of casinos with more than they walked in with. He is just no good, plain and simple.

[rainbow4321]

16. Tsk, tsk, tsk....no denying this, Senator. Pic of him at a craps table

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4108988&mesg_id=4108988

[pnwmom]

18. This brings up ethical issues and character issues: he's a gambler at heart.

Which is why he picked Palin, why he "suspended" his campaign, etc.

He'd be a terrifying person to lead the country, almost as terrifying as his running mate.

[Wizard777]

24. This brings up Senate ethics issues. Did he report his winning to the Senate?

He's going to casinos that he has oversight on. He's winning thousands. I know that if you work for the Las Vegas gaming commission in any capacity. If you walk into a casino and so much as drop a quarter in a slot. Win or lose. You're going to jail. BIA is basically the gaming commision for Indian Tribes. They can approve new casinos. So there are real conflict of interest issues here.

[pnwmom]

25. And -- did he report his winnings to the IRS?

Do they show up on he tax returns he's released?

[Wizard777]

39. That would be the next step. But I would start a Senate ethics investigation first.

Bush would kill anything at the IRS. So at this point it would be an exercise in futility. He can't kill a senate investigation.

[ForrestGump]

50. On the bright side,

your DU user name just hit a jackpot! :D

Go sevens!

[McCamy Taylor]

20. Weekend long gambling binges every month his whole adult life!Man is an addict!!!!

My husband who knows more about these things says Palin is a roulette wheel bet.

No way we can have an addicted hard core gambler in charge of this country.

I want to know why the press has been covering up for this guy. They must have known about this for years. He does it in casinos.

You can keep an alcoholic dry and a drug addict off the pills and blow, but a gambler will make every decision as if it is a bet.

[krkaufman]

31. And we've seen enough examples of it this cycle... incl. Palin and the "suspension" gambit. n/t

[blitzen]

21. No wonder Bill Bennett was the only CNN pundit who said he "won"

[McCamy Taylor]

22. LOL, yes indeed!

[krkaufman]

30. Ha!, too true. A gambling buddy. n/t

[enpassant]

23. Details sketchy at this point, but the Dems could be screwed

Sorry wrong thread. New here :)

[krkaufman]

29. Then just delete the content and title of your post and mark it as "deleted" n/t

[OakCliffDem]

33. You can edit the Subjet line also

I learned real quick to change a FVGK up to something like:DUPE DELETE

[krkaufman]

28. "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

And McCain didn't learn from Vietnam or Iraq, the Keating 5 influence peddling scandal, or the repeated failures of deregulation. The guy just doesn't get it, and it's too late to expect him to actually change.

[OakCliffDem]

32. Shades of William Bennett n/t

[annabanana]

34. I am SO damn steamed at The Times!!

NOW they start covering these ties?? NOW!?!?

Now McCain's team can sell this coverage as "partisan evil librul press" electioneering. Where the hell was The Times when he was sitting there looking down from the chair in the committee room, deciding exactly which were the "good" indians and which were the "bad" indians?

NOW they decide to mention that this massively corrupt series of hearings might not have been on the up & up?.

There SO MUCH CORRUPTION there, and the evidence is dense and complicated. Just how is the electorate supposed to go from 0 to 60 on this information? It would take a THREE DAY TUTORIAL to unsnarl the twists and turns that McCain subjected the Law to in order to promote his interests and punish his "enemies".

I AM SO STEAMED!! :grr: :grr: :grr:

[rainbow4321]

35. Better now than Nov 5th......

Least it's not a "we WOULD have published the gambling problem before but we didn't wanna influence the election".
If they do a "drip, drip, drip" with simple explanations/connect the dots, people will catch on before November. Hopefully.

[Karenina]

51. Thanks for the pic!

There must be thousands out there... :rofl:

[Blue Gardener]

36. But gambling is a sin!

I'm sure the fundies will turn a blind eye to this, just like they did with his adultery. Hypocritical assholes, every single one of them.

[whistle]

37. Right, and the gambling industry has its tentacles everywhere including

...many native American communities where casinos and other forms of gaming establishments and large resort hotels provide jobs and revenues where there would be none. I'm not so sure McCain and Palin would encourage that type of gaming associations, but never-the-less gambling is legal in many states including AZ and AK.

[rainbow4321]

42. Guess he is just keeping up the Hensley family tradition....

http://www.infowars.net/articles/august2008/130808Connections.htm

[madaboutharry]

38. John McCain is a compulsive gambler.

It is a sickness. This needs to explode in the media. It is no different than if he went on drinking binges. He is a dangerous man with a serious problem.

[rainbow4321]

40. Exactly..and how exactly is he going to go cold turkey

if he is suddenly in the WH?? What is he going to do? Turn the Lincoln bedroom into a craps table room, maybe??

[Haole Girl]

41. This should concern all of us. Should worry all of us. nt

[msanthrope]

43. Always bet on Black, John.....n/t

[samsingh]

44. appropriate

[Vidar]

46. So, organized crime has ties to organized crime.

[karynnj]

47. That's more than the limit for reporting

I hope the NYT has some good witnesses.

[fascisthunter]

48. Who Wants a Gambler for a Leader?

especially one that wanted to gamble our Social Security away?

[sarcasmo]

52. I knew Lobbyist would be in this article even prior to reading the article.

Lobbyist are some of the lowest scum on Earth.