McCain: The Way Back Machine

• The Government Knows What a Good Indian Is

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  December 09, 1992
  This scene I am not likely to forget. Peter MacDonald, at one time the most honored and powerful Indian in North America,... More >>

• For Sale: One War Hero

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  October 28, 1992
  You're John McCain, who put yourself up for sale from the first moment you were elected to Congress. You were sent there... More >>

• Call My Travel Agent; There's an Election Coming Up

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  October 21, 1992
  Tell the real John McCain story and you indict the entire political system. It is not a pretty story. No one really wants... More >>

• Those $1,000 Checks Do Add Up

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  October 21, 1992
  John McCain is trying to buy his way into another six-year term in the U.S. Senate. He has raised $1.9 million, most of... More >>

• Yeah, and Baseball Used to Be Played on Grass

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  October 21, 1992
  Steve the Bartender put up still another round. The group at the end of the bar, standing under the television set, were... More >>

• The Dark Horse Is Closing

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  October 14, 1992
  One of the great Arizona political upsets is in the making. I'm talking about Claire Sargent's steady march to become the... More >>

• Right Time for Sargent?

  Look out, McCain. There's a woman after you.

  By Philip Martin
  September 30, 1992
  On the other end of the telephone that Ferd Haverly's holding, there's a photographer who wants some time with Haverly's... More >>

• The Battle of Patriots Square

  It was the mother of all placard wars

  By David Pasztor, Paul Rubin
  September 30, 1992
  As wars go, it started quietly. And although the Battle of the Placards didn't make the evening news or draw much notice... More >>

• This Guy Makes You Miss Mecham

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  September 23, 1992
  Some of your constituents think you sold them out. --Alabama Senator Howell Heflin to John McCain That... More >>

• Mecham's Loyal Readers

  They still haven't gotten Ev's newspaper, but they subscribe to him anyway

  By Ward Harkavy
  September 16, 1992
  You subscribe to a newspaper, but it never arrives. You're upset and want your money back, right? Likely not, if you... More >>

• Shiny Happy People

  Hold the scotch! Pass the Sprite! The Weadites celebrate a political win.

  By Paul Rubin
  September 16, 1992
  Doug Wead, the preacher-turned-politician who moved to Arizona last year looking for work in Washington, D.C., was one... More >>

• The Abortion Survey

  September 02, 1992
  With the Rehnquist Court apparently ready to overturn the privacy guarantees established in the 1973 Roe v. Wade... More >>

• The GOP's New Godfather

  By Ward Harkavy
  September 02, 1992
  In Doug Wead's dining room, there's a photograph of George Bush cradling Wead's son Joshua. On August 24, there was a... More >>

• This and That

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  August 12, 1992
  One of the perils of turning on your car radio during midmorning is accidentally tuning in the Barry Young talk show on... More >>

• Republican Revenge

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  July 29, 1992
  The Peter MacDonald story defies belief. Watch carefully as it unfolds. The federal courtroom in Prescott, where the... More >>

• The White Man's Justice

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  July 22, 1992
  I push open the heavily padded swinging doors of the aged federal courtroom in Prescott. The large, high-ceilinged room... More >>

• Keating's Monument to Cupidity

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  July 15, 1992
  I keep thinking about Charlie Keating. Right now he's sitting alone in a jail cell near Bakersfield, California. He's... More >>

• MIA: Truth

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  July 08, 1992
  We forget too soon. By now the Gulf War is but a faded memory. We've forgotten those days when General Norman Schwarzkopf... More >>

• It Can't Happen Here, Can It?

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  June 10, 1992
  Jottings in an outsider's political notebook: 1. H. Ross Perot strikes me as a perfect little fascist dictator. I sense... More >>

• The Tangled Roots of Doug Wead

  Preacher, peddler, Beltway meddler

  By Ward Harkavy
  June 10, 1992
  ARE YOU REALLY HAPPY with your current politicians? Perhaps Doug Wead can inspire you. Arizona's newest big-time... More >>

• The Governor's Leckie

  By Philip Martin
  April 22, 1992
  Eight floors below the conference room where Governor Fife Symington delivered his diatribe last week against "out of... More >>

• With the Help of His Ancestors, Fife Takes On Congress

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  February 19, 1992
  Governor Symington goes to Washington! On Thursday of this week, J. Fife Symington III is scheduled to appear before a... More >>

• Money, Yes. Influence, No.

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  January 15, 1992
  To me, Craig Tribken was the white knight in the battle against the forces of darkness. When it was still politically... More >>

• Backed to the Wall, Snarling

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  December 25, 1991
  I arrived at the Ritz-Carlton hotel early. It was raining heavily. The inadequate parking lot was jammed with cars and... More >>

• Thirteen Thoughts

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  December 11, 1991
  1. Charlie Keating finally took the great fall. These days the headline writers use words like "fraud" and "bilked" in... More >>

• Have "Boom Boom," Will Travel

  Ex-PV town official accused of sexual harassment

  By Philip Martin
  November 20, 1991
  In April, when Muin M. Kalla left his job as planning director for the Town of Paradise Valley, town manager John Baudek... More >>

• Keating's Camelback Connection

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  June 05, 1991
  So much happened here. And now the grass bordering the headquarters of Charlie Keating's American Continental... More >>

• The Last Laugh

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  May 08, 1991
  A fable for modern times: Once upon a time, in a city not far away, a most remarkable thing took place. ... More >>

• Our Most Frightening Weapon

  The Apache helicopter scares its pilots to death

  By Darrin Hostetler
  March 20, 1991
  U.S. pilots flying Gulf War missions in Apache Attack Helicopters say they are tired of battling the enemy. But... More >>

• Forget About It

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  March 06, 1991
  People keep asking me if I think Arizona's two senators will get away with it. I tell them I don't think so. ... More >>

• The Grafters

  By Michael Lacey
  February 13, 1991
  Just when I was beginning to tire of CNN's coverage of "attrited" warehouses in Iraq, Phoenix Police Chief Ruben Ortega... More >>

• The Blast Detail

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  January 23, 1991
  It took a war with Iraq to do it, but I've forgotten all about the sins of Senators Dennis DeConcini and John McCain. ... More >>

• Yule Be Sorry

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  December 19, 1990
  I am not sending Christmas cards to the following this year: The Circle K clerk who insists on charging me a... More >>

• Days of Whine and Ruses

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  November 28, 1990
  The expression that came over Robert Bennett's face each time Senator Dennis DeConcini attacked him was riveting. The... More >>

• If You Asked . . .

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  November 28, 1990
  John Madden's routine is growing more than a bit tired. For the first time, I found it impossible to vote for either... More >>

• What Makes John McCain Run?

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  November 14, 1990
  John McCain can stop running now. The race is over. It's time for McCain to sit erect in a chair with television... More >>

• The Selling of John McCain's Soul

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  October 10, 1990
  A writer of fiction most certainly would enjoy a rare literary feast in sitting down to write a novel based on the rise... More >>

• Dick Mahoney

  By Deborah Laake
  October 03, 1990
  At Dick Mahoney's rambling, Spanish-style house in Encanto, there are some very noticeable things: a slightly... More >>

• Charlie's Fallen Angel

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  August 29, 1990
  It's true. Every hero really does become a bore at last. And now it's Senator John McCain's turn. McCain, Arizona's... More >>

• Kountry Klub Konfidential

  By Paul Rubin, Ward Harkavy
  August 15, 1990
  "Upon hearing firsthand recommendation of either the proposing or the seconding member or both at a scheduled committee... More >>

• Symington's Empty Boasts and Lost Hopes

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  July 18, 1990
  Earlier that evening, J. Fife Symington III went on television. He seemed superbly confident as he quipped that Evan... More >>

• Send in the Clowns

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  July 11, 1990
  The best thing about Prescott's 102nd annual Frontier Days parade last Saturday was the cowboy groups like the Bill... More >>

• Keating Five Choke on Charlie's Filthy Lucre

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  April 25, 1990
  Perhaps the most dramatic revelations to come out of the huge savings and loan disaster will come during the trial of... More >>

• Record on Pollution Stinks

  By Kathleen Stanton
  April 25, 1990
  Mo Udall may be the only Arizona politician, aside from the retrograde Bob Stump, who isn't scrambling to define himself... More >>

• Just What Phoenix Needs

  The R&G's new publisher is known as a tough businessman who doesn't like his paper being tough on business

  By Ward Harkavy
  April 04, 1990
  In his seventies, Maurice "Biff" Niehaus of Cincinnati found an exciting new career. He had been a lawyer, then a state... More >>

• Turn On the Cameras, Here Come da Judge

  Local politicians get telivisionitis

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  February 07, 1990
  Public men grow addicted to the cool eye of the television camera. Once stricken, they reach out desperately for... More >>

• Arizona Republicans

  Search for tomorrow

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  January 31, 1990
  McCain was transparently nervous being on the same platform with Evan Mecham, the governor he helped to scuttle. Koory... More >>

• Why Doesn't Corbin Give the Fifty Grand Back?

  Charlie Keating's donations: the gifts that keep on giving

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  January 31, 1990
  Bob Corbin still has Charlie Keating's $50,000 political donation tucked away in his desk drawer. And like all... More >>

• Hey, What Happened to Florence Nightingale?

  Saturday afternoon with Nurse Ratched

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  January 17, 1990
  It was early Saturday afternoon in Scottsdale Memorial-North Hospital. Saturdays are quiet times in hospitals. The... More >>

• McCain: The Most Reprehensible of the Keating Five

  The story of "the Keating Five" has become a scandal rivaling Teapot Dome and Watergate

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  November 29, 1989
  You're John McCain, a fallen hero who wanted to become president so desperately that you sold yourself to Charlie... More >>

• Pollution? What Pollution?

  That haze over the Grand Canyon is unmasking our "good" utility company

  By Kathleen Stanton
  November 15, 1989
  Think "Arizona Public Service" and what comes to mind? Bloated electricity rates, incompetent management, gross... More >>

• In His Search for Gold, Bob Corbin Found Charles Keating

  Senators face disgrace because of massive campaign contributions from Charlie Keating, "The Bluebeard of American Finance"

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  November 08, 1989
  Why does Bob Corbin, our clownish attorney general, lead such a charmed life? Five United States senators are... More >>

• John McCain's "Checkers" Speech

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  October 25, 1989
  It was the kind of press conference reporters show up for even when they're not working. They put on their best... More >>

• They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  July 12, 1989
  Here are thirty reasons Charles Keating deserves to be drawn and quartered at a public ceremony in Patriots Square. ... More >>

• Charles Keating: What a Political Animas

  The financial giant also knew how this game was played

  By Jana Bommersbach
  April 19, 1989
  At the height of his political power, Charles Keating commanded a private meeting with five U.S. senators from four... More >>

• If You Asked, I Would Have Told You

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  March 08, 1989
  If you asked I would have told you: The University of Arizona may rank No. 1, but I don't see them making the Final... More >>

• Presenting the Next (Oh, My God) Governor of Arizona

  By Tom Fitzpatrick
  February 22, 1989
  One of the following charlatans will be the next governor of Arizona: David Hinchcliffe: He's the double-domed thinker... More >>