He Doesn’t Know When to Fold ‘Em
If this CREW complaint is right, we can credit Johnny for being consistent about one thing, at least; he doesn’t like to make the rich pay any taxes. Especially if the rich that we’re talking about happens to be Johnny himself.
Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) asked the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate whether Senator John McCain (W-LINCOLN S&L) violated federal law and Senate rules by failing to disclose gambling winnings on his Senate financial disclosure reports.
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.In contrast, other members of Congress, including Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), House Minority Leader John Boehner (W-LOBBYISTS) and Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-PA) all reported winnings on their financial disclosure reports.
John McCain appeared to be running a flawless campaign. He had taken away all of the glamour of Barack Obama by choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate and pulled even with Obama in the projection polls.That was before McCain’s ties to groups with gambling interests surfaced. Since that time last week, McCain has fell far behind Obama in the polls and his campaign is now running on fumes.
The timing of the gambling reports also corresponded with McCain suspending his campaign to go back to Washington and help with the economic crisis. That was looked upon as a campaign ploy, and may cause McCain’s doom in this election.
The gambling ties clearly do not help his cause. Although most people in America are coming around to the idea that casino gambling is the future of the country, most of those involved with that thinking are Democrats.
That leaves Republicans that were already lukewarm towards McCain as a candidate. The conservatives had a hard time accepting McCain’s ties to gambling groups. Now, McCain will be fighting for his political life in Tuesday’s debate.
Barring a major mistake by the Obama campaign, it appears he is moving towards running away with the presidential race. Whether the McCain’s gambling ties played into that or not is unknown, but don’t bet against it.
Tags: 2008 election, gambling, mccain, ohio issue 6
October 10th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
At this point, there is no standing in the way of gambling and casinos. Get on board of get run over. 42 of the 50 states have state run lotteries, including Ohio, and 40 of the 50 states have hotel/casinos.
If your state doesn’t have casinos, you can bet the neighboring states have casinos set up just over the state line. Alaska and Hawaii are the only states that can claim to have any physical barriers to their citizens walking across the state line to drop a few coins in the slot machines, roll the dice, or play a few hands of cards.
There was a time when I was against the spread of casinos. They do in fact prey on the compulsive and weak, but they are so invasive now, it is pointless to resist.
If this recession gets bad, look for Nevada’s legal brothels to become the next invasive export. It may be one of the few new employment options.
October 10th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
I agree; banning gambling just doesn’t make any sense when casinos have proliferated near state borders all over the country. And besides, it’s like I said; Clinton County could use this one.