McCain is now caught in a direct lie. This could cause Huckabee to win all the remaining primaries you know, and the Romney delegates would go to him too, as well as many McCain delegates if it looks like Johnny Mac is pulling a Rudy.
Paxson Contradicts McCain Campaign on Meetings
Broadcaster Says He Met with Senator Several Weeks Before Letters to FCC Were SentBy James V. Grimaldi and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, February 22, 2008; 6:58 PM
Broadcaster Lowell "Bud" Paxson today contradicted statements from Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign that the senator did not meet with Paxson or his lobbyist before sending two controversial letters to the Federal Communications Commission on Paxson's behalf.
Paxson said he talked with McCain in his Washington office several weeks before the Arizona Republican wrote the letters to the FCC urging a rapid decision on Paxson's quest to acquire a Pittsburgh television station.
Paxson also recalled that his lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, attended the meeting in McCain's office and that Iseman helped arrange the meeting. "Was Vicki there? Probably," Paxson said in an interview with The Washington Post today. "The woman was a professional. She was good. She could get us meetings." The recollection of the now-retired Paxson
conflicted with the account provided by McCain about two letters at the center of a controversy about the senator's ties to Iseman, a partner at the lobbying firm of Alcalde & Fay.
A statement issued by the McCain campaign yesterday said that the senator had not met with Paxson or Iseman on the matter. "No representative of Paxson or Alcalde and Fay personally asked Senator McCain to send a letter to the FCC regarding this proceeding," the statement said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/22/AR2008022202634.html?hpid=topnewsABOUT BUD PAXSON:
We learned that the plane is registered in Clearwater, FL. to “CLASSIC DESIGNS OF TAMPA BAY INC,” owned by Lowell W. Paxson, one of the founders of Home Shopping Network, as well as the founder of Christian broadcast network PAX-TV.
While this explains the “PX” in the plane’s tail number, it does nothing to suggest why the FBI and the 9/11 Commission do not want the American people to know that a plane owned by a Christian broadcast network was saving Saudi Royal bacon in Vegas one week after 9/11.
“Pax passeth all understanding” was the snarky headline in a London Financial Times story about the network. “Bud Paxson found God in a Las Vegas hotel room and now runs America's newest television network,” reported the paper.
Calling Paxson “a mogul inspired by the Lord,” the story stated, “While work is his calling and his pleasure, Paxson said he does try to have some fun with his money. He and his second wife, Marla, live in a $ 12-million, 35-room oceanfront mansion, and each drives a Rolls-Royce. His is black, hers white. He also owns three airplanes, a 132-foot yacht and a considerable collection of autographs of former U.S. presidents, kings, queens and entertainers. Among his collection are the signatures of Abraham Lincoln and Ozzie and Harriet.”
While PAX-TV has since faded from the ether, it was apparently quite a show while it lasted. TV reviewers had a field day:
“Taking refuge on Tuesday's weekly show is Brett Butler, whose escalating self-destruction prompted ABC to cancel Grace Under Fire in 1998. Looking puffy and pasty, she's playing a benevolent waitress in "Angels, Once in a While."
“Pax bills it as her "much-anticipated return" to TV,” read one typical summation. “Yeah, we've all been on pins and needles.”
The Christian network apparently had an affinity for faded stars with or without documented substance-abuse problems: Stacy (cocaine bust) Keach and Anthony Michael (detox) Hall. Rod Steiger, Teri Garr, Marlee Matlin, Joe Piscopo...
The unlikeliest one-time star appearing on God-fearing, "friend of the family" Pax-TV and plumping for the Lord: Andrew Clay Silverstein AKA “The Diceman,” the former Andrew Dice Clay.
Church of Christ, Palm Beaches
When Paxson moved to Florida's east coast, he had trouble finding a church home. So he became the “creator” of an instant new mega-church in Palm Beach, Florida:
“Christ Church of the Palm Beaches.”
When a deal to buy the Palm Beach Jai Alai fronton to house the unfortunately-named church fell through, he bought actor Burt Reynolds dinner theater in Jupiter, Florida.
Jesus must have been thrilled.
When Pax-TV fell on hard times, it changed its name to ION-TV, and was bought out by a Chicago hedge fund, Citadel Investment Group
http://www.madcowprod.com/07312007.html