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Senator McCain Criticizes San Pablo Bid

WASHINGTON, DC – As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle: "Sen. John McCain, the powerful chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, told the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians Tuesday that their controversial bid to build California's first major urban casino in San Pablo was "not the way to do business."

"At a Senate hearing on the casino plan, the Arizona Republican said the tribe should never have been allowed to insert special language in a bill backdating its purchase of a card club so they could build a slot-machine casino just off Interstate 80.

"…In another blow to the tribe, a top Interior Department official said the Bush administration was inclined to support a bill by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D- Calif., that would scuttle a deal between the tribe and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to build a 2,500-slot machine casino.

"…With the casino plan already facing near-universal opposition in the state Legislature, the strong resistance to the proposal from the White House and federal lawmakers could doom any chance of a casino's being built in the near future.

"The hearing Tuesday before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee was called by McCain at the request of Feinstein, who has been the most formidable opponent of the tribe's plans for a Las Vegas-style casino in the East Bay…"

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