Did McCain Lean on FCC Commissioner on Iseman's Behalf?

[deminks]

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/08/did_mccain_lean_on_fcc_commiss.php

Remember that New York Times story from February that didn't quite deliver the goods about John McCain's entanglement with the lobbyist Vicki Iseman? Well, there was one strand to the Times' reporting that was lost amid the unproven allegations of a sexual relationship. But the Times' own earlier reporting from 2000, as well as what TPMmuckraker has learned, suggests it deserves some attention.

Towards the end of the February story, the Times wrote about McCain's assistance to Iseman's client, Lowell Paxson, who ran the media company Paxson Communications:

(snip)

But it turns out that the Times had covered this before. Back in January 2000, Stephen Labaton, one of the four Times scribes on the Iseman story from this February, had reported on McCain's help for Paxson. Paxson, Labaton wrote, had lent McCain his corporate jet four times in the last year, and had scheduled a Florida fundraiser for McCain (which was subsequently cancelled); and McCain had received more than $20,000 in contributions from Paxson Communications executives.

And Labaton added something even more interesting:

The commissioners who approved the transfer were two Republicans and a Democrat, Susan Ness, who was been known for some time as the swing vote and whose nomination for a second term is now before the Senate Commerce Committee.

(snip)

According to a former F.C.C. staffer, Ness rarely broke with her Democratic colleagues, as she did on this vote. The former staffer added that being appointed to a second term as an F.C.C. commissioner was unusual at the time -- most commissioners served only one term -- and that Ness was actively campaigning for her re-appointment. The Atlantic's Joshua Green, who wrote about this in March, judged that "Ness's vote is widely thought to have been a bid to win her reappointment to the FCC."

[grannie4peace]

1. this should be kicked

[KharmaTrain]

2. Yes!!!!

There's a lot of smelly stuff about that Paxson deal as well as several other deals the FCC permitted that greatly benefitted media conglomerates and Gramps stood as the "swing" vote in many of these deals. There's plenty of stink in his relationship with Ms. Iseman that still hasn't been thoroughly investigated.

Methinks we haven't heard the last of Gramps and Ms. Iseman...the corporate jets and the influence peddling...and who knows what else.