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On the one hand, I don't think Matt's vanity commentary and query, "is [Tom] a man of his word?" constitute any sort of "vicious" attack on McClintock of the sort Jim was decrying. Seems like pretty fair comment to me.

ON the other hand, setting aside the fact that Matt probably should have included "(VANITY)" in the headline, I don't even know whether Tom DID give his word, to Issa or to anyone else, that he (Tom) would not be a spoiler -- i.e., that he would drop out under certain late-in-the-race polling conditions suggesting a possible spoiler scenario.

Issa keeps saying Tom said this, and I'm not suggesting that Issa is LYING, but I don't know what exact words were exchanged between the two men. I just have Issa's post-hoc interpretation of it, namely that Issa feels a little misled. That may be the result of a "broken promise," but my guess is that it's more likely the result of an honest misunderstanding.