Broadcaster contradicts McCain denial

WASHINGTON – Broadcaster Lowell “Bud” Paxson on Friday 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 in 1999 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, likely attended the meeting in McCain’s office and that Iseman helped arrange the meeting. “Was Vicki there? Probably,” Paxson said in an interview Friday. “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 the McCain campaign about the two letters at the center of a controversy over the senator’s ties to Iseman, a partner at the lobbying firm of Alcalde & Fay.

The McCain campaign said Thursday 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 campaign said in a statement.

But Paxson said Friday, “I remember going there to meet with him.” He recalled that he told McCain: “You’re head of the Commerce Committee. The FCC is not doing its job. I would love for you to write a letter.”

McCain attorney Robert Bennett played down the contradiction between the campaign’s written answer and Paxson’s recollection.

“We understood that he (McCain) did not speak directly with him (Paxson). Now it appears he did speak to him. What is the difference?” Bennett said. “McCain has never denied that Paxson asked for assistance from his office. It doesn’t seem relevant whether the request got to him through Paxson or the staff. His letters to the FCC concerning the matter urged the commission to make up its mind. He did not ask the FCC to approve or deny the application. It’s not that big a deal.”

The Paxson deal, coming as McCain made his first run for the presidency, has posed a persistent problem for the senator. The deal raised embarrassing questions about his dealings with lobbyists at a time when he had assumed the role of an ethics champion and opponent of the influence of lobbyists.

The two letters he wrote to the FCC in 1999 while he was chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee produced a rash of criticism and a written rebuke from the then-FCC chairman, who called McCain’s intervention “highly unusual.” McCain had repeatedly used Paxson’s corporate jet for his campaign and accepted campaign contributions from the broadcaster and his law firm.

McCain himself in a deposition in 2002 acknowledged talking to Paxson about the Pittsburgh sale. Asked what Paxson said in the conversation, McCain said that Paxson “had applied to purchase this station and that he wanted to purchase it. And that there had been a numerous-year delay with the FCC reaching a decision. And he wanted their approval very bad for purposes of his business.”

The deposition was taken in litigation over the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law filed by Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. The contradiction in the deposition was first reported by Newsweek on Friday afternoon.

“I said I would be glad to write a letter asking them to act,” McCain testified, recounting the conversation with Paxson. “But I cannot write a letter asking them to approve or deny, because then that would be an interference in their activities.”

Iseman’s connections to McCain have come into question this week after a longtime associate of McCain’s said that he had asked Iseman to distance herself from McCain and his 2000 presidential campaign to protect McCain’s reputation for independence from special interests.

McCain acknowledged during a news conference on Thursday that Iseman was a friend, but he denied doing anything improper for her or her telecommunications clients.

Paxson defended Iseman as a complete professional and said she was at her best when she worked on the Pittsburgh deal. He said they turned to McCain often when they ran into interference at the FCC, but Paxson added that McCain did not always agree with him. In three other major issues, Paxson said, McCain took the opposing viewpoint.

Paxson had used Alcalde & Fay as his lobbying firm in the 1980s when he founded and ran the Home Shopping Network, an enterprise that he later sold. In the mid-1990s, when he launched a plan to create a new national network, he stayed with Alcalde & Fay.

In the early 1990s, when Iseman joined the firm, she became Paxson Communications’ chief lobbyist, Paxson said. Paxson, now known as ION Media Networks, has paid Alcalde & Fay more than $1 million since 1998.

Paxson saw no particular significance in the meeting with McCain before his penning the FCC letters. “Vicki Iseman, probably between myself and (Paxson Communications President) Dean Goodman at that time, took us in to see a thousand senators and congressmen,” Paxson said. “She was our lobbyist. She was there and helped.”