Why John McCain needs Bob Bennett

Last December 20, when the Drudge Report posted an item about Senator John McCain trying to spike a New York Times story about his close ties to a lobbyist, Senator McCain acted like a man who thought he was in serious trouble.

He could have refused to comment on the report but instead he held a press conference to address it, which became a story in itself.

"McCain responds to Drudge," headlined The Politico. "On Thursday, John McCain responded to an unsubstantiated story on the Drudge Report," Jonathan Martin and Michael Calderone reported. The writers noted that McCain had untruthfully stated he had not personally been in talks with the New York Times; in fact, he had spoken with Executive Editor Bill Keller about the paper's reporting.

The Politico further reported that John McCain had hired Washington power lawyer Bob Bennett to represent him. Mr. Bennett is a criminal defense attorney, named by Legal Times magazine as one of the top ten in Washington D.C.

You had to wonder: What did the New York Times have?

Last Thursday they finally published their report, but there wasn't anything in it to explain John McCain's reaction in December. There was certainly nothing in it to explain why the senator was spending his money on Bob Bennett. And it is his money--Mr. Bennett told The Politico he is representing Senator McCain personally, not the campaign.

You heard right.

The Republican party's all-but-certain nominee for president has a criminal defense lawyer on retainer.

When President Nixon posed for that famous picture with Elvis Presley, no one knew they would someday be the two most-impersonated celebrities in U.S. history.

Let's give Senator McCain the benefit of the doubt and assume that he's not foolish, or paranoid, or stupid.

He has hired Bob Bennett for a reason.

But why?

America Wants to Know was forced to call in its resident detective, Lieutenant Columbo, even though he charges us double-time on Sundays.

"Jack Abramoff," Columbo said.

"Jack Abramoff?"

"Jack Abramoff. The lobbyist. The man who convinced Indian tribes to give him barrels of cash which he delivered all around Washington D.C. in exchange for favors."

"Indian tribes?" we asked. "Wasn't Senator McCain the chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee for a while?"

"Yes, he was," Columbo said. "And he made sure the Indian tribes knew it, too. Once he held hearings on the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act just to remind the tribal chiefs that he was in a position to savage it. Very effective when you need to drum up some campaign contributions."

"Those puns are terrible," we pointed out.

"But not illegal," Columbo said.

"Then why is Jack Abramoff a problem for John McCain?"

"We may find out one of these days," Columbo said. "Jack Abramoff has been very cooperative with federal law enforcement authorities in their investigation into influence-peddling on Capitol Hill. Very cooperative. Last March the U.S. Attorney filed papers with the court asking for a reduction in Abramoff's sentence in a Florida fraud case. He's serving five and a half years right now. Something about a gambling boat."

"You think he could implicate John McCain in some kind of crime?"

Columbo shrugged and reached into the pocket of his trench coat for a small spiral notebook. "Jack Abramoff isn't the only one who's cooperating with prosecutors," he said. "There's a blonde."

"Not Vicki Iseman!" we said, thinking of the lobbyist that the New York Times had just linked to McCain.

"No, another one," Columbo said, leafing through the notebook. "Italia Federici. She ran a Republican environmental group which was actually a conduit for payoffs. She took money from Jack Abramoff's Indian clients and arranged access to officials in the Interior Department. Her boyfriend worked there, he was pretty high up. J. Steven Griles is his name. He went to prison."

"You don't say," we said.

"Yes," Columbo continued. "Italia Federici was convicted on tax charges and also of lying to Senator McCain's committee when he ran the Capitol Hill investigation, if you can call it that, into Jack Abramoff back in the fall of 2005. But in December, she was sentenced to just two months in a halfway house. Prosecutors told the judge she was cooperating with their investigation."

"Did you say December?" we asked.

"That's right," Columbo said. "The news that Italia Federici was cooperating with prosecutors hit the papers on December 14. That's just six days before the Drudge Report ran the item about Senator McCain trying to spike the New York Times story on his ties to lobbyists. And by that time, McCain had already hired one of the top criminal defense attorneys in Washington."

"Thanks, Lieutenant," we said, "you're indispensable."

"Wait, don't you want to hear about Susan Ralston?" Columbo asked as we pushed him toward the door, "and Rick Renzi?"

"Can't afford your weekend rates," we said. "Maybe on Monday."


Copyright 2008

Editor's note: You might be interested in the earlier post, "Shouting 'Fire!' in a crowded file cabinet."

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