"Straight Talk" Candidate?

An editorial in today's New York Times calls out McCain for making the kinds of shady deals that would bely his persona as the straight-talking politician. As the Times reported last Tuesday, seems that, with all the talk of reforms for campaign finance, he's used his influence in Washington to secure lucrative several land-swap deals for a prominent Arizona real estate developer. In exchange, the developer, Donald R. Diamond, has raised money for McCain over the years, including $250,000 for this presidential campaign.

It's all legal, and it's not unusual, and often the results are positive for all involved. The federal government owns a lot of prime land, land that can support development of homes, business parks, etc. Further, many private landowners hold environmentally-sensitive parcels that can't be developed. These swaps often add to the federal parkland inventory.

The dark side of this, however, is that the land owners often condition these swaps on receiving subsidies, usually on the backs of taxpayers. This makes these land-swaps no different than all the federal earmarks written into the budget every year, such as the now-infamous "bridge to nowhere," a $223 million pork-barrel project in Alaska that brought Republican Senator Ted Stevens some serious grief.

This is also not to say that neither McCain nor the Republicans are alone in this type of influence-peddling. As the editorial points out, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada makes McCain's work look mild in comparison to some of the land-swaps he's orchestrated in his home state.

Still, McCain's running for president as the "Straight-Talk" Candidate. My previous post ought to serve as a prime example of the kind of candor of which McCain is capable. These land-swaps ought to be fully explained, and he ought to lead the way to reform the land-swap process so that it minimizes the impact on taxpayers.

Still, it strikes me as just more of the same from our elected officials. I don't know: it must be the shirts that they all wear, because they sure seem to need an awful lot of back-scratching.