John McCain And The Telecom Lobbyist
By Kevin Drum
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(Political Animal) JOHN McCAIN AND THE TELECOM LOBBYIST....OK, let's dive into the John McCain story. According to a heavily padded piece in the New York Times today, several of Mr. Straight Talk's aides became concerned during the 2000 campaign that he was spending a wee bit too much time with an attractive, 32-year-old telecom lobbyist named Vicki Iseman:
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Josh Marshall thinks there's more here than meets the eye:
At the moment it seems to me that we have a story from the Times that reads like it's had most of the meat lawyered out of it. And a lot of miscellany and fluff has been packed in where the meat was.Radar reports that the Times, which has been chasing this story at least since December, only published now because it was forced into it:
....I find it very difficult to believe that the Times would have put their chin so far out on this story if they didn't know a lot more than they felt they could put in the article, at least on the first go....Equally telling [] is the McCain camp's response and their clear unwillingness to address or deny any the key charges of the piece. (Read the statement closely. It's all bluster.)
Michael Isikoff of Newsweek and Michael Calderone of Politico were two of the reporters at rival publications who were chasing the Times story. Calderone was particularly well informed about the details of the Times investigation.Over at Politico, though, Calderone says it was the New Republic who forced their hand:
February 20, 2008 11:52
McCain Senior Adviser Responds to Times Story (Says it is all Nonsense)
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Mark Salter, John McCain's obstreperous senior aide, just responded to Time's query about the New York Times's long-simmering McCain-mixed-up-with-lobbyists story.
Speaking from a parking garage in Toledo, where the campaign is overnighting, Salter vehemently denied any improper relationship between the lobbyist singled out in the piece and the senator. He also attempted to cast doubt on both the story and the newspaper's reasons for running it. The bulk of the story's more titillating accusations, he said, stemmed from "two blind quotes....Are these the standards of the New York Times? No. They are the standards of the National Enquirer."
32 year old “hottie” has major crush on the elder McCain - sex sells --- at least with a significant percent of the voting shepple
I've seen this movie before. Flashback October 2003 to Arnold Schwarzenegger (I wonder if they have the same campaign strategist)
• L.A. Times runs hitpiece with a dozen women alleging inappropriate touching and sexual harrassment (stemming back between 2 to 10 years).• Campaign responsds with feigned outrage -- "Hit piece!" "Unnamed sources!" "ala National Enquirer!"
• Talking head hit the street - "Yellow journalism!" "He is a family man!" "He has a pretty wife."
• The accused responds: "Trash politics." "I am a champion of women." "I behaved badly... I apologize if I offended anyone." Any further discussion on the point was then dismissed by talking heads and apologists, without addressing the specific allegations.
• The accused's wife responds: "I trust my husband...."
• Shills and Apologists - "This will backfire." "The newspaper is just trying to bring him down." "How dare the LAT--now I'm going to vote for Arnold." "Conservatives will rally around him, now." "This will help Arnold."
Bill Keller made a statement that this story reached his desk for the first time Tuesday. Bill Barnicle from the Boston Globe and many others dispute this statement. It’s been common knowledge that the NYT’s had this story and sat on it at least since December. Timing is everything. If the NYT had published this story in December, McCain would not have won the NH primary.
My guess is Keller has stepped into it bigtime. LOL. What did he (Keller) know and when did he know it????
That’s the meat of this little hit job.