Mr. Straight-talk
(posted by Angelica)
No, not McCain. His good friend, real-estate developer and fundraiser extraordinaire Don Diamond.
Mr. Diamond is close to most of Arizona’s Congressional delegation and is candid about his expectations as a fund-raiser. “I want my money back, for Christ’s sake. Do you know how many cocktail parties I have to go to?”[...]
“I think that is what Congress people are supposed to do for constituents,” he said. “When you have a big, significant businessman like myself, why wouldn’t you want to help move things along? What else would they do? They waste so much time with legislation.” [...]
He said he often complained to Mr. McCain that he was “too straight” about refusing to provide federal help for Arizona businessmen. “I tell him, ‘You are an Arizona senator besides being the world senator. Loosen up, kid!’ ”
It’s true that McCain rebuffed Diamond’s more outrageous requests on occasion ( Diamond once wrote to McCain, “As per our conversation today, I would appreciate it if you would follow up and drop a line to the city manager of Seaside.” That did not go over well.) But it’s unclear whether it’s out of a desire to be honest or simply to avoid the appearance of impropriety.
There’s this…
In the first deal, Mr. McCain was the sole Senate sponsor of a 1991 law authorizing the Department of the Interior to acquire about 2,000 acres of the ranch, which local environmentalists valued at about $5 million but Mr. Diamond and parks appraisers put at around $30 million.
Over the next five years, the government paid him more than $23 million for the land and traded him two parcels of about 50 acres in upscale Scottsdale, Ariz. And the expanded Saguaro also added to the value of the remaining Rocking K land, where Mr. Diamond is still planning to build 3,000 houses along with resorts and golf courses.
When The Arizona Republic linked Mr. McCain’s support for the bill to Mr. Diamond’s fund-raising, Mr. McCain called the implication “outrageous and disgusting.”
In 1994, Mr. McCain sponsored, along with a Senate colleague at the time, Dennis DeConcini, Democrat of Arizona, another law expanding the park by again acquiring land from Mr. Diamond. To carry out the expansion, the Interior Department has so far taken over about 630 acres from Mr. Diamond in exchange for about 4,300 acres near Phoenix.
Last year, Mr. McCain co-sponsored another bill with Senator Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona, that would grant Mr. Diamond about 1,250 acres south of Tucson in exchange for requiring him to contribute about 2,500 acres to other conservation areas — a scaled-back version of a 2003 proposal that collapsed under protests that it was too generous to Mr. Diamond. A Senate committee passed it to the floor this month.
Those land-swap deals are just begging to be abused.
Tags: , McCain