McCain Campaign Ad: Wanted, Economic Surrogate

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Now that we’ve become a socialist country (strike that–an 80% socialist country) under George Bush and now that McCain himself is channeling Herbert Hoover, the McCain campaign has a surrogate problem.

They’re actually fairly lucky–Phil Gramm, the architect of this year’s economic meltdown, had already gotten hidden away somewhere after he called us all a nation of "whiners." Had he still be out campaigning for McCain, it’d have made it a lot easier for us to explain how electing McCain (and putting Phil Gramm in charge of Treasury) would only exacerbate our economic crisis, since Gramm’s the guy who caused it in the first place.

But then yesterday, McCain’s top domestic advisor, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, claimed that John McCain had invented the blackberry. Holtz-Eakin is still out there boasting of McCain’s great accomplishments, but his credibility has declined from that of a carnival huckster to that of a clown.

On the same day, Carly Fiorina stepped in it too. She already was a terrible surrogate to talk about the economy. After all, she failed as CEO of HP. More importantly, one of the McCain campaign’s responses to this economic meltdown is to attack CEOs–like Fiorina–who devastate their company but still get multi-million dollar golden parachutes.

But things got worse yesterday. Fiorina–who after McCain spotlighted in an attempt to have a woman, any woman, defending Sarah Palin’s qualifications to be Veep–trotted out and asserted that Palin is not qualified to run a corporation. And for that matter, John McCain isn’t either. Somehow that comment, not Fiorina’s qualifications as a poster child for wasteful golden parachutes, was enough for the McCain campaign to start canceling Fiorina’s speaking engagements. 

McCain might have any of the number of highly-connected 170-odd Republicans running his campaign. Then again, seeing as how Obama’s making effective ads pointing out that McCain’s campaign is being run by the same special interests McCain claims he’ll take on, that doesn’t help McCain either. 

So who’s that leave? I understand Mitt Romney was out touting McCain’s ability on the economy last night. But given that Mitt agrees with the rest of the world that McCain is a pathological liar, Mitt isn’t the best surrogate for McCain either.

I gotta say, it’s a testament to how bad this economic crisis is when you’ve got a Republican candidate for President who can’t find an appropriate economic surrogate.

Michigan Dems and the Obama Campaign Sue for Foreclosure-Related Vote-Caging

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The Michigan Democratic Party and the Obama campaign just finished a conference call announcing that they will sue the Republican Party for its plans to conduct vote-caging operations this fall, based partly on using lists of people in foreclosure to challenge peoples’ right to vote (here is Time’s recording of the call). They are seeking an injunction to prevent the GOP from engaging in these activities this year.

The move arose out of a Michigan Messenger story last week which quoted a county party chair, on the record, as saying he planned to use foreclosure lists as a basis for vote-caging.

The chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County, Michigan, a key swing county in a key swing state, is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP’s effort to challenge some voters on Election Day.

“We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses,” party chairman James Carabelli told Michigan Messenger in a telephone interview earlier this week. He said the local party wanted to make sure that proper electoral procedures were followed.

State election rules allow parties to assign “election challengers” to polls to monitor the election. In addition to observing the poll workers, these volunteers can challenge the eligibility of any voter provided they “have a good reason to believe” that the person is not eligible to vote. One allowable reason is that the person is not a “true resident of the city or township.”

The Michigan Republicans’ planned use of foreclosure lists is apparently an attempt to challenge ineligible voters as not being “true residents.”

When asked whether they had more evidence that the GOP planned to engage in this kind of voter-caging this year, MDP Chair Mark Brewer and Obama Campaign General Counsel Bob Bauer referred to the changing story among different members of the MI GOP–that stop short of real denials, of similar statements coming from an OH county chair, and of a former MI Republican Counsel, Eric Doster, admitting the party did plan on doing vote caging, though perhaps using returned mail.

The campaign explained the goals of their suit this way:

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Sarah Palin’s Evolving Excuses for Firing Walt Monegan

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As each new event plays out in TrooperGate, I can’t help but shake my sense of deja vu: the scandal is so much like the US Attorney purge I feel like I’ve already seen it before.

Today, that sense of deja vu comes from watching Sarah and the McPalin campaign keep changing the reasons they give for why Palin fired Walt Monegan. Andrew Halcro has a detailed chronology, from which I’ve done this summary:

February 29: Palin "really liked" Monegan, except regarding issues pertaining to her former brother-in-law

July 14: "Wanted to change leadership"

July 21: Palin wanted "more of a focus on trooper recruitment and fighting drug and alcohol abuse in rural Alaska" (though she had offered him a job doing just that)

August 13: Monegan wanted too much money for funding (he was fighting to get the funding the Governor had asked for)

September 15: Monegan had a "rogue mentality" (including, specifically, he went to DC without telling Palin in hopes of getting increased funding to fight sexual assault)

Now think of the changing reasons for the firings in the US Attorney purge:

David Iglesias:

  • Referred to as an "up and comer" in 2004
  • Immediately after the firing, DOJ accused Iglesias of being an "absentee landlord" (which would have made the firing illegal, since Iglesias traveled to serve in the Navy Reserve)
  • Later, they claimed Pete Domenici had asked Gonzales to be fired in calls in late 2005 and early 2006 (in fact, Domenici was asking whether Iglesias had the resources he needed
  • The real reason for the firing appears to be twofold: first, that Iglesias wasn’t prosecuting enough voter fraud (though Iglesias was considered a top expert on voter fraud within the department), and second, that Iglesias wouldn’t indict a top Democrat before the 2006 election

John McKay

  • DOJ claimed they fired McKay because he was insubordinate to Paul McNulty in championing a records-sharing system, LiNX
  • Later, they suggested McKay was too negative when trying to find the killer of one of the AUSAs in his office
  • As late as August 2006, McKay was considered for a federal judgeship
  • The real reason for his firing appears to be his unwillingness to push baseless voter fraud cases

Paul Charlton

  • DOJ complained that Charlton fought to tape FBI interviews in child-molestation on reservations (though they had approved a test program for doing so)
  • Gonzales complained that Charlton challenged one death penalty decision

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A Republican from Wasilla

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No, not Sarah Palin. That’s not the Republican from Wasilla I’m referencing. Rather, I’m thinking of Charlie Huggins, the guy who waltzed in from moose hunting to cast the decisive vote in favor of subpoenaing all the people the McPalin campaign had convinced to stop cooperating in the TrooperGate investgation. The final vote to subpoena those who withdrew their cooperation after Sarah Palin became the Republicans’ best hope to retain the White House was 3-2, with Huggins joining two Democrats; the original vote to launch the investigation was a unanimous 12-person vote.

But the McCain campaign, in explaining why the Governor will no longer deliver the cooperation she earlier promised, now claims the investigation is "tainted," in spite of the fact that the investigation retains bipartisan support.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is unlikely to meet with a special prosecutor looking into whether she or other state officials improperly pushed to punish a trooper, a spokesman for John McCain’s presidential campaign announced Monday.

Since Palin was named as McCain’s running mate Aug. 29, the campaign has dismissed the state legislature’s investigation into her dismissal of the state’s director of public safety, saying that Democrats are exploiting the probe for political gain.

McCain campaign spokesman Ed O’Callaghan said that Palin is "unlikely to cooperate" with the investigation, which he called "tainted."

And remarkably, I don’t think they’re talking about the evidence that the investigator believes a state contractor lied to him because she had a "financial incentive" to do so. 

Nope, I just think they believe this is tainted for the same reason they think every real question about Palin’s qualifications is "sexist." Because McCain’s campaign depends on hiding how unqualified Sarah Palin is to be Vice President–not least because of a long, documented problem with abuse of power.

Sort of makes you wonder whether the Republican from Wasilla, Charlie Huggins, voted to subpoena the witnesses involved in the cover-up precisely because he knows the  abuse of power Sarah Palin is capable of?

Update: Huggins’ spelling corrected per FrankProbst.

Will the McPalin Campaign Ask Carly Fiorina to Give Her $42 Million Back?

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John McCain and Sarah Palin both came out today to condemn CEOs who get golden parachutes. Here’s McCain:

We will stop multimillion dollar payouts to CEO’s who have broken the public trust.

And here’s Palin:

We’re going to reform the way Wall Street does business and stop multimillion-dollar payouts and golden parachutes to CEOs who break the public trust.

Seems to me McCain could put that campaign promise into effect right away. One of his top advisors, Carly Fiorina, laid off 20,000 HP workers, oversaw huge losses, and engaged in corporate spying. Sure sounds like she "broke the public trust" to me. And for her troubles, HP gave her $21.4 million in severance pay, plus another $21.1 million in stock options and other benefits. 

Over $42 million for–as John McCain describes it–breaking the public trust.

Call John McCain’s campaign at (703) 418-2008 and demand that McCain stand by his promise to stop this practice. Ask him to demand this his campaign advisor, Carly Fiorina, give back her loot to HP’s stockholders. 

John McCain Still Living The Keating Five Lush Highlife

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John McCain was never the principled steadfast man his false front public image painted him to be; although it is true that he really has been in a downward spiral of dishonor and deception during this year’s campaign. Even many of his staunchest supporters in major media are starting to realize the brutal truth for what it is. Joe Klein, Andrea Mitchell, Chris Matthews, a host of journalists at ABC, Andrew Sullivan … each day brings a familiar voice admitting that they can no longer harmonize the McCain persona with the truth in front of them. Thank you to each and every one of them, and welcome to my world. As a native Arizonan I have been witnessing what you are now realizing since John McCain plopped his carpet bag down and set up shop here in our state.

John Sidney McCain III would have you believe his Charlie Keating Five Scandal days of corruption and influence peddling are all a thing of his distant past and that he is some sort of legendary reformer now. Nothing could be further from the truth, he is still hard deeply entrenched in the lavish, exotic trappings of swag and influence peddled by the modern day equivalents of Charlie Keating.

In fact, new reporting by Ari Berman and Mark Ames of The Nation, in their article The McCain-Follieri Love Boat, which just hit the presses at the end of last week details how McCain has spent yet another birthday, his 70th, vacationing with a criminal con artist, Hollywood celebrities and big money lobbyists on a yacht in Montenegro. It shows what Arizonans have known all along: McCain is still the same old glad handing, do anything to serve his own raw ambition, politician who celebrated his birthdays with Charlie Keating and other power brokers at Keating’s private Bahamas resort two decades ago.

Before we delve into the recent foray of John Sidney McCain III into political influence swag land, a refresher on McCain’s malfeasance in the Keating Five Savings & Loan Scandal is in order. From a Keating Five Scandal retrospective by The Arizona Republic:

McCain already knew Keating well. His ties to the home builder dated to 1981, when the two men met at a Navy League dinner where McCain spoke.

After the speech, Keating walked up to McCain and told him that he, too, was a Navy flier and that he greatly respected McCain’s war record. He met McCain’s wife and family. The two men became friends.

Charlie Keating always took care of his friends, especially those in politics. McCain was no exception.

In 1982, during McCain’s first run for the House, Keating held a fund-raiser for him, collecting more than $11,000 from 40 employees of American Continental Corp. McCain would spend more than $550,000 to win the primary and the general election.

In 1983, as McCain contemplated his House re-election, Keating hosted a $1,000-a-plate dinner for him, even though McCain had no serious competition. When McCain pushed for the Senate in 1986, Keating was there with more than $50,000.

By 1987, McCain had received about $112,000 in political contributions from Keating and his associates.

McCain also had carried a little water for Keating in Washington. While in the House, McCain, along with a majority of representatives, co-sponsored a resolution to delay new regulations designed to curb risky investments by thrifts such as Lincoln.
…
The first meeting, on April 2, 1987, in DeConcini’s office, included Ed Gray, chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Read more →

The Fundamentals of the Economy Are Strong?!?!? A New Twist McCain and “Psychology”

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The shit is hitting the fan on Wall Street today, as century-old banks suffocate under the weight of the Big Shitpile, AIG is hemorrhaging under its Fannie and Freddie holdings, and experts are holding their breath to see whether there’ll be a run on other investment firms. As the NYT WaPo describes, the consequences of today’s collapses will be monumental.

The U.S. financial system this weekend faced its gravest crisis in modern times, as regulators resorted to triage on Wall Street to contain the spreading damage from a meltdown in the housing and mortgage market. 

Two of the world’s biggest investment banks, Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers, appeared almost certain to disappear, Merrill into the arms of banking behemoth Bank of America and Lehman into bankruptcy. American International Group, once the country’s largest insurer, was seeking a financial lifeline. This came just seven days after the government took over housing finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

For all the drama of the weekend, these were the first steps — but far from the last — in finding a fundamentally new architecture for the financial world. The titans of Wall Street have, over the past 72 hours, been forced to reckon with the reality that the financial sector they built is, in its current form, too big, uses too much borrowed money and creates too much risk for the broader economy.

But in spite of the crisis, John McCain thinks the fundamentals of the economy are still strong.

"You know," said McCain, "there’s been tremendous turmoil in our financial markets and Wall Street and it is — people are frightened by these events. Our economy, I think, still the fundamentals of our economy are strong. But these are very, very difficult time. And I promise you, we will never put America in this position again. We will clean up Wall Street. We will re- reform government."

Between that claim, and McCain advisor Donald Luskin’s claim yesterday that "Things today just aren’t that bad," I can’t help but remember when, earlier this year, McCain repeatedly claimed that our economic problems were all psychological. Just pretend it’s not bad, McCain seems to believe, and it’ll all go away.

Though, given the scope of today’s crisis, I’m more worried about what this says about McCain’s psychological health than his lectures to us that our economic problems are all in my head. Read more →

John McCain and Sarah Palin Wallowing in Oil

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I noted the other day that John McCain had falsely claimed that Sarah Palin was governor of the state that provided 20% of the nation’s energy.

Now aside from the fact that McCain is wrong about his claim that Alaska provides 20% of our energy supply (it provides 20% of our oil, relatively little–at least thus far–of our natural gas, and insignificant amounts of coal, nuclear, wind, or solar power), he’s basically arguing that a guy like George Bush has the national security qualifications to be President.

And we saw how well that worked out. 

All in all, I’d say, McCain’s making a great case for voting against Sarah Palin.

Apparently, the woman McCain says more about energy than anyone else in the country–Sarah Palin–believes the same erroneous thing.

GIBSON: But this is not just reforming a government. This is also running a government on the huge international stage in a very dangerous world. When I asked John McCain about your national security credentials, he cited the fact that you have commanded the Alaskan National Guard and that Alaska is close to Russia. Are those sufficient credentials?

PALIN: But it is about reform of government and it’s about putting government back on the side of the people, and that has much to do with foreign policy and national security issues Let me speak specifically about a credential that I do bring to this table, Charlie, and that’s with the energy independence that I’ve been working on for these years as the governor of this state that produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy, that I worked on as chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, overseeing the oil and gas development in our state to produce more for the United States.

GIBSON: I know. I’m just saying that national security is a whole lot more than energy.

PALIN: It is, but I want you to not lose sight of the fact that energy is a foundation of national security. It’s that important. It’s that significant.[my emphasis]

 Here’s FactCheck.org correcting McCain and Palin (and me–turns out I was too generous to Alaska in my earlier post):

Palin claims Alaska "produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy." That’s not true.

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What Did the TrooperGate Investigator Mean When He Said “Financial Incentive”?

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There’s a potential bombshell hidden at the end of USAT’s story on the subpoenas about to be issued in TrooperGate:

Branchflower said he needed subpoenas to interview several Palin aides who had been in meetings about the matter. And in one case, he said, he needed to compel the interview of a state contractor whom he said may have lied to him.

Murlene Wilkes owns Harbor Adjusting Services in Anchorage, which has a contract with the state to process workers’ compensation claims, Branchflower said. She told him the governor’s office did not pressure her to deny a claim for Wooten, he said. But in August, one of her employees called a tip line and claimed there indeed was such pressure, Branchflower said.

"I remember at some point in the conversation she had mentioned or said something to the effect that either the governor or the governor’s office wanted this claim denied," Branchflower quoted the tipster as saying. "I don’t care if it’s the president who wants this claim denied, I’m not going to deny it unless I have the medical evidence to do that."

Wilkes may have had a financial incentive to cover up, Branchflower said. Wilkes did not respond to a voicemail left at her office Friday afternoon. [my emphasis]

As a reminder, when Frank Bailey called State Trooper Lieutenant Rodney Dial in February to pressure him about Wooten, Bailey mentioned "funny business" about a workers comp claim Wooten had submitted–basically that days after Wooten submitted the workers comp claim, he was caught on a snowmobile. Bailey also suggests that Wooten may have hid a pre-existing injury on his Trooper application.

It sounds like someone from the Governor’s office called the workers comp contractor, Murlene Wilkes, gave her this information, and pushed her to deny the coverage on that basis. Wilkes refused to deny the claim. But when Wilkes spoke with Branchflower, she said the Governor’s office had not pressured her. [Update: Andrew Halcro has some on this.]

And Branchflower says, "Wilkes may have had a financial incentive to cover up." Sure, it may just be that Wilkes didn’t want to lose the contract with the state, and so didn’t admit the pressure to Branchflower. Branchflower may just mean that Wilkes decided, on her own, not to piss off Sarah Palin.

But it sure makes you wonder whether someone made the threat of losing the contract explicit. 

When McCain Says “Victory” in Iraq, Is He Lying About THAT, Too?

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It’s now apparent that the McPalin campaign will lie about anything: earmarks, foreign travel, crowd size, even who paid for Meghan’s Prius. As the Obama campaign asked today, "is there anything the McCain campaign isn’t lying about?"

Is it possible that McCain’s bravado about how well Iraq is going is all a lie, too? According to Bob Woodward, that may well be the case.

Woodward’s latest book about the Iraq war, "The War Within," portrays McCain as offering a rosy assessment to the public about the surge’s progress while privately telling U.S. officials he thought the country was on the brink of losing the war.

The book describes McCain’s press conference after visiting the Shorja market in Baghdad in early April of 2007. After touring the market — protected by more than 100 soldiers — McCain said, "Things are getting better in Iraq, and I am pleased with the progress that has been made."

McCain was widely mocked for those statements later after television crews showed the level of protection surrounding him at the market.

But what was not known at the time was how different his private assessment of the war was.

According to Woodward, McCain was invited to visit with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice after he publicly made the positive comments at the market. "Rice had expected him to reiterate his optimism, but after some pleasantries, he let loose," Woodward writes.

"We may be about to lose the second war in my lifetime," Woodward quotes McCain as saying to Rice. Woodward writes that McCain "launched into a full-throated critique of the State Department’s role" in the war effort. [my emphasis]

Now, after the WaPo published this story this morning, the McCain campaign issued a rebuttal.

McCain campaign senior advisor Mark Salter sought to clarify McCain’s position Saturday afternoon. "Senator McCain returned from Iraq and met with Secretary Rice to discuss the concerns of U.S. officials in Iraq that the personnel the State Department had sent to Iraq were too few and too junior," he said. "He expressed to Secretary Rice the same opinion of the surge’s prospects he had expressed in public. It would be tough, but it was the last and only chance for the U.S. to succeed in Iraq."

Of course, given the McCain campaign’s pathological inability to tell the truth, there’s no reason to believe Salter’s refutation in any case. But note what Salter didn’t do: fundamentally challenge the story that McCain "let loose" with Condi.

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