Under the premise that Obama has not been fully forthcoming, John McCain is raising on Bill Ayers every chance he gets (except to Obama’s face).
GIBSON: Do you think the relationship with Ayers is a critical issue in this campaign or factor in this campaign?
MCCAIN: I think it’s a factor about Sen. Obama’s candor and truthfulness with the American people. That’s what I think it’s about. As I say, I don’t care about Mr. Ayers who on Sept. 11, 2001 said he wished he’d have bombed more. I don’t care about that. I care about him being truthful about his relationship with him. And Americans will care.
But here are some of the things that John McCain hasn’t been forthcoming about himself.
There’s his own relationship with terrorists–McCain didn’t disclose his ties to the Contra-funding US Council for World Freedom.
As a freshman congressman in the early 1980s, John McCain did not disclose his connections to a controversial group that was implicated in a secretive plot to supply arms to Nicaraguan militia groups during the Iran-Contra affair.
McCain did not list his service on the board of the U.S. Council for World Freedom on mandatory congressional disclosure forms asking about positions he held outside government.
McCain’s aides said he wasn’t required to report the affiliation.
[snip]
McCain joined the board of the U.S. Council soon after Singlaub founded it in McCain’s adopted hometown of Phoenix in November 1981 as the U.S. branch of the World Anti-Communist League. The league billed itself as a supporter of "pro-Democratic resistance movements fighting communist totalitarianism," but it had also been branded by critics as a haven for extremists, racists and anti-Semites.
[snip]
A review of the personal financial disclosure forms McCain filed after his election to the U.S. House in 1982 show that he did not list the group in the section of his 1982, 1983 and 1984 reports in which he was required to disclose all positions he held outside of government.
The instructions on the form require filers to report "the identity of all positions held on or before the date of the filing during the current calendar year as an officer, director, trustee, partner, proprietor, representative, employee, or consultant of any corporation, firm, partnership, or other business enterprise, any nonprofit organization, any labor organization, or any educational or other institution." [my emphasis]
And despite his noted big money gambling habit, McCain has never reported any gambling winnings on his Senate disclosure reports.
Today, CREW filed a complaint against Senator John McCain (R-AZ) with the Senate Ethics Committee. CREW wants that committee to investigate whether Senator McCain violated federal law and Senate rules by failing to disclose gambling winnings on his Senate financial disclosure reports. In contrast to House rules, Senate rules allow outsiders to file ethics complaints. Senate rules also require the Ethics Committee to conduct a preliminary inquiry of the complaint. A copy of our complaint can be found here.
According to a recent article in The New York Times , Sen. McCain is an avid gambler, who frequents casinos as often as once a month. The article states that in the winter of 2000, at the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut, “[Sen. McCain] and his entourage emerged with thousands of dollars in winnings.” Sen. McCain also reportedly spent a weekend at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2007, playing craps while there.
In July, Time reported that over the past decade, Sen. McCain has gambled on Mississippi riverboats, on Indian land, in Caribbean craps pits and on the Las Vegas strip, allegedly playing “for a few thousand dollars at a time.” In 2005, The New Yorker reported that while in New Orleans in the spring of that year, Sen. McCain gambled at Harrah’s Casino.
Federal law and Senate rules require all income to be reported on annual financial disclosure reports. The Senate Ethics Manual states that winnings, such as those derived from a lottery or a game show, are gifts that must be reported as income. Knowingly filing a false report is a crime punishable by up to five years in jail.
Nevertheless, Sen. McCain reported no income derived from gambling on the personal financial disclosure reports he filed with the Senate between 2000 and 2007. [my emphasis]
I guess it’s possible that McCain has never ever won in the last seven years of gambling. But unless he’s a colossal loser throwing Sugar Momma’s money away in amounts that could fund entire families for a year, then he should have noted the spoils of his gambling habit. (It’s worth noting: although prosecutors seem determined to throw their case against Toobz Stevens, he was charged for not disclosing gifts on his disclosure reports.)
Looks like McCain ought to do a little disclosure himself before he starts lecturing Obama.