Mac Daddy McCain loves rolling the dice (from Connie Bruck's profile in The New Yorker):

"McCain is an avid gambler. Wes Gullett, a close friend who worked for McCain for years, told me that they used to play craps in Las Vegas in fourteen-hour stints, standing at the tables from 10 a.m. to midnight." (Emphasis added.)

As a Las Vegan, McCain's affinity for gambling doesn't bother me in the slightest, though it might irritate his family values base.

What really interests me though is the relationship between McCain and his gambling buddy Wes Gullet. Gullet is a lobbyist, and he once worked for McCain, both on the campaign trail and in the Senate.

John McCain (or his body double) playing craps in Las Vegas, summer 2006.
The source of the photo thinks they are at Mirage, but it's actually Bellagio.

It would be a great story for an intrepid reporter willing to dig a little deeper into their relationship. Even better, it involves the biggest land swap in Arizona history -- and one of McCain's top contributors was the primary beneficiary.

Here are the key elements of the story:

• Wes Gullet is an old friend and gambling buddy of John McCain. They rolled dice together in 14-hour-long sessions in Las Vegas.
• Gullet was McCain's campaign manger and top senate staffer and is now a lobbyist.
• Gullet was hired to lobby McCain on the largest land swap in Arizona history, exchanging private land in the wilderness for valuable federally-owned land rady for development.
• McCain, who initially opposed the swap, changed his position and supported it after Gullett was hired.
• The land swap benefited one of John McCain's top fundraisers who has hauled in more than $100,000 for his Presidential campaign.

All the elements all the elements for a great story -- Vegas, gambling, corruption, visually compelling Arizona landscapes, etc. And it's a true story. But with scattered exceptions, the media has ignored it.

Hattip to commenter SeattleAJ, who discovered the link after I first posted about McCain's interest in craps. Details below the fold. (Update: I've rearranged the material in this post for presentation purposes only.)

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Here's the details:

McCain Pushed Land Swap That Benefits Backer

PRESCOTT, Ariz. -- Sen. John McCain championed legislation that will let an Arizona rancher trade remote grassland and ponderosa pine forest here for acres of valuable federally owned property that is ready for development, a land swap that now stands to directly benefit one of his top presidential campaign fundraisers.

Initially reluctant to support the swap, the Arizona Republican became a key figure in pushing the deal through Congress after the rancher and his partners hired lobbyists that included McCain's 1992 Senate campaign manager, two of his former Senate staff members (one of whom has returned as his chief of staff), and an Arizona insider who was a major McCain donor and is now bundling campaign checks.

It turns out that the former campaign manager is none other than Wes Gullett, McCain's old friend with whom rolled dice in 14-hour-long Las Vegas gambling sessions.

That year, lobbying records show, Ruskin [the McCain fundraiser's business partner] also paid $60,000 to Michael Jimenez, another former McCain aide. Wes Gullett, who had worked in McCain's Senate office, managed his 1992 reelection bid, and served as deputy campaign manager for his 2000 presidential run, also lobbied on the bill, documents show. The watchdog group Public Citizen lists Gullett and his wife, Deborah, as bundlers who have raised more than $100,000 for McCain's White House bid. Ruskin also hired Gullett's partner, Kurt R. Davis, another McCain bundler and member of the senator's Arizona leadership team, to work with local officials and "to help with McCain if we needed help." Buse, Jimenez and Gullett did not return calls seeking comment.

Lindsay Renick Mayer of the Center for Responsive Politics offers more background on Gullett:

One of those lobbyists was Wes Gullett, McCain's 1992 Senate campaign manger and former administrative assistant (in Washington, a far more powerful title than it sounds). Gullett and his wife, Deborah, have given at least $50,400 to federal candidates, parties and committees since 1991, 83 percent to Republicans. They've given $4,600 to McCain this cycle and a total of $9,550 since 1997. They have also bundled more than $100,000 for McCain's presidential bid, according to the Washington Post. Gullett currently works at Hamilton, Gullett, et al, an Arizona-based lobbying firm that listed medical research, defense and education as the issues it lobbied last year. His firm billed clients in Washington a total of $240,000 for federal lobbying last year.

As Mayer said, administrative assistant is a actually a big title in DC. Usually, it's the same thing as chief of staff.

As I said, this story would seem to have all the elements to make for some compelling journalism. Yet other than this little article in the Washington Post, have we heard a peep from the MSM? Nope.

They just love them some Teflon John McCain.