For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk (NYT hints graft, sex)

[Wretched Excess]

a paper thin tissue of rumor and innuendo, non of which is sourced.

For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk

WASHINGTON — 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.

It had been just a decade since an official favor for a friend with regulatory problems had nearly ended Mr. McCain’s political career by ensnaring him in the Keating Five scandal. In the years that followed, he reinvented himself as the scourge of special interests, a crusader for stricter ethics and campaign finance rules, a man of honor chastened by a brush with shame.

But the concerns about Mr. McCain’s relationship with Ms. Iseman underscored an enduring paradox of his post-Keating career. Even as he has vowed to hold himself to the highest ethical standards, his confidence in his own integrity has sometimes seemed to blind him to potentially embarrassing conflicts of interest.

Mr. McCain promised, for example, never to fly directly from Washington to Phoenix, his hometown, to avoid the impression of self-interest because he sponsored a law that opened the route nearly a decade ago. But like other lawmakers, he often flew on the corporate jets of business executives seeking his support, including the media moguls Rupert Murdoch, Michael R. Bloomberg and Lowell W. Paxson, Ms. Iseman’s client. (Last year he voted to end the practice.)

Mr. McCain helped found a nonprofit group to promote his personal battle for tighter campaign finance rules. But he later resigned as its chairman after news reports disclosed that the group was tapping the same kinds of unlimited corporate contributions he opposed, including those from companies seeking his favor. He has criticized the cozy ties between lawmakers and lobbyists, but is relying on corporate lobbyists to donate their time running his presidential race and recently hired a lobbyist to run his Senate office.

“He is essentially an honorable person,” said William P. Cheshire, a friend of Mr. McCain who as editorial page editor of The Arizona Republic defended him during the Keating Five scandal. “But he can be imprudent.”

Mr. Cheshire added, “That imprudence or recklessness may be part of why he was not more astute about the risks he was running with this shady operator,” Charles Keating, whose ties to Mr. McCain and four other lawmakers tainted their reputations in the savings and loan debacle.

During his current campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, Mr. McCain has played down his attacks on the corrupting power of money in politics, aware that the stricter regulations he championed are unpopular in his party. When the Senate overhauled lobbying and ethics rules last year, Mr. McCain stayed in the background.

With his nomination this year all but certain, though, he is reminding voters again of his record of reform. His campaign has already begun comparing his credentials with those of Senator Barack Obama, a Democratic contender who has made lobbying and ethics rules a centerpiece of his own pitch to voters.

Much More Bullsnit

of course, they wait until he has all but won the nomination.

[Chris_]

I have been seeing this on all the MSM channels.

My take:  Ooops, premature scandalization!!  By getting this out of the way now, when it can do him no harm, it can't come up later when it matters.

McAmnesty is the Republican nominee.  That is a metaphysical certainty.

Maybe his folks tripped the trap themselves.  It would be a great strategy.

[Wretched Excess]

I have been seeing this on all the MSM channels.

My take:  Ooops, premature scandalization!!  By getting this out of the way now, when it can do him no harm, it can't come up later when it matters.

McAmnesty is the Republican nominee.  That is a metaphysical certainty.

Maybe his folks tripped the trap themselves.  It would be a great strategy.

I just heard on foxnews that the NYT was uncertain about their story, but got "pressured" into publishing it because The New Republic was going to print a story about the NYT not printing this story.

link to TNR blog

[Wretched Excess]

bob bennett (the dem, not his republican brother) is on hannity and colmes slamming the NYT hit piece right now

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

I said they were going to launch after him in a New York minute. Any McCain supporters that voted for him thinking he was going to bring "bipartisanship" to America were only deluding themselves. Bipartisanship is merely lib-speak for bullying republicans into sacrificing their principles/promises.

Leave is to the NYT to actually make me feel sorry for the schmuck.

[Splashdown]

This is great news for the McCain campaign. If the Slimes had anything, they'd be keeping their powder dry until much, much later. As it is, this will cement some conservatives to his side. If the Times hates you, you must be doing something right.

[Wretched Excess]

I said they were going to launch after him in a New York minute. Any McCain supporters that voted for him thinking he was going to bring "bipartisanship" to America were only deluding themselves. Bipartisanship is merely lib-speak for bullying republicans into sacrificing their principles/promises.

Leave is to the NYT to actually make me feel sorry for the schmuck.

schmuck, perhaps.  but he's our schmuck now.  hannity, who has been as critical of mccain as anyone possibly could be, spent most of last night not only attacking the NYT from every conceivable angle because of this story, but (and more significantly) also rallying to mccain's side and with a vigorous defense of the senator and probable GOP presidential nominee.

[Wretched Excess]

This is great news for the McCain campaign. If the Slimes had anything, they'd be keeping their powder dry until much, much later. As it is, this will cement some conservatives to his side. If the Times hates you, you must be doing something right.

the other bit of conventional wisdom that you hear from the talking heads this morning is, unbelievably, wondering what else the NYT has on this story, as though there was another shoe left to drop, or they have a bombshell that they have held back on.

it's the weakest scandal story I have ever read.  it's even weaker that DUmmie walt starr chasing GWB all over the internets over the unit citation that starr was sure bush was wearing improperly.

[DixieBelle]

So this is the opening shot??? Weak....

[Lord Undies]

Viagragate!

[Atomic Lib Smasher]

I think it's funny that the New York Slimes basically endorsed McLame the last 8 months calling him a "Maverick" since the campaign began, and now they wanna destroy him. I guess that's what happens when ya let the media pick your candidate for you.

[Chris_]

Err....I seem to remember mentioning in a thread several weeks ago, that when McCain, the media's "darling", is assured of the nomination, that the MSM will turn on him like a pack of wolves.......

Memo to John McCain.......swim with sharks, end up "chum".....

doc

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

I said they were going to launch after him in a New York minute. Any McCain supporters that voted for him thinking he was going to bring "bipartisanship" to America were only deluding themselves. Bipartisanship is merely lib-speak for bullying republicans into sacrificing their principles/promises.

Leave is to the NYT to actually make me feel sorry for the schmuck.

schmuck, perhaps.  but he's our schmuck now.  hannity, who has been as critical of mccain as anyone possibly could be, spent most of last night not only attacking the NYT from every conceivable angle because of this story, but (and more significantly) also rallying to mccain's side and with a vigorous defense of the senator and probable GOP presidential nominee.

Indeed.

I have to say...

I have been VERY critical of McCain. The only thing that can redeem him in my eyes are:

A) Strongly conservative judicial appointees (unlikely considering his Gang of 14 shenanigans and the likelihood his own legislation would get zotted)

B) A conservative running-mate to presumably pick up the reins in 2016.

These two factors will decide my comfort level in pulling the lever on his behalf. If nothing else I think we need focus on getting a strong congress and senate.

Nonetheless my reluctance to vote for him ebbs now that the lib MSM is resorting to such despicable tactics, Obama is opneing his face with wild abandon and...

...and this is a biggie...

...the local talk radio show had the head of Citizens Against Government Waste yesterday. He said Hillary had over 400 earmarks in her career, Obama racked-up 56 in his brief 2-year stint but McCain had zero.

Hells bells even Ron "Dr No" Paul requested over $400 million for his puny district alone in 2007.

That was encouraging.

[Wretched Excess]

this is actually turning into a good thing for mccain.  conservatives, particularly talk radio hosts, are rushing to his defense.  nothing unites a party like a common enemy.

[Lacarnut]

I said they were going to launch after him in a New York minute. Any McCain supporters that voted for him thinking he was going to bring "bipartisanship" to America were only deluding themselves. Bipartisanship is merely lib-speak for bullying republicans into sacrificing their principles/promises.

Leave is to the NYT to actually make me feel sorry for the schmuck.

McCain has been the media's darling with his pokes at the Prez and Repubs but now the gloves are coming off and shit is just starting to hit the fan. Battle cry of the media; make crap up if you can not find dirt, Keating 5, Keating 5 and any other thing they can come up with. The honeymoon is over for him because the media wants a Democrap in office.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

this is actually turning into a good thing for mccain.  conservatives, particularly talk radio hosts, are rushing to his defense.  nothing unites a party like a common enemy.

Or a blatant, malicious lie.

I got a dollar that says the repugnant lies about him betraying his buddies while in Hanoi get MSM play before this is all over.

Maybe as McCain realizes the media has been playing him for a patsy all these years it will also have the effect of driving him to the conservatives.

[DixieBelle]

I just find the whole thing laughable. It's tabloid journalism. There is no concrete proof of any wrongdoing on McCain's part. No blue dress. Nothing. Zip. Nada. Yet, everyone is breathlessly reporting this. Let them. It's good to shine a light on stupidity.

I'm not crazy about McCain but I'm getting a kick out of seeing the media salivate over a non-story. An old non-story at that.