ELECTION 2008
McCain linked to influence peddling claim
Broadcaster says nothing happened until he hired lobbyist, made donation
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Posted: February 25, 2008
10:30 pm Eastern
© 2008 WorldNetDaily


Edwin L. "Eddie" Edwards Jr.

Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee for president, has been linked by documents and testimony to another alleged case of what critics are calling influence peddling, this time involving a minority broadcaster in Pittsburgh.

The New York Times last week published a major, controversial expose that insinuated McCain had a romantic relationship with telecommunications lobbyist Vicki Iseman, whose clients had a large stake in decisions made by the Senate Commerce Committeee McCain headed. The report, however, was denied by McCain and widely discredited for lack of evidence.

Now come the allegations from groups including the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics in Washington.

They concern Eddie Edwards, an African-American broadcaster who wanted to get the Federal Communications Commission off his back but found little support in Washington for his situation a few years ago.

The then-president of Glencairn Broadcasting Properties had been using so-called "local marketing agreements" with other broadcasters to get around FCC rules forbidding one company from owning two TV stations in the same city.

But the FCC planned to close the broadcast-ownership loophole, and Edwards sought the help of politicians.

According to his own testimony, it wasn't until he decided to give $4,000 in personal donations to Sen. John McCain, who at the time was chairman of the powerful Senate Commerce Committee, and another $40,000 to a then 30-year-old Iseman, that anything happened.

Edwards confirmed in a recent interview that he was only able to get an audience with McCain after retaining Iseman to lobby on his behalf.

McCain's campaign maintains the senator's efforts to retain the loophole were not done in response to any specific request. His campaign did not respond to specific WND requests for comment on the latest issue.


Vicki Iseman

Shortly after Edwards retained Iseman and made a donation to McCain, the senator fired off three letters to the FCC regarding the issue, including one in which he threatened to try to overhaul the licensing agency if it closed the loophole.

After that word from the senator, who then was chairman of the committee that oversaw broadcasting and telecommunications and had sway over the FCC budget, the agency backed off.

McCain has crusaded against lobbyists and special interests over the course of his career. Most recently, he rebuked Bush administration officials and fellow Republican lawmakers over the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.

But records reviewed by WND show that Edwards, who normally contributed to Democrats, gave $4,000 to McCain at the time of the senator's letter-writing campaign.

He also paid Iseman's firm an initial $40,000 to lobby the Senate specifically regarding "local marketing agreements" and "minority broadcast issues," according to page one and page two of a 1999 Senate lobbying report filed by Iseman.

(Story continues below)


Government watchdog groups, including the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington, say the case smacks of influence-peddling, and mirrors the previously reported situation involving McCain, Iseman and another broadcaster also operating TV stations in Pittsburgh.

The Pittsburgh connection

In that case, as McCain was raising money for a presidential bid in 1999, broadcaster Lowell "Bud" Paxson sought McCain's help with the FCC, which seemed to be leaning against his quest to acquire a Pittsburgh TV station.

Like Edwards, Paxson hired Iseman for an initial $40,000. He also gave generously to McCain's campaign.

FEC records show Paxson and his family, at the time, contributed $9,000 in political donations to McCain. He and his wife donated an additional $10,000 to McCain's PAC, Straight Talk America.

Moreover, executives of Paxson Communications (now Ion Media Networks) kicked in another $11,000 directly to McCain's campaign, bringing the total in contributions at the time to $30,000. (In 2003, Paxson and his wife gave another $6,000 to McCain.)

Paxson says Iseman arranged a one-on-one meeting with McCain, a meeting his campaign denies took place – although McCain himself admitted in a 2002 sworn deposition involving the case that "I was contacted by Mr. Paxson on this issue" and "I spoke with him, yes."

At Paxson's and Iseman's request, McCain pressured the FCC in two separate letters to hurry a decision on the broadcaster's acquisition – an intervention the FCC chairman at the time called "highly unusual."

Records show that the day before McCain sent a second letter to the FCC on Dec. 10, 1999, Paxson flew McCain on his private four-engine jet to Florida, where McCain attended a fundraiser aboard a yacht in West Palm Beach arranged by Iseman and hosted by the head of a cruise line she also represented.

Carnival Cruise Lines chief executive Micky Arison, another client of Iseman, chipped in $1,000 at the time for McCain's campaign, FEC records show. (In 2006, he gave an additional $1,000 to Straight Talk America.)

Then, after the fundraiser and the letter was sent, Paxson flew the senator on his company jet from Florida to Washington.

Five days after receiving McCain's second letter, the FCC voted 3 to 2 to approve the acquisition deal. Paxson Communications, based in West Palm Beach at the time was the largest owner of independent TV stations.

Asked in the deposition if Iseman or other lobbyists accompanied him on the corporate jet trips, McCain replied: "I do not recall."

However, Iseman joined McCain on a Paxson jet at least in February 1999, according to reports, when they attended a small fund-raising dinner with several of her clients at Arison's home in the Miami area.

While McCain acknowledges in the deposition that "there could possibly be an appearance of corruption," he insists he "did not ask the FCC to act favorably for Mr. Paxson" but simply pressured it to hurry a decision, and therefore "was not doing anything wrong in any way."

According to documents (page one and page two, reviewed by WND, Iseman and her lobbying firm, Alcalde & Fay, currently are billing Paxson at four times the rate – $160,000 – at which the company was billed last decade.

McCain has legislated in favor of several other Iseman clients on issues dealing primarily with minority broadcast ownership. Here is the full list of her clients, who have contributed close to $100,000 to his campaigns, gleaned from Senate lobbying disclosure reports she and her firm have filed:



American Maglev Technology

AMFM Inc. (Clear Channel Communications) Arison Family Trust (founder, Carnival Cruise Lines) AstraZeneca BearingPoint Inc. CACI International Inc.

CanWest

Capstar Broadcasting Partners (Clear Channel) Carnival Corp.

City of Miami, Fla.
City of Palm Springs, Calif.
Click Radio
Computer Sciences Corp.
Future Leaders of America
Glencairn Broadcasting Properties (Pittsburgh) HFF Inc. (Pittsburgh) Hillsborough County, Fla.
Hispanic Broadcasting Inc.
Homer-Center School District (Pittsburgh area) i2Telecom
International Indiana University of Pennsylvania Foundation (Pittsburgh area)
Ion Media Networks (formerly Paxson Communications)
Jovan Broadcasting Latona Associates Marin County, Calif.
National Stroke Association
Operation Warm
Paxson Communications (now Ion Media)
PriceWaterhouseCoopers
RP International
Saga Communications Inc.
Sinclair Broadcast Group (in partnership with Glencairn)
Telemundo Network Group Total Living Network Tulare County, Calif.
Univision Communications
Walter Industries
In addition, Iseman has acquired a number of major Hispanic-owned businesses as clients. McCain sponsored a "comprehensive immigration reform" bill that would grant amnesty to millions of Hispanic immigrants living illegally in the U.S., even though Republicans in his border state of Arizona strenuously opposed the measure.

Asked in last week's press conference when he last had contact with Iseman, McCain replied: "It was several months ago; I think I ran into her at some event." He did not elaborate.
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