The Arizona Land Deal

We know an awful lot about Barack Obama; he and his wife's finances, his pastor, his ex-Weatherman neighbor down the street (William Ayers), his ties to a corrupt Illinois businessman (Tony Rezko), and his voting record in the Illinois legislature.  Some of it fair.  Some of it not.

John McCain, on the other hand, has gotten a pretty easy ride from the mainstream media.  A story in this morning's Washington Post may signal the beginning of a closer look at Senator McCain. 

Sen. John McCain championed legislation that will let an Arizona rancher trade remote grassland and ponderosa pine forest here for acres of valuable federally owned property that is ready for development, a land swap that now stands to directly benefit one of his top presidential campaign fundraisers.

Initially reluctant to support the swap, the Arizona Republican became a key figure in pushing the deal through Congress after the rancher and his partners hired lobbyists that included McCain's 1992 Senate campaign manager, two of his former Senate staff members (one of whom has returned as his chief of staff), and an Arizona insider who was a major McCain donor and is now bundling campaign checks.

When McCain's legislation passed in November 2005, the ranch owner gave the job of building as many as 12,000 homes to SunCor Development, a firm in Tempe, Ariz., run by Steven A. Betts, a longtime McCain supporter who has raised more than $100,000 for the presumptive Republican nominee. Betts said he and McCain never discussed the deal.

A town official opposed to the swap said other Yavapai Ranch land sold nine years ago for about $2,000 per acre, while some of the prime commercial land near a parcel that the developers will get has brought as much as $120,000 per acre.

Senator McCain has promoted himself as "Mr. Clean" and opposed to the influence of special interests in Washingon, but dances around questions of the same lobbyist's influence on his campaign and the extraordinary number of professional lobbyists working on the McCain campaign.

...when McCain huddled with his closest advisers at his rustic Arizona cabin last weekend to map out his presidential campaign, virtually every one was part of the Washington lobbying culture he has long decried. His campaign manager, Rick Davis, co-founded a lobbying firm whose clients have included Verizon and SBC Telecommunications. His chief political adviser, Charles R. Black Jr., is chairman of one of Washington's lobbying powerhouses, BKSH and Associates, which has represented AT&T, Alcoa, JPMorgan and U.S. Airways.

Senior advisers Steve Schmidt and Mark McKinnon work for firms that have lobbied for Land O' Lakes, UST Public Affairs, Dell and Fannie Mae.

It's entirely appropriate the candidates be fully vetted.  In the mix, sadly, will be some issues that seem superfluous and trivial.  The Arizona land deal and the extent of lobbyist's influence in the McCain campaign are legitimate issues to explore before November.