VEGAS, BABY, VEGAS

Just a few short days after the strangest presidential election in U.S. history I was as far away as you could get from the seriousness of vote counting on the east coast. I was walking along the ‘The Strip’ in Las Vegas with Mayoral Chief of Staff Tony Carbonetti, his girl Carol Dorian, and my Senior V.P Luke Cusack. We were doing some afternoon casino hopping when Tony’s cell phone rang. “Hey John, what’s up,” Tony said. “It’s Weaver,” he whispered to Carol.

Without much difficulty I now knew it was Sen. John McCain’s chief political operative, John Weaver. Weaver was someone Tony had grown to know as Rudy and Tony had gotten close to McCain. “Well tell him I’m in Vegas. Tell him to come over. Bring Cindy. I’ll take care of everything at the Bellagio. Not to worry about anything. Weaver, tell him to come. Carol wants to see him. Tell him that. OK. Let me know.”

“What’s the deal?” I asked. “It seems he’s in Sedona, bored and was looking for me. He should come. We’d have a blast. Let’s go back to the hotel I want to go to the VIP Office, just in case,” Tony said. We were all in Las Vegas for the annual COMDEX Convention. HDC, the corporation I ran had a heavy IT component to it. Luke was in charge of that department. I talked Tony into coming because part of his domain at City Hall was Administration. And MIS (management information systems) fell under him.

It was a junket, no two ways about that, but at least we could rationalize it. He loved gambling and while I didn’t gamble much he and I had a routine developed over years of hanging for hours at the blackjack table where he played for hundreds often thousands a hand and I watched. He and I had been to Atlantic City together dozens of times and the Bahamas for vacation on half a dozen occasions. As Tony didn’t drive I was always driver on the Atlantic City trips until he got a city car and driver. From then on, Eddie, his city driver, would provide his travel to Atlantic City in his official tricked out Ford Expedition with a complete police package. I was always concerned there would be a story about that considering how often he went, but there never was.

On our way back to Tony’s hotel, McCain called and said that he and Cindy would be arriving the next day. Tony and Carol were both very excited as they had spent time with the McCains before. I thought this could be a fun and potentially interesting two days being as this was happening smack in the middle of the Florida recall madness. We were still spending what free time we had watching Ashley Banfield explain new military vote counts and Tim Russert wiping down tiny white boards. What kind of mood would McCain be in amidst all this? After all, it might have been him. Many thought, should have been him.

It was Luke’s last night and we had a great steak dinner at the Venetian. He was heading home for his birthday. We had toured COMDEX but mostly we enjoyed being in Vegas; me, more than Luke. Vegas was not Luke’s town. But we always had a good time together and had been traveling together for business for nearly five years. We met up with Tony and Carol for a performance of ‘0’ at the Bellagio and Tony checked one last time at the VIP Office to confirm that all was OK with McCain’ s reservations.

The next day after spending the morning doing office work on the phone and computer, I met up with Tony in his room at his hotel. “Where’s Carol?”  I asked. “She’s shooting craps with McCain,” he told me. I laughed. “Really?”  “Oh Yea,” he said. “They’ve done this before. He loves for her to throw the dice. He keeps her there for hours.”

Carol Dorian was a very lovely blonde with a fun-loving, good time, easy-going, good-natured, attitude about life. She was going to make Tony an excellent political wife if he ever asked her, which she wanted desperately. She had one small annoying habit which was that she always called him “Baby”. It was less annoying coming from her than from another woman, but she said it a lot. I remained a huge Carol Dorian fan. If he could bring himself to propose and stop cheating on her theirs might be one great political marriage.

I had been with him through a string of terrible girlfriends; including the Whitney disaster. Whitney Todd was Gov. Christie Todd Whitman’s niece for whom he had purchased a ring and proposed. She of course declined.  What a cheating bitch she turned out to be. We all hated her. She cheated on him and lied and did it again. And he kept going back. She had him on a string for two years.

He dated one girl named Meredith. He dated her for two weeks and yet had forgotten or never knew her last name. He was of course now embarrassed to ask. Naturally, I proposed an idea. I had not yet met her. He would introduce me. Everyone knew I did not abide these new informal ways; I always introduce myself by my full name. I would do so with Meredith and she would be forced to reciprocate. He said great idea. We rushed out of his apartment and walked down Fifth Ave to Benetton, where she worked.

We walked in and Tony said, "Meredith this is my friend, Russell.” In a loud voice, enunciating clearly, I said, “Russell Harding, great to meet you.” She responded weakly, “Hi, I’m Meredith.” I even followed with, “I didn’t catch your last name.” But she had moved on from me and was on to Tony. Oh well.

We found Carol at the craps table shooting for McCain. It was sure a funny sight. He was calmly urging her on and the other gamblers were calling her by name telling her which point to hit. She was hitting it too. Tony told me that McCain really believed that Carol was lucky.

After a few minutes of this Tony said, “John, Carol’s gotta go with us for the day.” The crowd groaned. I laughed. It was a surreal thing. “No, no.  She has to stay and roll for me,” McCain pleaded. “No John, I have to go with the boys,” Carol told him. At this point Tony introduced me. We left shortly thereafter.

We spent the day casino hopping, gambling and shopping. When I dropped them back off at their hotel I had to retrieve something from their room. Making our way through the casino to the elevators, sure enough what should we see but Sen. McCain shooting dice. “Jesus Christ”, I said. “How can he do that? He’s been standing there for eight straight hours.” “That’s nothing,” Tony reminded me jokingly. “He was at the Hanoi Hilton for five years.” “Wow, that’s true,” I said somberly, remembering who I was with. Standing for eight hours must be nothing for him.  After going back to my hotel and changing, I returned to meet Cindy McCain and the rest. It was my first exposure to McCain with the larger public as we made our way through the crowds.

We were on our way to the Mirage to see Siegfried and Roy. As we made our way out of the hotel the reaction was the same, “Senator it should be you.” Or they would say “Next time, Senator.” That was the universal sentiment heard over and over again. McCain was very at peace outwardly about all this and seemed able to be analytical. He would say “My friends, we have to focus on this election.” Or if he were faced with a republican asking him a hostile Bush question, “My friend, we have to support the party.” If people asked about a particular state in the news, New Mexico for example, he would stop and give his best, honest appraisal. He would mention Bush if appropriate and didn’t seem overtly hostile. No bitterness came from him ‘publicly’. That would come privately and only briefly at dinner.

We had a very fine booth at the show and had our picture taken. It was all very cheesy. But even kitsch has its place – Hey it’s Vegas. McCain seemed taken afterward with how they achieved some of the tricks and we discussed it. When we got outside Tony approached a limo as the cab line was very long and Cindy was on a cane having recently undergone hip surgery. Tony flashed a wad of bills, mentioned McCain’s name (the money did more than the senator’s name) and we were off to dinner at Prime.

I enjoyed talking to him because I had worked in the Senate for two years. We discussed my old boss, Al D’Amato - he clearly did not care for Alfonse. I think he was holding that against me at the beginning of our dinner conversation. Then the subject turned to campaign finance. I tread very carefully here. Rudy supported McCain-Feingold although I had written him briefing memos when I worked at City Hall explaining why he should oppose it.

Campaign finance reform as McCain articulated it was a virulent form of restraint of speech.  Clearly unconstitutional as far as my understanding went and I had made an impassioned plea to Rudy against it when I had written his briefing memo for his first meeting with McCain. I had tried to win him over subsequently but Rudy like on so many issues of national and foreign policy importance with which he has no interest, just went along because somebody asked him a favor; in this case McCain during their first meeting at City Hall. He gave it no thought and said “Sure.” It was in no way in keeping with a larger Giuliani philosophy, if there were one.  But McCain asked and he said “No Problem.” A terrible way to make policy and so completely different than how he approached policymaking on local matters.

I asked McCain about the prospects for the legislation. I didn’t mention Sen. McConnell (R-KY), its chief opponent, but McCain launched into a vicious diatribe against him. He clearly hated the man. Had no respect, not only for his position on the issue, but for his intellect. “He’s an idiot,” McCain said. “His tactics are abhorrent.” McConnell was a hero to me. Anything he did to fight against this nonsense was ok by me. But I was being polite, so I said nothing provocative. We talked a lot about the election, Rudy issues, and Tony and McCain did some business.

The funniest part of the evening came at the end of dinner when Cindy McCain announced her hip was hurting her and she was going to skip desert and go upstairs. Carol said, “I have some really good painkillers upstairs, let me get them for you.” Tony and I shot each other looks. What could she be thinking asking her that? “No, no honey”, Cindy said. “I’m fine; I’m just going to bed. John, you stay here.” “No, really”, Carol persisted, “they’re really good painkillers. It’s no problem. I’ll walk out with you. I can get them.” I kicked Tony hard. “Honestly, Carol, I’m fine. Thank you,” Cindy said. She got up and walked out. McCain followed to use the men’s room.

Tony was always, at all times, patient with Carol. “Carol, during the campaign Cindy revealed she had had an addiction to painkillers. It became a big campaign issue,” he explained. “She actually stole them from a hospital she worked in to feed her habit at one point,” I added. “Oh my God,” Carol exclaimed. “I can’t believe I was pushing them on her.” Tony and I started cracking up. “God, you wouldn’t stop,” Tony said. Carol hit him in the arm. “Baby, stop. It’s not funny. I kept going on and on. I wouldn’t shut up.”  Tony and I just kept laughing.

McCain came back and we changed the subject. We spent the next hour sipping coffee, aperitifs and talking about the campaign just past. McCain finally opened up on his feelings about the Bush Campaign and the election albeit briefly and said, “I’d like to think I would have closed this deal without this God awful mess.” Although he considers himself first and last a patriot and it clearly saddened him to see the country go through this, I think he was absolutely bemused to watch these Bush people scramble around.

We left Prime and McCain was as always wished well and encouraged to think about ‘O4’ by the crowds we passed.  He humbly spoke of the present when anyone mentioned the future.

We gathered the next morning for more craps. It became obvious that McCain did this often and had a real taste for dice. He also didn’t seem to win very often since they had landed in Vegas. He was right though. Only when Carol threw did he seem to make any money.

Tony reminded me that Cindy’s money came from her father’s beer distributorship in Arizona and John made use of that for gambling. He was not personally a wealthy man.

We had breakfast together and they were going home to Sedona to get back to the kids. The three of us weren’t staying much longer and were taking different flights back to New York. It had been a strange two days with Sen. McCain.

Caught in Las Vegas with a man who could have very easily been at that moment selecting cabinet members back east in D.C. Instead, he was opening up about the election, the candidate, and most scathingly the man who would one day become his majority leader.

How kitschy to sit with McCain and watch Roy put his head in a lion’s mouth or root for boxcars at the Bellagio. I did find it odd, however, that he never seemed concerned about who or how this was all being payed for.  I mean his room, meals and sundries.  Tony's room and the McCain suite were being paid for with my HDC credit card.  It was only because of Tony's gambling that the Bellagio ended up comping his $5,000 hotel bill.  But I believe McCain's charges were on that bill.  I worked in the senate.  There are rules about accepting such things, either from a friend (if that was Tony) or from the hotel if indeed Tony had arranged it with the VIP office so that the hotel would swallow the cost for McCain from the outset.  I thought it strange that these things never came up.

He and Rudy would one day find themselves in combat for the same nomination. But right then McCain was a welcome guest at City Hall. He was given a favored perk that few get and many asked for.

Whenever McCain visited NYC a police car escort would meet him at the airport and be available to him while he was in NYC. Few knew that but it was always available to him once Tony and Weaver cemented their relationship. Tony always made those arrangements. I was in his office on one occasion when he called INTEL (the NYPD unit assigned to protect the mayor) to confirm McCain’s flight and to make sure he was met. As head of Inter-Governmental Affairs in the first Giuliani Administration I received dozens of requests from visiting elected officials who assumed it was a matter of simply asking to have a police escort in NYC. I had to inform them that we did not do that ever, unless it was a matter of urgent security and then the PD would determine that.

It was a vanity thing, of course. But we didn’t do it. I know of no other official who received that kind of treatment.  But once McCain and Rudy became friendly and especially once Tony and Weaver started doing business regularly the police started showing up for McCain always.

I dined with Sen. McCain on one other occasion.  He was in NY and Rudy invited him to dinner.  Tony asked me to go along and I did so gladly.  We went to Da Nico.  One of Tony's favored restaurants.  The Senator was kind enough to remember me.

POSTSCRIPT:

During the Republican primaries of ‘08’ Rudy decided that he had been wrong about McCain-Feingold.  It wasn’t surprising to me since I knew first-hand that his original support was not based on anything substantive.  His reversal was not based on anything principled either other than a calculated decision that the conservative base in the early primary states was firmly opposed and no one in the party supported the legislation anyway, including those on the Supreme Court.

He had only supported it, like so much of his past support on national issues, as an off-hand gesture to a friend or supporter without any larger thought or research.  A bad precedent for a once hopeful nominee of a national party.

ADDENDUM: During the course of the federal investigation into my HDC expenses, this trip came under intense scrutiny. The prosecutor began a seperate investigation of Tony Carbonetti with the intent of indicting him for misuse of federal funds and conspiracy. Tony's room charges at the Bellagio (which I believe included McCain's) came to over $5,000. Tony ended up hiring Bob Morvillo of Martha Stewart fame to represent him. This dragged on for months. As much as the prosecutor desperately wanted to indict Tony, at the end of the day HDC hadn't been out any money since the Bellagio comped the bill. Tony and Morvillo convinced her that no monies had been misspent, since no monies had been expended, and Tony had every right given his job to be there, even at HDC expense. To my knowledge, and I could be mistaken, I do not believe the prosecution was ever aware of the McCain involvement. In any event, the prosecutor eventually backed off Tony and let the matter drop. Was it because there was no case, Rudy pressure to save his Chief of Staff or am I in fact mistaken and the McCain connection raised this to too high a level? On this, I cannot provide you with any answers, only questions.

Comments

[kgb]

keep it coming it's about time someone starts to look deep inside the political corruption of Rudy Giuliana and Bernard Kerik Haven't heard anything about him lately wonder why---Any dirt on Kerik please post

[Mendel]

"One of the Brazilians answered through the interpreter, “Corruption. The police are all taking bribes. It is our biggest problem. We do not know what to do about it.” All of the Brazilians nodded vigorously in agreement. The guy from P.D. followed up by asking, “What do you pay the average police officer who patrols your neighborhoods?” They all looked to one Brazilian whom they seemed sure knew the answer. “Fifteen dollars a month”, he said. They all nodded.

We all cracked up. There was clearly a total disconnect - absolutely no connection between that salary and the entire constabulary being on the take. I explained our brilliant analysis and they seemed stunned that there could be a linkage. We assured them that there was. Higher salaries would probably solve most of their problems. They seemed to find this revelation worth the price of their trip."

Unfortunately, as it turns out your advice for the Brazilians was proven to be meaningless by your own Police Commissioner. Bernie Kerik was the highest paid member of the NYPD and he was on the take. It's just a fact of life that taking bribes is easy money if a cop is prone to being corrupt. Historically the NYPD has struggled with extensive corruption and it remains a serious problem today for NYC.

[resa]

I'm loving this. Don't stop!