*PIC* McCain boarding Raffaello Follieri's YACHT. Oh my!

[underpants]

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080929/berman_ames

The McCain-Follieri Love Boat
The Maverick and the Celebrity Con Man

John McCain has been hammering rival Barack Obama for being little more than a vapid "celebrity" and "elitist." But The Nation has obtained a photo revealing just how star-struck a straight-talking maverick can become when offered the chance to celebrate his birthday aboard a yacht filled with celebrities--even if one of those celebrity types turns out to be an A-list con man.

The photograph substantiates reports that in late August, 2006, McCain celebrated his 70th birthday aboard a yacht, the Celine Ashley, rented by A-list con man Raffaello Follieri and his then-movie star girlfriend Anne Hathaway. In the current edition of Vanity Fair, Michael Schnayerson reported that Follieri rented the Celine Ashley for the month of August 2006. Montenegro's leading daily
newspaper, Vijesti, earlier reported that during McCain's visit in 2006 he celebrated with birthday cocktails and sweets aboard the Celine Ashley yacht. In the photograph, taken in Montenegro at the end of August, McCain is shown boarding the yacht ramp towards the smiling Follieri and Hathaway. Just ahead of McCain and shaking hands with Follieri appears to be Rick Davis--McCain's top aide and now co-manager of his campaign, who accompanied him on the trip and advised the government of Montenegro. A few months after McCain's yacht party, Follieri strengthened his ties to McCain's orbit by retaining Rick Davis's well-connected Washington lobbying firm, Davis Manafort, and offering Davis both an investment deal and help in securing the Catholic vote for McCain's presidential bid.


Follieri Pleads Guilty in Fraud Case
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122106170549019693.html?mod=%20googlenews_wsj

[formercia]

1. Crusader connections.

http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/update/bn022206b.htm

A well-wired firm
If events of recent months are any measure, access to Vatican officials doesn't come cheaply.

On Nov. 9 at the Met Life Building's Sky Club restaurant in Manhattan, more than 200 prominent Catholics gathered for an evening fundraiser to support the Path to Peace Foundation, the charitable arm of the Holy See's Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations. The night's honoree, winner of the Foundation's Path to Peace Award, was Fra' Andrew Bertie, Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Previous winners of the award include former U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros Gali and his successor, Kofi Annan, former Phillipine President Corazon Aquino, and former Polish President Lech Walesa.

The Follieri Group was one of two "benefactors" of the event, the highest level of giving noted in the event's program. Seated at Pasquale Follieri's table were Jean-Pierre Mazery, Grand Chancellor of the Knights of Malta, who accepted the award for Bertie; Archbishops Celestino Migliore, the Vatican's permanent observer at the UN, and Gabriel Montalvo, then the Vatican's ambassador to the United States; and Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

The following week, Raffaello Follieri and Andrea Sodano visited the Capitol Hill Hyatt Regency Hotel in Washington, site of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops annual meeting. An escalator ride up from the general assembly meeting room, the Follieri Group maintained a hospitality suite for bishops. At that meeting, by a vote of 222-2, the bishops agreed to seek Vatican approval for an amendment to church policy that would allow large dioceses (those with more than 500,000 Catholics) to sell or mortgage properties for up to $10.3 million without Rome's prior consent. The previous $5.1 million limit, said those supporting the change, was increasingly cumbersome in the go-go real estate market affecting U.S. dioceses nationwide.

[autorank]

6. Do I detect the hint of a looming budget crisis coming

Hope the didn't fiddle with that money. I guess they can just call Paulson. He'll come through;)

[formercia]

7. Paulson will do anything to protect the $700 Million in stock he holds

in Goldman Sachs.

I'd be happy with a Million tax free. With my lifestyle, I wouldn't know how to spend that kind of money, even with the puny 3 or 4 percent it would earn that won't even come close to covering inflation.

Some people are just greedy. Nobody needs $700 Million, nobody.

[thoughtcrime1984]

2. Wow, what a "maverick"!

Vapid and elitist are qualities that should be trademarked by John McCain. An empty shell of a man. UNFIT TO LEAD.

[Pattib]

3. Who's elitist John??

[usregimechange]

4. What an elitist!

[Quantess]

5. The celebrity con man!

McCain seems to have a far reaching network of con men.

[HughBeaumont]

8. This will be a blip . . .

. . . but all they had to do with Kerry was picture him windsurfing and most of Fox-wings-n-pork rinds Peter Griffin Americans agreed in unison he was an out-of-touch coastal elitist. Then they voted for Bewsh and two years later they got fired.

IOKIYAR.

[Midlodemocrat]

9. Okay, I know it is due to his POW treatment, but doesn't McCain

look like a complete knuckledragger in that pic? Seriously, it looks as though his knuckles will be scraping the gangplank.

[formercia]

10. Securing the Catholic vote?

I guess there are a lot of Bishops on the take as well.

http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/update/bn022206b.htm

[merh]

11. just goes to show you what a poor judge of character he is

and how he has issues with birthday celebrations.

[firedupdem]

12. He's a crook just like the rest of them. We need the Obama/Biden

duo in the whitehouse or we are really really screwed! McCain has no clue about how regular people live...he's been in that lifestyle for 30 years.

[LynneSin]

13. Important to know this about Anne Hathaway

She is an ardent Obama/Biden supporter. She was questioned about Follieri's dealing but found to know nothing and has been charged with nothing. She dumped the asshole when she found out what was going on.

She really is an innocent bystander in all of this