Opinion: Gambling not the only vice for politicians

Friday, October 17, 2008  

"About a 15-minute drive from my house in quaint northeastern Connecticut lies a towering green and white pseudo-metropolis of debauchery. Foxwoods Resort Casino, until last year the biggest casino in the world, is run by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe of Native Americans, who owned the land many years ago. It is now run by a handful of the surviving tribe members who tend to live on a designated reservation a few miles away.

Aside from the absurd amount of money the casino makes duping the helpless and gullible dreamers of America, it is also rumored to be a substantial drug front.

It was with this in mind that I read a recent New York Times article about Sen. John McCain’s ties to the Mashantucket Pequot Indians. McCain is a two-time chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and was influential in passing the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988. He is an ardent gambler, and it is not much of a secret that the tribe has contributed heavily to his campaign.

McCain is a craps man, and he has no qualms about it. He probably picked up the habit back in his military days, throwing dice to pick up some cash on the side and feel the high of winning. It works in perfect congruence with his image as the Maverick: a ballsy risk-taker who loves the feel of an adrenaline rush.

I can just imagine him hunched over the craps table, red-faced and drunk with an empty whiskey tumbler in his left hand, a fat Cuban in his right. Cindy would be on one side, faded off Bloody Marys and Percocets, Palin would be on the other, clapping like a little girl on her birthday, and every time McCain got lucky he would raise his hands as high as his shoulders and shout, “I’m the Maverick, baby!” before sneaking into his jacket pocket and taking a key bump from an 8-ball he copped from the concierge earlier that night."

Get the Story:
Diptesh Soni: Politics is a crap shoot (The Boston University Daily Free Press 10/17)