Did John McCain Almost Bankrupt Arizona With His Electric Cars?

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041702b.thumbnail.jpgJohn McCain is up to his neck in the shenanigans behind the Great Financial Crisis of 2008; did you know that he played a role in almost bankrupting Arizona too?

Back in 2000, Arizona came within a whisker of financial collapse and bankruptcy. The cause was a corrupt state Alternative Fuels Program engineered by McCain’s best friend and political protege, Jeff Groscost, then speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives. That program turned

…what was supposed to be a modest $3 million initiative to encourage the use of alternative-fuel vehicles (AFVs) into a half-billion-dollar boondoggle that nearly bankrupted the state and earned it national belly laughs.

Not only was Groscost manager of McCain’s 2000 Arizona Presidential Campaign, the boondoggle legislation was the fruit of McCain’s 2000 Campaign:

Groscost, who has been a paid political consultant to presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, said the campaign was frustrated when it could not find an alternative-fuel vehicle.

Yesterday Newsweek reported that, along with his ten other cars, John McCain owns "three 2000 NEV Gem electric vehicles."

In Arizona, most NEV Gem electric cars are 2000 models sold under the Alternative Fuels program that nearly bankrupted the state. Curiously, John McCain owns three of them. Did he capitalize on the boondoggle his protege crafted to have the taxpayers of Arizona heavily subsidize three new cars?

Obama’s Getting Into McCain’s Contemptuous Head

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Both Jonathan Chait and Daniel Larison have great columns noting the how his contempt for his opponents always fuels John McCain’s campaigns. Jeebus–Larison sounds like bmaz at his crankiest:

McCain exploits the concept of honor and frames every disagreement in terms of honor and dishonor, so it is particularly revealing that he is willing to launch dishonest and dishonorable attacks, because this drives home how much his concept of honor is intertwined with his own visceral reactions to opponents and with his self-interest.  Contrary to the conventional pundit interpretation that McCain has “sold his soul” and abandoned his once-honorable former self, the thing to understand about McCain’s lies in this campaign is that he invests these misrepresentations with his utter contempt for his opponents.  From McCain’s perspective, this infusion of contempt seems to transform shoddy, baseless attacks that disgrace him into indictments of the other politicians (e.g., Romney wants to surrender in Iraq, Obama would rather lose a war than lose an election).  If McCain thinks he is always honorable, resistance to him and his ideas must ultimately be villainous and vicious, and we have seen him deploy his perverse, solipsistic ends-justify-the-means concept of honor against Romney and now against Obama.  McCain’s admirers have largely missed this either because they happened to agree with McCain on policy or because they have mistaken his language of honor and principle to refer to the meanings that they attach to these terms. 

In any public confrontation that McCain has, he strives to show that he has kept faith with the public and his opponents have betrayed the public trust.  This isn’t because McCain is actually some devoted servant of the public interest, but because he has an irrepressible self-righteous streak that he thinks permits him to impugn the integrity of anyone who gets on his nerves or gets in his way.  Hence it was not enough for him to find fault with action or inaction by the SEC–Chris Cox must have betrayed the public trust.  Because McCain’s views are visceral, not intellectual, and he is not interested in policy detail, everything is a morality play, and it goes without saying that he thinks he is the hero. 

[snip]

The important thing about McCain’s lying about Obama and his positions, which he has been doing on and off for months, is not that it marks some great break with a previously honorable campaign style, but that it reveals the completely opportunistic approach to campaigning–and policymaking, for that matter–that McCain has embraced his entire career. [my emphasis]

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Two Tidbits on TrooperGate

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You’ve no doubt heard that the terrorism prosecutor brought in to cover-up TrooperGate lied when he claimed that Walt Monegan was going "rogue" when he went to DC to try to secure funds to prosecute rape.

An internal government document obtained by ABC News appears to contradict Sarah Palin’s most recent explanation for why she fired her public safety chief, the move which prompted the now-contested state probe into "Troopergate."

Fighting back against allegations she may have fired her then-Public Safety Commissioner, Walt Monegan, for refusing to go along with a personal vendetta, Palin on Monday argued in a legal filing that she fired Monegan because he had a "rogue mentality" and was bucking her administration’s directives.

"The last straw," her lawyer argued, came when he planned a trip to Washington, D.C., to seek federal funds for an aggressive anti-sexual-violence program. The project, expected to cost from $10 million to $20 million a year for five years, would have been the first of its kind in Alaska, which leads the nation in reported forcible rape.

The McCain-Palin campaign echoed the charge in a press release it distributed Monday, concurrent with Palin’s legal filing. "Mr. Monegan persisted in planning to make the unauthorized lobbying trip to D.C.," the release stated.

But the governor’s staff authorized the trip, according to an internal travel document from the Department of Public Safety, released Friday in response to an open records request.

The document, a state travel authorization form, shows that Palin’s chief of staff, Mike Nizich, approved Monegan’s trip to Washington D.C. "to attend meeting with Senator Murkowski." The date next to Nizich’s signature reads June 18.

But we knew that was going to happen. This is Vindictive Firing 2, the Farcical Sequel. And we’re moving into the phase where they try to throw lie on top of lie to cover up their original abuse of power. 

I’m more interested, frankly, in the news from Andrew Halcro that Murlene Wilkes did not blow off her subpoena. 

French stated that of the fourteen subpoenas that were issued, six were served and seven were not and the last was for cell phone records for Frank Bailey that had been turned over to the special investigator Steve Branchflower by the cell phone company.

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No, McCain, You ALREADY Fired the FEC Chair

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I can understand why John McCain would be demanding (former) FEC Chair David Mason’s head. After all, before Bush did fire Mason, the FEC Chair was poised to call McCain on his attempts to game the campaign finance system.

The White House today withdrew the nomination of “holdover” FEC Commissioner David Mason to serve as a Commissioner on the FEC. 

The White House dumped Mason after President Bush had twice proposed Mason for the FEC in the last two and a half years, in December 2005 as a recess appointment and in January 2007 as a nominee to the FEC for Senate Confirmation.

The only apparent reason for President Bush to drop Commissioner David Mason at this stage, an FEC candidate he had twice proposed for the Commission, is to prevent him from casting an adverse vote against Senator McCain on important enforcement questions pending at the Commission. The questions deal with Senator McCain’s request to withdraw from the presidential primary public financing system and the consequences of a loan the McCain campaign took out and the collateral provided for the loan.

Under these circumstances, President Bush’s dumping of Mason can only be viewed as a bald-faced and brazen attempt to wrongly manipulate an important enforcement decision by the nation’s campaign finance enforcement agency.

So I’m not surprised McCain called for FEC Chair David Mason’s head rather than SEC Chair Christopher Cox’s head. It was a predictable unconscious slip, one that probably happened because McCain was thinking about scapegoats he could attack to cover up his own complicity and screw-ups.

But I did think I’d be nice and remind McCain that he already got David Mason fired.

The Picture McCain Doesn’t Want You to See

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pastedGraphic2Remember this great post bmaz did last week? Remember this really damning picture of McCain celebrating his birthday with Charles Keating, the villain of the last big taxpayer bailout of unrestrained Republican greed? Here’s the article where bmaz got that photo (download the whole pdf from The Phoenix Gazette, September 12, 1993).

Apparently, that’s a picture and an article that have been all-but buried, until bmaz got a hold of it.

I guess McCain didn’t want any proof out that there he’s been helping big money rip off taxpayers for his entire career.

And that he looks like an idiot doing it.

Tell us again, Senator McCain, about your integrity and independence from the fat cats and lobbyists who cooked the laws that created this financial fiasco, or about your fitness to lead us out of it. I’m all ears.

The First Dude Refuses to Testify

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The former mob and terrorism prosecutor in charge of the TrooperGate cover-up, Ed O’Callaghan, has upped the ante. The McPalin campaign announced yesterday that Todd Palin will not respond to the legislature’s subpoena. It appears that the McPalin campaign did the math, and figured they could avoid any penalties for this contemptuous behavior by suddenly getting cooperative after the elections.

Todd, along with other witnesses, can stall without penalty for months, pushing this investigation well past election day.  To bring contempt charges, which are punishable by a fine up to $500, or up to six months in jail, the full  Legislature must be in session.  That happens after Christmas.

Even assuming the campaign doesn’t catch heat for so obviously obstructing an investigation Sarah Palin once welcomed, I’m not convinced they’ve completely avoided any disclosures before election day. It seems that Steven Branchflower can still release an interim report.

Senate President Lyda Green, a Republican foe of Palin, said Wednesday that the investigation is still on track.

"The original purpose of the investigation was to bring out the truth. Nothing has changed," she said.

Without the testimony, the retired prosecutor hired to head the investigation could still release a report in October as scheduled, based on the evidence he’s already gathered. As of today, Steve Branchflower had interviewed or deposed 17 of the 33 people he had identified as potential witnesses in the probe. [my emphasis]

And it may be that Branchflower has enough already to really hurt Palin.

Note the timing of the McPalin’s recent ratcheting up of their cover-up:

August 30: McPalin campaign says Monegan’s firing was a budgetary disagreement

September 9: The Senior Assistant Attorney General Mike Barnhill agrees to allow state employees would have to testify if they are protected for prosecution for having looked at Wooten’s personnel file

September 10: Palin’s attorney Van Flein calls the investigation unconstitutional

September 12: Investigator Steven Branchflower presents case for subpoenas, including the necessity of subpoenaing Murlene Wilkes, state Workers Comp contractor

September 15: McPalin campaign fixer Ed O’Callaghan announces Palin will no longer cooperate with investigation, cites politicization

September 16: Attorney General un-recuses and reneges on the agreement to have the state employees testify, then leaves for a "vacation" in Kansas 

September 17: O’Callaghan introduces new explanation for Monegan’s firing: insubordination and "rogue mentality"

September 18: Todd Palin refuses to testify

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The Sarah Palin Show Cancels Its West Coast Tour

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Last week, when I noted that the "Palin and McCain" campaign was considering keeping the Palin and her sidekick together on the campaign trail, I noted that they were probably making the choice out of necessity.

Though, really, it’s not so much "chemistry" or "magic." It’s necessity. You can’t promise concert-goers Carrie Underwood and then deliver Lawrence Welk–which is what the McCain campaign will be doing until they get their hot celebrity back on the trail. 

If there was any doubt that Carrie Underwood Palin was the draw on this ticket, the people leaving the rally in OH…

McCain was almost upstaged at the rally here by Palin, who drew rapturous applause from the crowd with her bubbly declaration– twice — that she and McCain were "going to Washington, D.C., to shake things up!”

McCain recited a speech he had given earlier in the day about the need to reform Wall Street. A slow but steady trickle of supporters began to file out after Palin’s speech introducing McCain.

Followed by the people leaving the rally in IA…

"We want Sarah," the crowd began chanting as Palin said, "Thank you,"to begin the rally.

[snip]

McCain starts speaking 18 minutes into the rally.

[snip]

I look up, about five minutes into McCain’s address and see a steady stream of people walking out of the rally. They just came to see Palin apparently.

Ought to disabuse you of any doubts.

So the inevitable has happened–the McPalin campaign appears to have decided to commit to their "one third the campaign rallies" strategy. That’s my best guess, anyway, as to why Palin just canceled next week’s events in California (which wasn’t going to be competitive anyway) and Washington (which, with Palin on the ticket, might be).

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has canceled her planned trip to Seattle.

A spokesman for Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Palin encountered a "scheduling conflict" and would instead be elsewhere, probably in Michigan.

Palin, the Alaska governor picked by McCain as his running mate, had planned to travel to Seattle Sept. 24 for a fundraiser. [my emphasis]

I’d be really happy about this "one third the campaign rallies" thing, if only it didn’t mean that I was going to have to see McCain and Palin traipse through my state every week for the next seven weeks. I hope they’re spending heavily.

Update: Apparently they’ve rescheduled for the first week in October.

What You and I Bought Sarah Palin

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A number of people have pointed to this David Talbot article describing the bordello-red wallpaper Sarah Palin illegally plastered onto the walls of her mayoral office. But that’s not the most important part of the article. While Palin’s poor decorating taste offers one more piece of evidence she abuses power, her decision to redecorate is still an issue between the residents of Wasilla, who paid for the tacky makeover, and their former mayor.

Not so Palin’s reportedly ego-driven decision to build an emergency dispatch center for Wasilla.

Local officials are also highly critical of Palin’s decision to build an emergency dispatch center — even though Wasilla and nearby Palmer already shared the costs of an emergency operation for the Mat-Su Valley. As a result of the duplication, there are now two expensive operations for an area with 85,000 people, while the city of Anchorage, with a population of over 300,000, makes do with one emergency station.

"Don’t tell me about earmarks," snorts a borough official. "Because of Palin’s ego, she couldn’t stand the idea of sharing an emergency dispatch operation with Palmer, which has been Wasilla’s town rival ever since her high school basketball days. So she ran to [Senator] Ted Stevens to get an earmark for her own system. Now we have two expensive emergency systems and both are losing money. She’s no budget cutter — give me a break. She’s just the opposite." [my emphasis]

You see, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, you and I paid $1 million for that dispatch center in 2002, and another $750,000 in 2003, all because Sarah Palin has an insecurity complex about Palmer, left over from her high school basketball days.  It was a terrible policy decision–one the Mat-Su borough, which has to operate the center, is still hemorrhaging money over. And it was decision that owes everything to Palin’s then cozy relationship with indicted Senator, Ted Stevens (immediately after Uncle Toobz got Sarah her dispatch center money, she served as Director of Stevens’ Excellence in Public Service 527, channeling corporate money into the Alaska Republican Party). You and I paid $1,750,000 in Stevens-tied earmarks so Sarah Palin could boast her home town was as good as the town next door.  

As early as seven years ago, Sarah Palin was already corruptly screwing you and me I with her bad policy decisions.

Update: Thanks to brendanx for correcting really stupid grammar Read more →

TrooperGate: Count the Conflicts of Interest

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Wow. In addition to the McPalin campaign’s decision to have a terrorism prosecutor cover up their corruption problem in Alaska, they’ve been shuffling the legal talent in some mighty confusing–and conflicted–ways.

As a reminder, a few days ago we thought the following was the state of the lawyering: Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg, who had spoken to Monegan at Todd Palin’s request before she fired him, had recused himself from the issue. Since Colberg couldn’t represent the Governor, she asked Tom Van Flein to represent her, at state expense. There were reports that Todd Palin had a separate lawyer, which made sense since he and Sarah were involved individually in the case. 

But that’s not how things curently stand. Here’s an update.

First, it appears that Van Flein is still representing both the Palins–though he is no longer employed by the state. Someone else (perhaps McCain’s Sugar Momma?) is paying his fees.

Tom Van Flein, an Anchorage attorney representing the Palins, said a decision could be made by early this afternoon on whether Todd Palin will testify.

[snip]

Van Flein said his firm last Friday terminated its state contract, worth up to $95,000, to represent the governor’s office.

Now, Van Flein said, his firm is representing Todd and Sarah Palin personally and no bills will be sent to the state.

The reason for the change is because Gov. Palin is now part of a national political campaign, and there is a need to avoid any appearance that the state is paying for anything that might benefit a political candidate, Van Flein said.

Asked whether the McCain campaign will help defray legal bills for the Palins, Van Flein replied: "I don’t know the answer to that." [my emphasis]

Now, having the Palins pay Van Flein for their apparent joint defense makes some sense. But it appears that the whole point of having Van Flein there has now been mooted, since Colberg–after having been interviewed in the case–has reinserted himself into the legal decisions here and then reneged on common understanding about who had to testify in response to the subpoenas.

In a Wednesday letter to Colberg, [Kim] Elton said he agreed with Colberg’s staff on certain points of law as a precondition for the attorney general agreeing to allow several state employees to honor the legislative subpoenas to testify.

But on Tuesday, Elton said, Colberg reneged on the deal.

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More on the TrooperGate Cover-Up

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Here’s how Alaska State Representative Les Gara described the latest developments in the TrooperGate cover-up–in which five Republicans sued to stop the bi-partisan legislative investigation and the Attorney General flip-flopped over whether Palin’s staffers have to respond to legislative subpoenas.

It’s silly season up here in the far north, but this week’s moves are aimed at one thing: John McCain’s effort to find cover for being disingenuous. See, before Governor Palin’s nomination for the Republican VP spot, she did the honest thing. She admitted the evidence – of roughly 20 contacts between her staff and husband with Public Safety officials, seeking the firing of Governor Palin’s former brother-in-law – might lead a reasonable person to the conclusion that the she misused her office to fire a state employee. So when Alaska’s Republican-led Legislature called for an investigation, she did the honorable thing and said she and her staff would comply. She denies any wrongdoing.

Things changed on August 29 when Governor Palin was added to the McCain ticket. Since then his handlers have told her she can’t testify. They don’t want the evidence in this case to come out. They don’t want her to testify under oath. They don’t want other witnesses to testify under oath.

So they have engaged in daily maneuvers to attack, as disloyal to the McCain campaign, anyone who wants the investigation to move forward. They’ve now attacked two well respected prosecutors, and perhaps the state’s most highly regarded law enforcement official – the Public Safety Commissioner she hired, and then fired, Walt Monegan.

Every day this week McCain operatives have sung the same tune. Today a guy with an East Coast accent, who knows nothing about Alaska, stood in front of a McCain-Palin banner to lead the attacks against people he doesn’t know. At press conferences on Monday and Tuesday campaign staffer Megan Stapleton spit vitriol to repeat her argument that this investigation is really a "Democratic" attack on Governor Palin.

See, that’s easier than just saying their VP has reneged on her promise to testify. It’s easier than just saying they don’t want anyone testifying before the November election. It’s easier than admitting they are stonewalling a legislative investigation. [my emphasis]

Gara goes on to explain the little details about the Republican majority in the Alaksa legislature that some of us outsiders–particularly in the McCain campaign–seem to be missing. Read more →