OOPS! Gramm-pa McCain aided lobbyist/developer's bargain-price purchase of Fort Ord land

By GottaLaff

It never ends (via The Monterey County Herald) (go here for enlargements of documents):

An Arizona businessman with help from Sen. John McCain's office paid the federal government a mere fraction of the market value when he bought a Fort Ord land parcel in 1999, an Army appraisal obtained by The Herald shows.

Donald R. Diamond, an 80-year-old real estate developer, lobbyist and top fundraiser for McCain's presidential campaign, bought the land for $250,000, though it was valued at $7.2 million, according to Pentagon appraisals made three years before the sale.

He held on to the parcel for a little more than two years before selling it and the buildings on it for an estimated profit of more than $18 million.

Read that again: Pentagaon appraisals. The military, Gramm-pa POW? Yes, the military, the Army, appraised the land. Are you going to call them terrorists, too?

When negotiating with the Army over the no-bid sale, Diamond had more than one advantage on other potential buyers. He held a lease on the land that would have made it difficult for the Army to find another buyer. When Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, later criticized the Army for "giving away" Fort Ord land during the 1990s, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army Paul "PJ" Johnson said, "That was a very complicated realignment and closure at Fort Ord."

But it was McCain's office, as reported earlier this year by The New York Times and The Herald, that Diamond credited with helping smooth out problems he encountered. At the time, McCain served on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The appraisal documents were obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request. Diamond and McCain's Senate office declined to comment for this story.

Of course they did. They don't talk to the press, just ask IWRC* Palin. Never mind, she won't answer. It gets better:

Under oath in a taped interview as part of the Bakewell lawsuit, Diamond said McCain came to his assistance after the purchase negotiations became "bogged down."

"I asked him if he could help expedite it," Diamond said.

Although McCain's Senate office did not respond to questions from The Herald, earlier this year a McCain spokeswoman told The New York Times that the senator "had done nothing for Mr. Diamond that he would not do for any other Arizona citizen."

But Diamond is no ordinary constituent.

Besides being a leading developer in McCain's home state, he is a pro-Israel lobbyist in Washington, D.C., and is among the elite "innovators" group whose members have individually raised $500,000 or more for McCain's presidential bid, according to the candidate's campaign Web site.

Diamond served as national finance co-chairman for McCain's presidential exploratory committee, and in court documents he describes himself as a longtime friend of the Republican senator.

Farr found it more than a little unusual an Arizona senator would become involved in a land deal in California.

"This, to me, was just sort of out of the box," Farr said recently. "Senators don't usually mess around in other states."

Diamond said McCain assigned Ann Sauer, a senior aide to McCain, to the case.

Sauer was well known around the Pentagon and previously worked as a staff member for the Senate Armed Services Committee. She is a vice president in charge of Washington operations for Lockheed Martin Corp.

Who's going to pick this story up? Keith? Rachel?

*"In What Respect, Charlie?"