John McCain enjoys the protective bubble of his fawning McMedia

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Sen. John McCain once again is enjoying the protective bubble of his fawning McMedia. Same as it ever was, same as it ever was.

Case in point. U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Hayworth charged Sen. John McCain with hypocrisy in the ongoing scrap over lobbyists, and demanded the incumbent release a list of lobbyists who have benefitted from his service. Pueblo Politics: Hayworth demands McCain disclose lobbyist ties:

In recent weeks, McCain has bludgeoned Hayworth for his short tenure as a lobbyist following his 12-year congressional career, saying Hayworth can’t run as the anti-establishment outsider if he’s been the consummate insider.

But Hayworth released a series of new web videos designed to give his side to what he calls McCain’s misleading attacks.

[You can view the videos at Sonoran Alliance: Arizona Politics for Conservatives » JD Hayworth’s Straight Talk on John McCain’s Negative Attacks "If the mainstream media will not do their fact checking, the campaign will be glad to do it for them."]

The trio of videos feature Hayworth simply talking to viewers. In one, he apologizes for his work on an infomercial pledging free government money. In the others, he defends his lobbying stint and his record on earmarks.

Today, Hayworth called on McCain to disclose his ties to D.C. lobbyists who are running his current campaign and funding his campaign efforts.

“I don’t have multi-million dollar lobbyists hanging on my coat sleeves bankrolling my campaign, but John does,” Hayworth said in a statement. “The voters deserve to know just which K-Street lobbyists are depending on a McCain win. It's certainly not the people of Arizona.”

* * *

Hayworth called on McCain to provide constituents with a “complete list” of lobbyists who have benefited from his service.

Fair enough. McCain's presidental campaign was run by a "who's who" of K-Street lobbyists, several of whom have stayed on to run his senate reelection campaign and who have been with him for years. This kind of challenge is to be expected.

McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said that … he found it ironic Hayworth would highlight lobbyists, when his name was tarnished for his association with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Hayworth was never charged with anything, but racked up large legal fees fending off a federal investigation.

“The fact is, there’s only one Washington lobbyist on the ballot this August and that’s J.D. Hayworth,” Rogers said. He said there would be no list, since “none” have benefitted from McCain’s service. “Sen. McCain makes decisions based on what’s in the public interest,” he said.

Wait, that's it? That's the whole story? I thought maybe it got cut off, but no. A McCain spokesman issues a blanket denial and that's it, end of story? No detailing the claims made by Hayworth in the videos or fact checking his claims?

This is the Arizona Daily Star's "speak no evil" policy regarding John McCain in action. There were major news stories in the New York Times and Washington Post during the 2008 presidential campaign – some involving McCain's ties to lobbyists – for which the Star may have been the only newspaper in the country that failed to publish those stories. David Safier and I reported the Star's censored news coverage at the time. John McCain For Sale (Censored News); McCain Gets a Pass From Arizona News Media – Update.

J.D. Haworth had his Jack Abramoff scandal, but it was John McCain who covered up the corruption by Republican members of Congress with Jack Abramoff. The Cover-ups of John McCain – Abramoff & the GOP Foreign Money Machine (Excerpts of investigative report by Mark G. Levey, "Senator McCover-up: Abramoff & the GOP Foreign Money Machine.")

Of course, John McCain had Charles Keating and the "Keating Five" scandal that almost ended his career. This scandal was related to the BCCI scandal and the collapse of the savings & loan industry. The Cover-ups of John McCain – Saudi Bank Raiders and Junk Bond Kings (Excerpts of investigative report by Mark G. Levey,"McCain's 30-Years of Service to Saudi Bank Raiders and Junk Bond Kings.")

John McCain had a scandal for doing special favors for the telecommunications industry when he was chairman of the commerce committee. The Long Run – For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk – Series – NYTimes.com (John McCain intervened on behalf of Glencairn, Ltd. and Paxson Communications, now Ion Media Networks, clients of lobbyist Vicki Iseman. This front page story on McCain is an excellent summary of his ethics troubles.)

John McCain had a scandal for intervening on behalf of EADS with the military's air refuling tanker. McCain, Lobbyists and the Air Tanker Deal; Update: John McCain for Sale: The K Street Candidate.

And there were the special favors McCain did for land developers who are major campaign contributors. A Developer, His Deals and His Ties to McCain – New York Times (Don Diamond of Diamond Ventures); McCain Pushed Land Swap That Benefits Backer – washingtonpost.com (Steven Betts of SunCor Developments).

Blog for Arizona has reported all of these stories, and more. But you have not read these stories in the pages of the Arizona Daily Star.

John McCain always gets a pass for his scandalous indiscretions because his fawning McMedia adore him.