What Did McCain Actually Do for Iseman’s Clients?

If John McCain was too close for comfort with lobbyist Vicki Iseman, what did she have to show for it?

The New York Times story made a run at cataloging the possible favors. And with the exception of the letters I noted in my earlier posts, it’s pretty thin gruel.

The Times sums most of it up in a single paragraph (here’s the McCain camp’s point-by-point rebuttal):

A champion of deregulation, Mr. McCain wrote letters in 1998 and 1999 to the Federal Communications Commission urging it to uphold marketing agreements allowing a television company to control two stations in the same city, a crucial issue for Glencairn Ltd., one of Ms. Iseman’s clients. He introduced a bill to create tax incentives for minority ownership of stations; Ms. Iseman represented several businesses seeking such a program. And he twice tried to advance legislation that would permit a company to control television stations in overlapping markets, an important issue for Paxson.

The question naturally arises whether anything is remarkable about this “champion of deregulation” responding to the desires of telecoms and media companies. Was it special attention or typical indulgence? When the Times took a look at McCain’s actions as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee back in 2000, it reached the conclusion that McCain had frequently taken actions benefiting campaign contributors.

Iseman’s client Paxson was a case in point. The company and its lobbyists had contributed $20,000 to McCain and flown him around on their corporate jet. And that was the obvious angle to the stories about McCain’s letters to the FCC in late 1999: that Mr. Straight Talk Express and campaign finance reform was at the beck and call of special interests.

But Paxson was far from unique. The Times also reported that McCain had weighed in on behalf of Baby Bell telephone companies seeking to enter the long-distance business; two of those companies — neither of them clients of Iseman — had contributed a total of $167,000 to McCain.

So while The Washington Post reports that Iseman would frequently tout her access to McCain to other lobbyists, it’s not clear at this point what remarkable favors that supposed access won her.