Senator John McCain sells himself for the presidency as a champion of campaign finance reform, a sworn enemy of Congressional handouts and a maverick who is immune to the corrupting influence of big money. In two campaigns, he has vowed not to dispense favors to contributors.

Humans being humans, and senators being senators, it defied belief that Mr. McCain would not at some point have done a little something for a special friend back home. As it turns out, he has. David Kirkpatrick and Jim Rutenberg reported in The Times on Tuesday that Mr. McCain has used his influence and official position several times to benefit the real estate empire of Donald R. Diamond, a wealthy, 80-year-old real estate developer.

For his part, Mr. Diamond has successfully shaken the money tree for various McCain campaigns and already has raised $250,000 for this year’s presidential effort.

There is nothing illegal about this, but it is more evidence that Mr. McCain is as mortal  or compromising  as the next politician. Mr. McCain has accepted corporate contributions for pet projects and relied heavily on lobbyists to help run his campaigns and Senate office. And when land swaps like the ones he arranged for Mr. Diamond involve a subsidy from taxpayers, which they often do, they are no different from the pork-barrel projects that Mr. McCain decries daily on the stump. Pork is central to Mr. McCain’s economic program. He says he would help pay for hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts by getting rid of it.