Personally, I don't agree with the whole guilt-by-association nonsense. Who a person happens to know or even be friendly with does not necessarily reflect on that person.
In my lifetime I have met with career criminals, racists, drug addicts, and general idiots. That was at my last family reunion and I am none of those things.
But, in the face of tomorrow's debate when the Ayers stuff will surely come up, I felt the need to look at McCain's association with another "man of honor," former mafia don Joe Bonanno.
First there is this
So while he’s putting together the most unpopular political coalition in history, some are beginning to wonder if that may soon include members of the New York based Bonanno crime family. McCain after all was invited to the late Giuseppe "Joe" Bonanno’s birthday party, he couldn’t attend, but wrote back wishing the family’s "Godfather" and patriarch a happy birthday and sending his condolences for not being able to make it out for the event.
Am I just blowing smoke? Well, I initially thought I was until a quick search on OpenSecrets.org revealed that at least five members of the Bonanno family made generous donations ($2,100 each) to the McCain campaign. Each member made a donation that was $200 less than the federal maximum on the same day.
Then this:
John McCain's personal fortune traces back to organized crime in Arizona, through his father-in-law, according to a report published by a multi-news agency team called Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc.
The umbrella company, United Liquor, at that time held a monopoly in Arizona, organized and managed by Kemper Marley, who was accused of mob ties by a reporter who was murdered in 1977.
Arizona in the 1970s drew a "who's who" of organized crime figures seeking to retire in the sun, including Rochester, N.Y., mob boss Joe Bonanno, who spent his last days along the Lake Havasu shores and in a quiet home in Tucson.
Does this mean anything? I don't think so, no more than the Ayers stuff. But if this election is going to come down to the people the candidates come across during the course of their careers....