Pirate's Cove

I guess all pretense of the New York Times loving McCain has gone by the wayside

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.

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.

So, you know, the NY Times is not suggesting McCain had an affair (wink wink nudge nudge), they just want to make sure the electorate knows, well, something, though they are certainly not saying he had an affair (wink wink nudge nudge), because that would be wrong. Wouldn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea (wink wink nudge nudge), so, just to be impartial, they went and put it on the front page.

An exhaustive search turns up no mention of the name Rielle Hunter, nor the pretty deep rumors that John Edwards had an affair and impregnated Ms. Hunter. Nothing about her strangely moving to Chapel Hill, which is where Edwards lives, and etc and so forth.

I won’t go down the road of liberals excusing this type of behavior from liberals, you know, getting BJ’s in the Oval Office, possibly raping a woman, pulling out Mr. Johnson while the State Police stand guard……

See a ton of posts at Memeorandum. Of course, so many of the liberals think “he done it!” and have issues with it if “he done it!”

More: Some real seething going on on the Left side. Don’t have time to do a big comment/link dump, but here is one of the funniest, and most telling, progressive comments

While this stuff is always a fun read and much of the stuff about democratic pecidillos make the republicans drool, it really doesn’t make one difference about what makes a good president. We haven’t had many possible bimbo eruptions about the current occupant of 1600 Pennylvania Ave but he is the worst president in history. and bill clinton couldn’t keep his pants on and he will be one of the better ones.

Heh heh.

John Hawkins:

When a Democrat is accused of some sort of affair, the mainstream media is extremely concerned about making 100% sure the story is drop dead accurate, down to the last detail, before they’ll even begin to think about printing the story. That’s why Drudge broke the Monica Lewinsky story to the public, not the MSM. It’s also why stories about affairs involving John Kerry, John Edwards, Barack Obama, and Bill Clinton have been buried or not printed at all in most MSM outlets over the last few years.

However, when a Republican is involved, Weekly Week World News standards become the order of the day and no excuse is too flimsy to run a story about an alleged scandal.

Mary Katherine Hamm

I’m not even going to pull the passage for further circulation, but unnamed sources think there might have been a sex scandal but aren’t really sure, which may or may not have been connected to an ethics scandal that they’re not even sure existed, the evidence for which all comes from eight years ago, and which naturally warrants dredging up the details of an actual ethics scandal for which McCain was punished and has duly apologized and seen-the-light for incessantly since it happened, ahem, 20 years ago.

Michelle Malkin pretty much writes that McCain is hoist up on his own petard.

Ok, really leaving for work now.

Lunch break update: CBS News (yes, they do still have a news department):

John McCain emphatically denied a romantic relationship with a female telecommunications lobbyist on Thursday and said a report by The New York Times suggesting favoritism for her clients is “not true.”

“I’m very disappointed in the article. It’s not true,” the likely Republican presidential nominee said as his wife, Cindy, stood beside him during a news conference called to address the matter.

Good for him!

“As the presumptive nominee, McCain left no wiggle room for himself or his party with his absolute denials of every key charge and insinuation raised by the New York Times article,” said CBSNews.com senior political editor Vaughn Ververs.

I guess there was no reason for Maverick to need “wiggle room.” He apparently doesn’t need a definition of “is.”

The Horse’s Mouth, a progressive side blog, wonders what happens if you replace “John McCain” with “Dem Presidential Contender” in the story. Excellent point.

PS: lots of folks on the left are whining about McCain working with lobbyists, intervening for them, helping them out, and that that is the bigger story. Personally, they should watch themselves, else they get hoist on their own petards. Pretty much EVERY Congress Critter does it, Republican and Democrat. That’s the way the system, unfortunately, works.