McCain has a campaign bundler scandal
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
McCain campaign bundler Harry Sargeant III, a Florida Republican, has bundled more than $140,000 in campaign contributions for John McCain, largely from individuals of modest means who have never contributed to a presidential candidate before. While reading what follows, keep in mind that it is illegal for foreigners to contribute their own money to U.S. campaigns.
(In an earlier post Blog For Arizona: The Double Talk Express: McCain is a Fraud on Campaign Finance Reform I reported that the Rothschild family hosted a campaign fund raiser for McCain when he was in London, for which the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch filed a complaint with the FEC, which remains pending).
As reported by Matthew Mosk of the Washington Post Bundler Collects From Unlikely Donors – washingtonpost.com:
The bundle of $2,300 and $4,600 checks that poured into Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign on March 12 came from an unlikely group of California donors: a mechanic from D&D Auto Repair in Whittier, the manager of Taco Bell stores in Riverside, the owners of a liquor store in Colton.
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Harry Sargeant III, a former naval officer and the owner of an oil-trading company that recently inked defense contracts potentially worth more than $1 billion, is the archetype of a modern presidential money man. The law forbids high-level supporters from writing huge checks, but with help from friends in the Middle East and the former chief of the CIA’s bin Laden unit — who now serves as a consultant to his company — Sargeant has raised more than $100,000 for three presidential candidates from a collection of ordinary people, several of whom professed little interest in the outcome of the election.
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The 2008 presidential campaign, which could see each side spend close to $500 million, has heightened the importance of "bundlers" such as Sargeant, who not only write checks themselves but also recruit scores of other donors to give the legal limit of $2,300. Questions about such donor networks have repeatedly emerged as points of stress for the campaigns.
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Some of the most prolific givers in Sargeant’s network live in modest homes in Southern California’s Inland Empire. Most had never given a political contribution before being contacted by Sargeant or his associates. Most said they have never voiced much interest in politics. And in several instances, they had never registered to vote. And yet, records show, some families have ponied up as much as $18,400 for various candidates between December and March.
Both Sargeant and the donors were vague when asked to explain how Sargeant persuaded them to give away so much money.
"I have a lot of Arab business partners. I do a lot of business in the Middle East. I’ve got a lot of friends," Sargeant said in a telephone interview yesterday. "I ask my friends to support candidates that I think are worthy of supporting. They usually come through for me."
Donors reached by phone or interviewed in person declined to explain who asked them to make the contributions.
Ibrahim Marabeh, who is listed in public records as a Rite Aid manager, at first denied that he wrote any political checks. He then said he was asked by "a local person. But I would like not to talk about it anymore."
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[N]adia and Shawn Abdalla, who are not registered to vote, said in an interview that they recalled writing a check to an organization in Miami, because a person with that organization was a friend of their mother’s. They said they could not remember his name.
Nader, 39, and Sahar Alhawash, 28, of Colton, Calif… declined to comment about the donations.
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Abdullah Abdullah, a supervisor at several Taco Bell restaurants in the Riverside area, and his wife have donated $9,200 to McCain.
Reached at work, Abdullah said he knows little about the campaign. "I have no idea. I’ll be honest with you," he said. "I’m involved in the restaurant business. My brother Faisal recommended John McCain. Whenever he makes a recommendation, we do it."
Faisal Abdullah, 49, said he helped organize all of the contributions from members of his family. When he was asked who solicited the contributions from him, he said: "Why does it matter who? I’m telling you we made the contribution. We funneled it through the channel in Florida because that’s the contact we had. I was responsible for collecting it."
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The Real “Celebrity” Politician: John McCain
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
John McCain has released a second swiftboat attack ad on the "celebrity" theme(again designed expressly for consumption by the McMedia – shouldn’t the campaign be charged with the "fair value" of all this free advertising the networks are giving him?)
Maureen Dowd – whom I cannot stand – nevertheless insightfully pointed out in her opinion Op-Ed Columnist – McCain’s Green-Eyed Monster – Op-Ed – NYTimes.com:
Some of McCain’s old pals in the Senate are cringing at what they see as his soulless transformation into what he once scorned.
“John’s eaten up with envy,” said one. “His image of himself was always the handsome, celebrity flyboy.
“Now somebody else is the celebrity,” the colleague continued, while John looks in the mirror and sees his face marred by skin cancer and looks at the TV and sees his dashing self-image replaced by visions of William Frawley, with Letterman jokes about his membership in the ham radio club and adventures with wagon trains.
John McCain parlayed his "celebrity" status as the dashing admiral’s son returning home from a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp as a "war hero" into a political career. He has carefully crafted his "war hero" status over the years. It was his entree into politics, and it has defined his sense of entitlement to high office ever since. McCain believed that he could ride his "war hero" status into the Oval Office, but now along comes this new kid on the studio lot who is younger, smarter, more handsome, and has demonstrated box office appeal. McCain has turned into the embittered has-been actor envious of the rising young star, like Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard:
Joe Gillis: You’re Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big.
Norma Desmond: I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.
And like the demented Norma Desmond, John McCain has been telling us for the past decade, "All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up."
McCain has, in fact, racked up a rather impressive list of television and movie appearances that would make any young up-and-comer actor or actress jealous. The Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB) has what is purported to be a complete list of credits for McCain’s television and film appearances. John McCain (I) Check out this list. With this number of appearances, John McCain must be a member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Union.
McCain’s most notable appearances have been his guest appearances on Saturday Night Live. Particularly in 2002 when he hosted SNL. McCain played the creepy husband "Dave" who was freaking out his wife. After the Sturgis Bike Rally this week, I’m sure Cindy McCain can relate to the freaked-out wife in this skit.
I searched for clips of the episode on YouTube, but oddly enough the embed codes for the posted clips have been disabled at the request of the poster.
