This is interesting: A good government group is set to ask the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into the two big McCain stories of recent days -- the bundled contributions from Hess executives, and the bundling by Harry Sargeant, the guy who raised cash for McCain from a host of unlikely donors.
The request, which will be made on Monday by Campaign Money Watch, which first flagged the Hess story to us, raises at least the possibility that such a probe could be initiated during the campaign. Barring that, it could keep the stories going in the press a bit.
David Donnelly of Campaign Money Watch confirms to me that they'll make the formal request on Monday, and also is request for a Federal probe in an email that just went out to supporters. Donnelly says that his group's request is being triggered by McCain's letter to the donors whose contributions had been bundled by Sargeant.
Donnelly said that the letter, which advised the donors of the legal ins-and-outs of such contributions, didn't go far enough in trying to determine what had happened.
"What he didn't say was, 'Tell us who was responsible for giving you money to give to me, and we'll urge the authorities to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law," " Donnelly said. "The letter raises the question, 'Is the McCain campaign covering for his bundlers?"
Asked why Sargeant, whose company holds a huge contract to deliver fuel to military bases in Iraq, merited an investigation, Donnelly said: "An executive from a company that has a billion dollar contract to deliver oil to U.S. bases in Iraq possibly violated election law to funnel contributions to McCain. We think that warrants an investigation."
And on the Hess matter, Donnelly said: "An office manager for an oil company that stands to gain millions in profits from offshore drilling makes donations for the first time this cycle to McCain, and did it at the same time nine other Hess donors do. That's worth an investigation."
"Drill here drill there drill everywhere" McCain said:
Extend your oil boring PAIN with your vote for McCain
The Story Of His Life
No adviser is closer to John McCain than Mark Salter, whose prose has shaped how we see the senator. How will the climactic chapter read?
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If the need arises and the range is close, Mark Salter will edit John McCain in midsentence. After 19 years at each other's side, neither man gives it a second thought. When a writer for The New Yorker was interviewing them last year about their latest best-selling book, the talk turned to hockey and the Arizona senator's admiration for Wayne Gretzky, who coaches the Phoenix Coyotes. "Wayne Gretzky is one of the all-time best American athletes!" McCain proclaimed. But even before his boss finished speaking, Salter had spotted a slip-up: the hockey legend is from Ontario. "Yes," Salter interjected, "Gretzky is one of the best American athletes … from Canada!"
But Salter does more than just edit his boss. He channels him—and the results can be amusingly pugnacious, befitting McCain's poke-'em-in-the-snoot style. Or not. In early 2006, McCain was in Europe when Barack Obama rescinded a private promise to join McCain's bipartisan crusade for campaign-finance reform. McCain got the disturbing word from Salter during one of their 10 daily phone calls. They quickly concluded the Democrat needed a sharp response. "Brush him back," McCain ordered. The resulting letter—written above McCain's signature, but not presented to him for a signoff—was so soaked in sarcasm and venom that it drew winces on Capitol Hill. "I guess I beaned him instead," Salter tells NEWSWEEK. McCain wasn't upset, Salter adds, smiling.
Mark Salter calls himself a "friend" to the presumptive GOP nominee, but that doesn't do their relationship justice. He's McCain's speechwriter, former Senate chief of staff, coauthor, biographer and closest adviser; amid the campaign's recent internal tensions, Salter's place at McCain's side has never been questioned. ("The only person closer to McCain is his wife," says former senator Warren Rudman, a longtime friend to both men.) McCain and Salter are stylistically similar and share a world view: they like to operate in intimate settings, with a loyal band of brothers, a clear enemy in sight and an almost joyful fatalism in the face of long odds. Which is a good thing, since they're up against an opponent, Barack Obama, who so far seems more deft, organized, popular and blessed by destiny.
Salter, 53, comes by his love of grit and combat honestly. He grew up in modest circumstances in Davenport, Iowa, the son of a traveling salesman and a teacher. His father had been an Army hero in Korea. Educated in Roman Catholic parochial schools, Salter became rebellious (a streak shared as a youth by the man who would become his boss). He skipped college to work on Iowa railroads and sing in a rock band. After four years, his love of literature and history drew him to local night-school classes and then to Georgetown University. He gravitated to politics and got a job writing speeches for the iciest of cold-war warriors, U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick. At the 1988 GOP convention in New Orleans, a chance meeting with Torie Clarke, McCain's press secretary at the time, turned into a late-night drinking trip to a Cajun juke joint in a dicey part of town. She invited him to write speeches for McCain.
Salter had a life story guaranteed to appeal to McCain—and it did. For his part, Salter was drawn to the hectic informality of McCain's Senate office. "I walked in on that first day and there were interns hanging around, people moving in and out," he recalled. "I thought: great!" McCain, he discovered, was a serious, voracious reader, and soon enough the two men were swapping recommendations. The reading lists tended to run, as they do still, to military history (Edward Gibbon's "The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire" is a mutual favorite), Great Personage biographies, Irish fiction and Hemingway. (Currently, Salter says, McCain is reading the short stories of Somerset Maugham.)
McCain had long had his eyes on the ultimate political prize. But he doubted he could get there until he saw the process up close. He rode shotgun during Bob Dole's 1996 race. Although Dole lost, McCain liked the drama of the conflict. The next year McCain agreed to consider writing an autobiography. The man who made the suggestion, at the instigation of New York agent Flip Brophy: Salter. Until then, McCain had been reluctant to retail his captivity story and had not found a partner to help him. But now he had the perfect Boswell: a sympathetic spirit and excellent writer who had logged thousands of hours with him.
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