Is the NYT implying that McCain had an affair with a lobbyist?

Minor, but important correction - The New Republic.

 

OK, now McCain says he "didn't know anything about" Weaver's meeting with the bimb...er..lobbyist last December.
Alas for that excuse, Weaver -- who is not an "anonymous source" -- told the NYT that he'd arranged the meeting, told three top aides that he had, and then told them what he'd told the bimb...er...lobbyist. So the whole campaign is talking about it. Weaver is dispatched to deal with it. Weaver reports everything to Upper Echelons, and The Candidate doesn't know anything about it?
Bullshit, says I.
Also, young Vicki seems to have gotten around.

 

I agree with Ben that it felt tarted up.

But I will say, Mr. Lugs and I were watching TV when the story broke. And Mr. Lugs says to me, "Was McCain part of the Keating 5? I didn't remember that."

Mr. Lugs is someone who loves politics and history, and he "didn't remember" McCain had been involved in the Keating 5. I suspect most American voters couldn't even tell you what the Keating 5 was.

Our memories have become so fucking short here in America.

Maybe there was a legitimate purpose for the tart.

 

I don't recall your stance on this photo. Does the president posing with someone imply a close relationship? I've got pictures with both Clintons, & I've never been invited to their home for tea.

 

I'll say this for McCain . . . much of his subsequent legislative record of note has essentially been an apology for being roped into the Keating Five robbery.

He gets points from me, for that.

 

I think the romance angle is beneath the Times, who obviously decided it was better to risk being wrong than risk being scooped.

Is it a story that McCain staffers tried (ostensibly without his knowledge) to 'protect' their guy from an aggressive female lobbyist? She's an attractive woman (if you like that look) who got next to McCain in a professional capacity. Lots of lobbyists get next to their targets. He acted on her behalf, he was reprimanded. Asked and answered.

Where's the romance? She got on a private plane with him....how many droves of guys have gotten on a private plane with a politician? If she looked like Candy Crowley we're not having this discussion.

I'm no McCain fan, and if you showed me some evidence of an illicit relationship, I wouldn't be shocked. I just don't see how the Times was willing to shade the story in that direction without anything more than innuendo and gossip.

 

Joshua Marshall makes the point on Talking Points Memo (linked that jgmacg provided) that it's unlikely the Times would have stuck its neck out if they didn't have more suggesting an affair, just not stuff they could go with. Essentially, he summarized it as "Aides learn McCain is having an affair and cofront him. He admits it ("concedes to acting innappropriately") and promises to shape up.

I'm sort of torn by the whole thing. If John McCain cheats on his wife, I don't really care. That's his business. But if he's sleeping with a lobbyist and dolling out favors to her, well, yeah then it's a story.


Nice to see Guy bringing up the Clintons again. Blah, blah, blah. Look over there! Shiny object!

It will be interesting to see where this story goes. Clearly everyone will be digging through the trash now trying to advance it. I don't think McCain can quash this baby, although we're far enough away from the election that if nothing else comes out, no one will remember it at all when they step into the booth.

I bet Romney's people are absolutely furious this didn't come out three months ago.

 

Apparently, all of this had already been reported:

Mr. McCain complied. He sent two letters to the commission, drawing a rare rebuke for interference from its chairman. In an embarrassing turn for the campaign, news reports invoked the Keating scandal, once again raising questions about intervening for a patron.

There was little hard news in the story from what I could tell, aside from the "insider" details on the effort to separate him from Ms. Iseman. It was intended to be a review of his ethics and judgment in light of the way he has reinvented himself as the shiniest apple in the basket.

 

Oh, fuck off and lighten up.
I was making some fun. God knows there's enough actual corruption around President Arbusto J. Saudi that I don't need to gin up a relationship between him and the lovely Vicki. Photos mean nothing. I was just being archival.
And McCain's story about that meeting is still bullshit.

 

It WAS out . . . all the political junkies read Fudge as if its Holy Writ, and it was noted by many of them, no doubt.

I mean, it's within the realm of possibility that Romney people planted it with Fudge.

Politics does make strange bedfellows . . . enemy of enemy is my friend, etc.

 

I'm just not seeing that....they've gone this far out on the limb, why stop there? Why play peekaboo with the story? Either tell it, or you become The Enquirer.

 

So is this the miracle Huckabee was waiting on?