Early in Senator John McCain’s first run for the White House eight years ago, waves of anxiety swept through his small circle of advisers.
A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, visiting his offices and accompanying him on a client’s corporate jet. Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself — instructing staff members to block the woman’s access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity.
When news organizations reported that Mr. McCain had written letters to government regulators on behalf of the lobbyist’s client, the former campaign associates said, some aides feared for a time that attention would fall on her involvement.
Mr. McCain, 71, and the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, 40, both say they never had a romantic relationship. But to his advisers, even the appearance of a close bond with a lobbyist whose clients often had business before the Senate committee Mr. McCain led threatened the story of redemption and rectitude that defined his political identity.
Like all Congress-critters, McCain paints himself as a paragon of virtue. The article steps back through his political career and points out contradictions to that image – and what the writers consider an inappropriate peccadillo. Insofar as the election goes it is better for McCain that this come out now rather than later as it will be forgotten by October unless he had a love child.
Since when has McCain portrayed himself as a “paragon of virtue?”
I’ve never seen him talk about private sexual issues.
It is sad that he is embracing the agents of intolerance on the far right religious nut bag base of his party, but he wants to be the Presnident. I DON’T give him a break for that, yes, he is a hypocrit when the chips are down==same with voting pro torture==THAT I thought he would have stood firm against?
Well, the Dem’s are voting 2-3-4 in times the number the repugs are, so its a done deal.
Been seeing lots of Goldberg “Liberal Fascism” on the tube lately. I think most of his points are valid. Obama is more liberal and more a liberal fascist than the public knows. STILL can’t be worse than Bushieboy, and that is sad.
Getting to be a pretty good chuckle on TV. Sitting here watching Pat Buchanan and Chris Matthews holler at each other.
The only point absent from some of the discussion is why the NY TIMES waited till now to break this story. I think Keith Olbermann and MSNBC staffers got it right when they said one of the TIMES competitors was getting ready to splash it. Even though the TIMES had previously decided not to loose the story during decisive Republican primaries – they didn’t want to miss credit for getting it, first.
Conversely, the ex-McCain staffers who provided the info realized the TIMES had decided not to do the story – and went elsewhere, setting up the competition to be first with the story.
Uh, bobbo – “virtue” is defined by more than sex.
You can’t say that the (Bill) Clinton debacle was No Big Deal, then try to make political hay out of this sort of unsubstantiated rumor. The NYT hasn’t exactly had the best of records in the accuracy department these days, after all.
I love that “repugs” and “Bushieboy” talk. The end of the GWB era will be like quitting cigarettes cold turkey for you guys.
I see now that the media has chosen the republican candidate ( least likely to have a snowballs chance in hell to win ) it is now time to destroy him. I find it sad that our press has gained such control in our lives and is to partisan that they now use their power thwart the democratic process ( the thing that the claim to be upholding )
#3–god==context “should” control your analysis and comments. The whole caption is about romantic situation with a lobbyist. Its not about whatever small print you find in the referenced article.
Unlike reading the bible, single lines taken out of context do not “the story” make.
If this story was going to come out anyway, McCain should be sending roses to the Times. The timing for this story couldn’t be more perfect for McCain: After he has been annointed the Republican candidate, and long before the actual election. If it had come out earlier, it might have pushed Romney to the front. If it came out later, it might actually have some affect on the general election. But it’s WAY to early as an “October Surprise” and will certainly be dead and buried as a story by the time it matters.
Kind of like Obama’s “Yeah, maybe I did a did a little blow, like that guy in Scarface…say hello to my leetle friend…” comments a while back. You always air your dirty laundry early.
Come on, this is kind of thing is rampid in our government. Its why every election we vote for someone who promises change but then it never happens. Shame on all the voter’s who believe any change is coming.
I’m surprised it has taken this long for the NY Slimes to rev up the partisan attack machine. They’re slipping…
Politician, phony?? That can’t be right. Anyway I wonder if they think Hillary is any better. She is as phony as they come.
Woohoo, more tales of bj’s in the oval office to come.
:YAWN: So what else is new.
McAncient should have sex with this woman, just so that he can have his heart attack already.
If elected he would the most ancient person to be elected to the White House. The geezer should end it already.
#12 – See! I said something similar in another thread. If Hillary were to switch to the Republican party and run as McCain’s VP – they could beat Obama. Then she could send him to heaven and be President.
And just moments ago everybody was saying that McCain is too old to be president…
#14–the story is 8-9 years old? So, yes, McCain is too old. If we had hard rules at both ends of eligibility in the Constitution, maybe someone else more qualified would have been encouraged to run and provide the Repugs with a better candidate. Who could that have been this go around?
Hey, at least it was a woman this time. GOP breathes sigh of relief.
The media built up John McCain, and McCain ate it up and played to the reporters’ favor. Now he is going to find out that they don’t really love him.
Post #7 got it right! You know the New York Times was salivating at releasing this story at the most opportune moment, which wasn’t today. Sitting on a story for ~8 years just to pop it out now? Something must have forced their hand.
The biggest problem for the New York Times is not that they released the story early, but that they have lost all credibility due to their well documented partisanship. That alone kills the major impact of the story. This will appear to the majority of Repub’s as a Times smear job because, unlike Monica and company, there is no evidence that anything actually happened.
It may actually HELP McCain get the sympathy David and Goliath vote.
Is the NYT trying to get the Democrats to vote for McCain by making him sound like “just another sleazy politician”?
“Hey! He’s not all bad, he’s just like one of ours!”
The New York Times is not a real newspaper anyway. No comics section!
Interesting hypocrisy at the NY Times
The Bill Clinton and Monica episode was not worth reporting on, but when it comes to McCain they pull out all the stops.
#6 – bobbo – read the whole article, Most of it is about McCain’s hypocrisy and lobbyists. Which I find to be the interesting bit, btw.
Not your biblical fixation on sex. 🙂
#21 must only read papers with comic sections – for the Times did cover the Clinton dampness. It’s just that – like most Republikans – a blow-by-blow description is required for his own inadequate dampness. 🙂
Is John still thinking McCain is the winner?
#1 – Since when has McCain portrayed himself as a “paragon of virtue?”
I was wondering the same thing.
#23 said: the Times did cover the Clinton dampness
OK, the limited coverage they did was written like a High School cheerleader fawning over the star quarterback at a football game. The NY Times was in awe of Bill Clinton’s proclivities.
DaveW, I thought is was just the editions that ended up here that lacked a comics section.
Well, if they are going to leave out the only honest part of the paper, the heck with them.
Wow, the repuglicans are in full spin mode over this. And LOL, NY Time did McCain the favor of the Millenium by delaying this story. Just ask Romney and Rudy if they think the timing here helped or hurt McCain.
LOL you guys are clueless.
This will most likely result in a bump in McCain’s fund raising. It going to help him more than hurt him. Hope so.
There are no good candidates left, so it’s all just a spectator sport from here on out – it damn well better be entertaining.
McCain is a phony as they come…he is the very definition of a flip flopper. Any stance, any issue and he’s been on both sides of it. Best case in point? How about his preaching about banning all betting on college athletics, but just last year having his March Madness NCAA basketball bracket on his website?