The Washington Post reported this morning that an extra cell tower had been installed at John McCain’s personal ranch in Arizona. James Grimaldi accused McCain of using his power as a senior member of the Senate Commerce Committee, which overseas the Federal Communications Commission, to get the favor.

Except that it was the Secret Service that requested the temporary tower for communications purposes — not McCain. The Secret Service confirms:

A representative for the Secret Service confirms Verizon’s statement earlier tonight that the company only put in a temporary cell service facility near the McCain ranch in Arizona at the request of the agency.

“We made a request of Verizon in I believe May that was covered under our contract and they did address our immediate needs,” said Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren.

Zahren said the Washington Post story was “confusing two different issues — the temporary fix and the permanent solution to the tower.”

Grimaldi reported on the requests by the McCains in regard to improved reception in the area:

Early in 2007, just as her husband launched his presidential bid, Cindy McCain sought to resolve an old problem — the lack of cellphone coverage on her remote 15-acre ranch near Sedona, Ariz., nestled deep in a tree-lined canyon called Hidden Valley.

Over the past year, she offered land for a permanent cell tower, and Verizon Wireless embarked on an expensive public process to meet her needs, hiring contractors and seeking county land-use permits.

Verizon ultimately abandoned its effort to install a permanent tower in August. Company spokesman Jeffrey Nelson said the project would be “an inappropriate way” to build its network. “It doesn’t make business sense for us to do that,” he added.

Instead, Verizon delivered a portable tower known as a “cell site on wheels” — free of charge — to the McCain property in June, after the Secret Service began inquiring about improving coverage in the area. Such devices are used for providing temporary capacity where coverage is lacking or has been knocked out, in circumstances ranging from the Super Bowl to hurricanes.

So, uh, Cindy McCain offered free land to Verizon if it would build a permanent tower in the area, but Verizon ultimately refused because it made no business sense. Where’s the scandal? Verizon obviously wasn’t willing to do a favor for the McCains, as it rejected the proposition as not having enough of a benefit for the company. Cindy McCain simply offered the land. And we now know that the temporary tower wasn’t requested by the McCains, but rather by the Secret Service.

Perhaps the Washington Post investigative team should spend less time attemting to create a scandal where one doesn’t exist, and a little more time assessing, as Ed says, the millions of dollars Obama has pulled in from people whose names are just random strings of letters and symbols. But that would require that WaPo remove its head from Obama’s posterior, so I’m not counting on it.

Via Hot Air.