McCain in a nutshell: How he skirted McC/Feingold for Big Cable:

[blondeatlast]

I've said it before and I'll keep saying it--there's lots of local dirt the nationals don't know (I can't find the EXCELLENT East Valley Tribune's story on this mess--it requires a subscription but if any of my subscribing locals can find it, 'twould be much appreciated--from 2005 IIRC):

John McCain, the media's darling, has found a clever way around his own campaign finance reform law to take big corporate bucks in furtherance of his political ambitions while carrying water for the corporate mammoth providing the dough. But the national press is ignoring the story.

The Associated Press first ran the story of John McCain's odorous but lucrative Senatorial service to the communications giant Cablevision on the afternoon of March 7. But, while some local papers in McCain's home state (like the East Valley Tribune) have run the story, nothing has as yet made it into the print editions of the New York Times, the L.A. Times, the Washington Post, or any of the half-dozen other big city dailies I checked (although, if one searches the hundreds of AP stories available on the Post's website on its Politics page by clicking on "Latest Wire Reports," one can find it there--but how many readers would bother to do that?) One notable exception: the Kansas City Star.

LOTS MORE.
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0309-35.htm

EDIT: Found a local story from KVOA-TV, Tucson--very good:

Sen. John McCain pressed a cable company's case for pricing changes with regulators at the same time a tax-exempt group that he co-founded solicited $200,000 in contributions from the company.

Help from McCain, who argues for ridding politics of big money, included giving the CEO of Cablevision Systems Corp. the opportunity to testify before his Senate committee, writing a letter of support to the Federal Communication Commission and asking other cable companies to support so-called a la carte pricing.

Cablevision is the nation's eighth largest cable provider, serving about 3 million customers in the New York area.

The pricing plan is opposed by most of the cable industry. It would let customers pick the channels they want rather than buy fixed-price packages. Supporters, like McCain and Cablevision, say it would lower prices for consumers, but recent congressional and private studies concluded it could make cable more expensive. (more)

I'll periodically try to give you some local stories the big boys ignored. there's plenty but it requitres work since so much happened pre-internet.

[DCKit]

1. And I'm still waiting for an updated expose on the Keating Five.

Some MSM outlet needs to breathe life back into McCain's not so distant checkered past.

For all his populist rhetoric and (seemingly) moderate stance, McCain is filthy dirty with corporate money and just another "Do as I say and not as I do" political hypocrite.

A friend of mine with an innate and accurate talent in reading people, told me in 2000 that McCain scared the shit out of him. He didn't make his pronouncement easily, either. He watched McCain carefully, for months, becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the thought that McCain might become POTUS.

[blondeatlast]

2. It'sll take some digging, but some local sources you might

want to periodically check out:

New Times (this is the nationwide alternative weekly, but its roots are from the late 60s right here). They're no friend of McC from way back in the S&L days:

http://news.phoenixnewtimes.com/

East Valley Tribune (from hardcore Mormon Mesa, AZ with exceptionally good investigative reporting; they've never liked McCain):

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/

Jana Bommersbach, and exceptional investigative reporter who started with New Times and now works for Phoenix Magazine mostly:

http://www.janabommersbach.com/

Again, I'm going to post some of his past as I run across them, but a lot are from that obsolete newspaper thing, so it could get time-consuming.

[onenote]

3. the cable story has been picked up since 2005 --- and its largely bullshit

For example, US News and World Report ran a story about the supposed Cablevision/McCain connection in May 2007 http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070520/28mccain_3.htm

and the Washington Post ran a story about on December 31, 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/30/AR2007123002848_pf.html

The only problem is that the story is largely bullshit.

The supposed favor that McCain has done for Cablevision is supporting pro-cable regulation requiring cable operators to offer programming on an "a la carte" basis. Well, the only problem with that theory is that the cable industry as a whole, including Cablevision, is vehemently opposed to McCain's push for such regulation.

Yes, Cablevision's president testified before the Senate COmmerce Committee in 2003 while McCain was chairman and made a contribution to a McCain-backed tax-exempt a few months later. But Cablevision has never supported mandatory a la carte, which is what McCain wants. Cablevision believes -- and has repeatedly stated in filings at the FCC -- that the government should not require a la carte but should adopt policies that make it easier for cable operators to offer services a la carte if they want to. McCain, on the other hand, has been pushing for mandatory a la carte since the late 1990s. In 2003 McCain tried to use Cablevision as a prop to support his position because earlier that year Cablevision had stood up to YES, the NY Yankees network, and refused to carry YES unless it could be sold a la carte at Cablevision's discretion. McCain's attempts to treat Cablevision as a supporter of mandatory a la carte ultimately, I believe, led Cablevision to write to McCain telling him that they did not share his support for mandatory a la carte.

I'm no fan of McCain, but the suggestion that he was doing a favor for Cablevision and the cable industry by supporting a policy that he has long supported and that both Cablevision and the cable industry in general not only don't support, but actually strongly oppose, makes no sense.

[blondeatlast]

4. That was how he responded to his involvement in the Lincoln savings disaster.

"I didn't do anything I wouldn't have done anyway." No pass on that one, sorry.

I still live in the heart of the Keating 5 debacle. McCain's as crooked as hell; he's just shrewd and has powerful,
shrewder friends.

US News and World Report? Please.

[onenote]

5. non-sequitur response

As I said, I'm no fan of McCain. But the problem with this story is that it assumes that he and Cablevision had the same goal when, in fact, Cablevision was opposed to what McCain was trying to do.