McCain's world

Two stories of interest about the Arizona Senator.

A Developer, His Deals and His Ties to McCain.

For John McCain, who has pledged to avoid even the appearance of dispensing favors for donors, Donald R. Diamond is the kind of friend who can pose a test.

This is rich. Pun intended.

Mr. McCain’s letter of recommendation reinforced Mr. Diamond’s selling point about his McCain connections as he pursued — and won in 2005 — a potentially much more lucrative deal to develop a resort hotel and luxury housing.

Not to be outdone, Mr. Diamond weighed in: Mr. Diamond, for his part, said Mr. McCain had only done his job. “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.”

This should be great fodder during the general election campaign

Oh, it gets better. McCain Tax Cuts Would Bloat Deficit Or Take Huge Spending Curbs.

This guy is nuts. Sen. John McCain is proposing tax cuts that would either cause the federal deficit to explode or would require unprecedented spending cuts equal to one-third of federal spending on domestic programs. Altogether, he proposes more than $650 billion in tax cuts a year, much of it benefiting corporations and upper-income families. That includes the cost of extending tax cuts implemented under President Bush that he voted against twice.

And how will he pay for all this? To help pay for it all, the Arizona senator says he would cut $160 billion a year from a federal discretionary budget that totals a little more than $1 trillion. He hasn't specified where the cuts would come from.