Campaign Reform? Straight Talk? Where?

Campaign reform? Straight talk? Not in the McCain campaign. Seems this liberal’s words are from a would be reformer and his talk is from a would be straight talker, but his actions are from the same old style politician with the “Do as I say, not as I do” attitude. In straight talk, he is dishonest and he is sneaky and disingenuous too. Following is a summary of the information from ft.com here via the Drudge Report here.

McCain faces accusations of hypocrisy
By Andrew Ward in Washington
Published: April 18 2008 19:36 | Last updated: April 19 2008 00:29

John McCain on Friday faced accusations of hypocrisy for failing to disclose his wife’s tax records, despite his promise to bring greater transparency and accountability to government.

The Arizona senator declared income of $419,731 in 2007 – a fraction of the multi-million dollar earnings reported by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, his Democratic rivals.

But the disclosure excluded the income of his wife, Cindy, the heiress to a large Arizona beer distribution company, whose wealth is estimated at more than $100m (€63.5m, £50.2m).

Mrs Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, this month reported joint income of $20.4m for 2007, while Mr Obama and his wife, Michelle, declared $4.2m.

Presidential candidates are under no obligation to release tax records but it has become customary to do so as a signal of transparency.

Here is McCain sitting on something like $100 million and he won’t disclose it. I wonder why? What reasons could there be?

How about the fact that he is a millionaire and wants to hide it? Why would one so interested in campaign reform want to hide his worth? Sounds just like John Kerry refusing to disclose his worth. Oh yeah, I remember now, John McCain wanted to be John Kerry’s Democratic running mate in 2004. Maybe they remain close enough to share campaign tricks with each other. I also recall the Kennedy-McCain amnesty bill. Maybe McCain learned even more crooked ways from the master, Ted Kennedy.

How about the fact that the liquor/beer business in his home state of Arizona has long been run by organized crime, or in straight talk, the mob, the mafia? For example, see here. Is the mafia still in control of the liquor business in Arizona? Well you won’t find out about it from the Democrat governor of Arizona or from the Bush Administration’s FBI. No straight talk there either. Curious, but seems that McCain has a lot to hide for some reason and the ambitious governor who wants to be senator has a lot to hide and the Bush Administration who fired the former US Attorney for Arizona apparently has a lot to hide too.

Can anyone ever recall a presidential election with so few choices?