The Times' McCain Scandal - Sex Or Ethics?

Times endorsed Republican front-runner John McCain now has to deal with innuendo from the Times - allegedly he got too cozy with an attractive young telecom lobbyist back in 1999 and may have done her political favors or, well, received romantic favors.

The WaPo has a me-too follow which focuses on the political favors.  Here is the understated version:

John Weaver, who served as McCain's closest confidant until leaving his current campaign last year, said he met with Vicki Iseman at the Center Cafe in Union Station and urged her to stay away from McCain. Association with a lobbyist would undermine his image as an opponent of special interests, aides had concluded.

Members of the senator's small circle of advisers also confronted McCain directly, according to sources, warning him that his continued relationship with a lobbyist who had business before the powerful Commerce Committee he chaired threatened to derail his presidential ambitions.

Let's get the steamier treatment from the Times:

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.

Jim Geraghty is not impressed by this attempt at journalism; apparently the Times has been waltzing around this story since at least December 2007.

Noam Scheiber of TNR writes that "The story reads to me like it had originally been much more ambitious, but had its guts ripped out somewhere along the way", and he should know - apparently TNR will have a piece online tomorrow covering the Times foot-dragging on this story; said article may have forced the Times hand.

Quel clown show.  We will know more when the TNR piece is out but one hypothesis is that an irate Timesman did not want his story spiked.  He leaked some of the Times in-house ruminations to  a friendly lib outlet, et voila!  Geez, isn't that what Matt Drudge is for?

OK, impact on McCain?  Well, it offsets the hit he took when the Times endorsed him.  OTOH, social conservatives who already didn't like him probably won't like this.  The timing is too late to derail his nomination and too early for the general election, which has worked well.

As to the question of inappropriate political favors, the Times ought to try and persuade us that McCain ended up doing favors for Ms. Iseman's clients that he might not otherwise have done or that were otherwise inconsistent with his political philosophy.  Otherwise, where are we - a lobbyist talked to a pro-business Republican who came out in favor of business.  Hold the front page.

These people at All The News That Advances Our Agenda really have no shame.  But you can't hold the front page for that, either.

Comments

[Other Tom]

The story will have zero effect on the election.

[Barry Dauphin]

Mr. McCain, 71, and the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, 40...

Subtext: McCain has plenty left in the gas tank.

[Jackie]

Was she wearing a blue dress?

[Jackie]

Was she wearing a blue dress?

[Topsecretk9]

I just got a load of the gal at drudge. She's a hottie. I could be wrong, but I have a feeling this may actually help McCain in way - well, with men who weren't thrilled with his immigration stance to name one issue. When men are caught cheating with a dog biscuit men tend to care about the infidelity, or rather they are disgusted, disappointed. When the chick is hot? There is a subconscious - you go, dude! and it sort of mans up the culprit.

Good thing you didn't pay 2 cents for that.

[Topsecretk9]

When men are caught cheating with a dog biscuit men tend to care about the infidelity, or rather they are disgusted, disappointed.

I meant subconsciously on this too.

[Topsecretk9]

Update: TNR says it’ll have something to say tomorrow.

Let's hopr they didn't farm it out to Beauchamp!

[Topsecretk9]

Also, I'm curious about that GQ piece the Clinton's strong-armed them into spiking...is TNR?

[Katrina]

Yeah...AND him and his new wife got married ONE MONTh after his divorce. Plus, his current wife got in trouble for abusing the pharmaceutical drugs that was supposed to go to Charity, yall! But, good ole McCain was able to get her off in a month. I'm scared, b/c these are facts. I don't really care about the stories behind them. It's about the actions. Where are our morals?

[MayBee]

We have been inundated tonight by people that have read the Cindy diaries on FireDogLake and Daily Kos. What bothers me is not that they repeat the daily diaries, but that they repeat them unattributed.

[jmoss]

Heh, over at the Corner:

"Hang on a second. Eighty-five grand? Over eight years? That's it? He was the chairman of the committee!

If McCain is an extortionist, he's a pathetic excuse for one. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) shook down the hedge fund industry for ten times that amount in a single month. That's how you take advantage of people under your purview."

Lol

[dmh]

I think the real concern is not this story, but the follow-up stories the NYT undoubtedly already have written. This is just a teaser. The McCain campaign wrote a very carefully worded nondenial denial about the sexual implications of the article and has to be very careful. The moment they deny a sexual relationship the NYT publishes the follow-up story. It is already too late for someone other than McCain to get the nomination and we are stuck with a fatally flawed candidate.

[kim]

Two brokered conventions? Cool beans.
=======================

[kim]

Romney vs Gore is going to be so much fun.
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[Jane]

Well well well, the moonbats seemed to have been up all night. Time to WAKE UP moonbats, we start early here.

Meanwhile, McCain is having an "ask me anything" press conference at 9:00. At that hour he will tell the NYT to pound sand.

Meanwhile there is a debate tonite. Rest up Elliott, it's gonna be a good one.

[PaulL]

I presume Mrs. Clinton will abandon her "I love Obama too routine" that she used in the previous debate.

It will be fun if she attacks him for being too left.

I'd like to hear her say something like, "Not since Jim Jones induced 900 of his followers to drink poison, not since then have I seen a man so convinced that he was the Saviour."

That might be over the top, so I guess Penn should poll-test it first. But what good has any of his poll-testing done so far?

What if Mrs. Clinton announced she was divorcing Bill and marrying Huma Abedin? Wouldn't that get her a lot of male votes?

[Jane]

I think it will be fun to watch Hillary when she has nothing left to lose. I hope Obama doesn't call in sick.

[clarice]

Rove gives McCain and Clinton a bash Obama template.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120355939956381797.html

[boris]

link

[TexasToast]

Gee

Immediately after a post inviting "probable attack lines", and after 10 (count um)10 years of the "blue dress", you can (with a straight face) assert that this story somehow proves the Times is "ethically challenged"?

POV is one thing, but wow, just wow.

[boris]

Actually it was the DNA that made the blue dress news, not us.

19 yr old WH intern vs 40 yr old lobbiest? GMAFB

[centralcal]

I'm with Kim! Romney v. Gore.

[sbw]

So, knowing of the Carter-like lust in McCain's heart, the Times still endorsed McCain? So either the Times was wrong or there is no there there. I'm content either way.

[Jane]

The press conference was very believable. This is a story about the NYT not McCain.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

If people had any sense at all, the Bill Clinton history should have pretty well immunized other politicians against this kind of innuendo.

Notice I say "if".

[clarice]

Not only did McCain deny a romantic affair with Iseman ,he also denied any aides had ever warned him off associating with her--From Captain's Quarters:
"Q. Senator, did you ever have any meeting with any of your staffers in which they would have intervened to ask you not to see Vicki Iseman or to be concerned about appearances of being too close to a lobbyist?

A. No.

Q. No meeting ever occurred?

A., No.

Q., No staffer was ever concerned about a possible romantic relationship?

A. If they were, they didn't communicate that to me.

Q. Did you ever have such a relationship?

A. No.

One can't get any plainer than this. If the Times' central support for the story -- that aides had to intervene in order to save the Senator from himself -- prove false, then the entire story collapses. Now that McCain has gone on the record with such a categorical denial, the Times either needs to produce its sources or retract the story. If their sources don't want to come forward and identify themselves, date the meeting specifically and give some other corroboration than each other, then the Times should also apologize for this baseless attack.

McCain added something later in the presser. "Since it was in the New York Times, I don't take it at face value." We tried to tell him the same thing when the Times endorsed him last month. Now he understands what we meant.

Will this hurt McCain? Not at all. First, this is even older than the smear job the Times did on Rudy Giuliani last year. Second, they don't have a single named source for this story. Third, the Times left out numerous examples where McCain acted against the interests of Iseman and her clients. The effect is likely going to produce more support for McCain among the GOP base, especially given the egregious and salacious nature of the controversy."

[Jane]

I think McCain handled this just right.

And yesterday Michelle Obama compounded her "i have no patriotism" error by reiterating it.

That's gonna hurt the Messiah.

[anduril]

Mickey Kaus on McCain:

Psst--We Don't Think He's Pro-Life Either: Michael Kinsley lets out a secret Democrats have been guarding closely of late--when it comes to loyalty to conservative positions, we don't think McCain's as bad as conservatives claim. We think he's worse! For example, Charles Krauthammer, listing McCain's apostasies, concedes that "he's held the line on abortions." Kinsley suggests that even that may be wishful, cheap date thinking:

McCain is perceived as authentic, which is a deeper form of honesty than mere truth-telling. He says he's antiabortion? Oh, he doesn't mean that.

For Kinsley, the election's win-win. ... Update: Wash. Times-- "Pro-lifers are the first part of the conservative base to rally around Sen. John McCain ..." Heh-heh!

Hey, you "conservatives" out there on JOM! Does it bother you that Kinsley sees the McCain-Obama alternative as win-win? Yes we can! Yes we can! John's our man! John's our man!

Go here for Kaus' links.

And Here's Kaus on MO:

Even Dennis Kucinich would probably have no problem finding something to be proud of in the past two decades. If Michelle Obama's default position is set to "Aggrieved," it also suggests something personal, no? Maybe, like many strong wives, she wonders why her husband is the one on the top of the family ticket--which might also explain her strange occasional habit of belittling him in public ("snore-y and stinky" ). Beats me. For whatever reason, she sure seems to have a non-trivial chip on her shoulder and it's not a winning quality.

**--In a forthcoming bloggingheads episode, Bob Wright reminds me of another jarring comment from Mrs. Obama, speaking about her husband:

"[T]he realities are, as a black man, Barack can get shot going to the gas station."

And white men don't get shot at gas stations? Sure, Mrs. Obama might have meant to say, in an anodyne rephrasing, that "as someone who lives in Barack's neighborhood, he could get shot going to the gas station." There are always anodyine rephrasings. At some point there are too many of them.

But can the BHO campaign shut her up? Doubtful.

[bio mom]

I agree Clarice. This will backfire. Lukewarm conservatives will rally around McCain now. And the press wants a Federal Shield Law?? What a joke! They are the only powerful institution that is totally unaccountable and has no checks and balances.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

If their sources don't want to come forward and identify themselves, date the meeting specifically and give some other corroboration than each other, then the Times should also apologize for this baseless attack.

Sigh. Wouldn't it be pretty to think so?

[kim]

Centralcal, my only fear is that the AGW hoax will blow up before the convention and they'll pick Kerry instead of Gore. Oh, wait.

Seriously, someone should start preparing for a Dean candidacy.

Also seriously, we are cooling, folks, and big time. I know, I joke too much, but lots of people are going to die because we're re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Carbon encumbering will kill people by the hundreds of millions, if the sun is cooling for half a century.

Still no sunspots. January temperatures worldwide dropped enough from last year alone to cancel out most of the warming over the last quarter century.

This is going to be the big news this year. I am more and more convinced of it.
==============================

[bio mom]

Also, Where was the front page story in the Times about John Edwards' alleged affair with the media gal from his campaign? the John Kerry alleged affair with that young woman in 2004? Not there? Wonder why!! They do not even attempt to hide their biases on their newspages any longer.

Where is the investigative reporting about saint Barack Obama? You want a dangerous situation? Just elect this total unknown of absolutely no scrutiny whose rallies resemble tent revival meetings and cults.

[Bill the skeptic]

You know, this morning I had just finished watching the Larry Sinclair video on youtube this morning and his allegations against Obama when I found the NYT story on McCain. What the heck is happening to our country, I mean, what the heck. These two jokers are the best we can do. Honesty.

[clarice]

Forget the federal shield law--McCain Feingold gives apers like the NYT rare powers in the pre-election period. I think this time, he's got them flat footed, but think how much more power that ridiculous law gives the press.

[clarice]

**papers**

[anduril]

Seems MO's comments have generated a resurgence of pride among whites:

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/

[GMax]

"Since it was in the New York Times, I don't take it at face value."

Sounds like a pretty common sense rule to me.

[anduril]

Accuracy in the Media has a lengthy article about Obama's Communist Mentor. Obama's an interesting guy. Well, a lot more interesting than the usual bozo's who run for president. Is more interesting also more dangerous?

[MayBee]

wow, just wow

I've always hated the wow, just wow.
Think of something to say! It isn't that hard.

Actually, what made the blue dress news (besides the bizareness of it) was that it happened in the middle of a sexual harassment lawsuit.

TT- do you see thinking up attack lines as "ethically challenged"? If not, what did that have to do with this story, in particular?

[Don]

"Since it was in the New York Times, I don't take it at face value."

So why the hell did your beloved Libby spend 2-1/2 hours having breakfast with one of its reporters?

[boris]

You mean the one they fired?

[MayBee]

You mean the one that couldn't get her story printed?

[Other Tom]

I just listened to Part I of the Larry Sinclair interview. My guess is that story goes absolutely nowhere.

The way McCain is jumping on this thing, I have to think he believes the whole thing helps him.

[kim]

I particularly like the 'face value' quote. It sounds like he means to take on the MSM. Well, good luck with that.
====================

[Don]

Yeah-that's the one. My question remains-if the NYT is so worthless-why was Libby trying to get information into it?

[MayBee]

I never guess that a NYT ginned up controversy will go nowhere.
Bush is still the torture president.
Bush still spied on banks through the SWIFT transactions.
Bush still lied about the 16 words.
Bush let black people die in New Orleans.
Libby still outed a super secret spy.

[MayBee]

Does not taking something at face value = worthless, Don?
You are a champion word shifter, you are.

[Don]

Oh ok Maybee-I'll spell it out for you. This was fed to the Times by at least December.

As Libby shows, no matter what you loons think, the Repub establishment views the NYT as legitimate and leak to it.

So this was a Republican hit job to take McCain out in the primaries, but the NYT is just now getting around to it. It's funny, really.

Don't believe me?-Drudge knew about it back then too, proof positive this was a Repub operation.

[kim]

The interesting thing is that the NYT et al have so warped the perception of the true state of affairs as to create a need for hope for change. This is analogous to my idea that the Obama campaign of 'hope' is a manifestation of BDS. It's all pipe dreams and meshuginna promises. Obama is going to end up being the candidate of the Kos Dancers, and few else. I mean, really, look how crazy Don is.

The war against medieval Islam successfully engaged, unprecedented worldwide co-operation and economic expansion. You're gonna miss Bush when he's gone.
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[Other Tom]

What, exactly, does John McCain have to do with Scooter Libby?

Guy at RCP thinks this flap helps McCain...