McCain on tapping Wife's Wealth "I have never thought about". Used
Wife=92s Jet for Little Cost
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Given Senator John McCain=92s signature stance on campaign finance
reform, it was not surprising that he backed legislation last year
requiring presidential candidates to pay the actual cost of flying on
cor****ate jets. The law, which requires campaigns to pay charter rates
when using such jets rather than cheaper first-class fares, was
intended to reduce the influence of lobbyists and create a level
financial playing field.
But over a seven-month period beginning last summer, Mr. McCain=92s cash-
short campaign gave itself an advantage by using a cor****ate jet owned
by a company headed by his wife, Cindy McCain, according to public
records. For five of those months, the plane was used almost
exclusively for campaign-related purposes, those records show.
Mr. McCain=92s campaign paid a total of $241,149 for the use of that
plane from last August through February, records show. That amount is
approximately the cost of chartering a similar jet for a month or two,
according to industry estimates.
The senator was able to fly so inexpensively because the law
specifically exempts aircraft owned by a candidate or his family or by
a privately held company they control. The Federal Election Commission
adopted rules in December to close the loophole =97 rules that would
have required substantial payments by candidates using family-owned
planes =97 but the agency soon lost the requisite number of
commissioners needed to complete the rule making.
Because that exemption remains, Mr. McCain=92s campaign was able to use
his wife=92s cor****ate plane like a charter jet while paying first-class
rates, several campaign finance experts said. Several of those
experts, however, added that his campaign=92s actions, while keeping
with the letter of law, did not reflect its spirit.
=93This amounts to a subsidy for his campaign, which is notable given
how badly they were struggling last year,=94 said Sheila Krumholz,
executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a
nonpartisan group that collects and analyzes campaign data.
Mr. McCain was not available to be interviewed, a campaign spokeswoman
said. In response to written questions, the spokeswoman, Jill
Hazelbaker, said his campaign had acted legally and ethically in
paying first-class airfares for Mrs. McCain=92s cor****ate aircraft.
=93The campaign carefully followed all the relevant laws and F.E.C.
regulations on air travel at all times, and paid for travel exactly as
required by those rules,=94 Ms. Hazelbaker said.
Last summer, just before starting to use his wife=92s plane, Mr. McCain
was quoted in a newspaper re****t as saying that he did not plan to tap
her substantial wealth to keep his bid for the Republican presidential
nomination going.
=93I have never thought about it,=94 Mr. McCain was quoted by The Arizona
Republic as saying at a July appearance. =93I would never do such a
thing, so I wouldn=92t know what the legalities are.=94
The McCain campaign turned to using the jet last August, a time when
it faced mounting debts and the possibility of financial collapse. It
stopped doing so in March, those records indicate.
During the first half of 2007, a time when Mr. McCain=92s campaign did
not use his wife=92s jet, it paid out over $1.04 million for travel on
noncommercial planes, F.E.C. records indicate. Over the second half of
the year, when that jet was used almost constantly for campaign-
related purposes, his campaign=92s total spending for noncommercial
flying was about one-half that much, or $542,160, those records
suggest.
To determine how often the use of the jet was campaign-related, The
New York Times reviewed commercially available flight records for the
plane and compared them with campaign appearances made by Mr. McCain,
his wife and others on his behalf.
The plane is a Cessna Citation Excel, a midsize cor****ate jet that
typically seats eight and can fly four hours at a time. It is owned by
Hensley & Company, through a holding company, King Aviation. Mrs.
McCain is the chairwoman of Hensley, which is one of the country=92s
biggest distributors of Anheuser-Busch products. Hensley was founded
by Mrs. McCain=92s father, James Hensley, and her uncle.
It was her late father=92s fortune, which also includes real estate,
that helped start Mr. McCain=92s political career. King Aviation is
listed on Mr. McCain=92s Senate disclosure forms as one of his wife=92s
assets.
mo>>
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On Apr 25, 1:48 pm, lc <lol7...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> McCain=92s History On Katrina Doesn=92t Match Campaign
Rhetorichttp://www.=
crooksandliars.com/2008/04/25/mccains-history-on-katrina-d...
> By: Bill W. on Friday, April 25th, 2008
> McCain Then and Now:
> On Thursday, John McCain toured areas of New Orleans that are still
> damaged from Hurricane Katrina and tried to explain how he would have
> done things differently had he been President.
>
> []
> John McCain: Never again will a disaster of this nature be handled in
> the terrible and disgraceful way that it was handled. Never again.
>
> Dana Bash: John McCain used these vivid reminders of a stained
> Bush legacy to try to distance himself. President Bush famously flew
> over New Orleans in the days after Katrina, a mistake McCain said he
> would not have made.
>
> John McCain: In all candor if I had been President of the United
> States I=92d have ordered the plane landed at the nearest Air Force base
> and I=92d have been over here.
> []
>
> Now, I guess it=92s asking a lot to let something like Katrina spoil his
> birthday plans, but if he really would have done things so differently
> had he been President, honestly, then why didn=92t he at least say
> something along the lines of: =91I=92m flattered you still thought
enough
> to come, Mr. President, but don=92t you have something more im****tant
> you should be attending to?=92 and wouldn=92t he at least have exercised
> better judgment than to participate in a laugh-filled photo-op with
> the President for the historical record that fateful day?
>
> Despite all the talk at yesterday=92s campaign photo-op, John McCain=92s
> actions then and since could not be more stark in contrast:
> VIDEO
> [] The fact is, McCain has a history of denying the Gulf Coast aid
> when it needs it most and a record of outrageous votes to show for it.
> Instead of helping the area rebuild after Hurricane Katrina and the
> people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast get back on their feet,
> McCain actually voted to deny emergency funding to the area, and he
> voted against giving victims of Katrina access to Medicaid and
> unemployment benefits. []
>
> As if it wasn=92t already baffling enough that McCain would even dare
> mention Katrina with a record like that, it=92s especially so right now
> seeing as how just this past Tues the radical pastor John Hagee once
> again reminded the world that he=92s a nut who literally believes that
> Katrina occurred because God damned America, or at least the gulf
> coast of it. Hagee has been saying as much for years in his sermons,
> but McCain has yet to comment on Hagee=92s offensive beliefs about
> Hurricane Katrina and just this past Sun McCain reiterated that he=92s
> =93glad to have=94 Hagee=92s endorsement
>
> I haven=92t seen a worse staged photo-op belied of the facts
since...http:=
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DRO2xi0uLnj8
|
