Thursday, February 21st, 2008...12:19 pm
Some Thoughts On This Whole McCain Thing
First off, I’m going to disappoint many of you (I’m looking at you, Mom) when I say that I don’t believe that John McCain had a sexual relationship with this lobbyist that they are talking about. For one thing, I think Cindy would fry up his testicles with the morning eggs and serve them to him for breakfast if such a thing happened. Also, not believing the charges saves me from picturing McCain having sex with a much younger woman.
Where I think this ends up hurting McCain is it gives license to reporters to finally start asking questions about his relationships to lobbyists. For years, he has been sanctimonious about the relationships between lobbyists, campaign money and access, but his own behavior in these matters has largely been unexamined by the press. In the Times story that broke this, there was a short reference to a bill that opened an air route from Washington to Phoenix. This may have looked like a favor for local company America West, so McCain famously chose never to take the route. He got praised for puting himself above suspicion, but while this was going on, he was accepting corporate flights from people that had buisiness before the senate.
Many senators took advantage of such flights, but they were not trying to be the go-to person on ethics issues and making themselves out to be saints. The fact that the Times went after it, even briefly, means that the fawning media may finally be looking at such things. And these guys, they love the smell of hypocrisy.
11 Comments
February 21st, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Well, Cindy wouldn’t have to fry them herself.
She has family ties, if you know what I mean (ba-da-bing!)
I wonder if the reporter who broke that story is going to be finding a horse’s head in his bed.
February 21st, 2008 at 4:27 pm
So basically Ted is saying “Oh yeah, Senator McCain was in bed with lobbyists…ALL lobbyists!”
February 21st, 2008 at 8:44 pm
You are on a very slippery slope Ted. You never mentioned any outrage over a thin, biased newspaper account with no collaboration. Kinda like what CBS and Rather cooked up a few years ago. I will take the high ground on this issue. I don’t care what party the candidate belongs to this type of journalism is an outrage and should be swiftly dealt with.
February 21st, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Breaking News: John McCain says I did NOT have sex with that woman. I haven’t been able to get it up in years, just ask Cindy.
February 21st, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Walt -
Thanks for the words of warning, but you might notice that I’m dismissing the importance of and I’m dubious of the sex charges.
The corporate jet thing, on the other hand, has been documented in other sources.
February 21st, 2008 at 10:38 pm
Tedski, is it wrong to feel a bit of state pride knowing that Johnny Mac can still get women half his age? Try that, West Virginia!
February 21st, 2008 at 11:16 pm
IT’S NOT ABOUT THE SEX! I DON’T CARE IF HE SCREWED THE LADY OR NOT!
I only care if he screws US!
Anyway, she was as hot for him as any stripper is for a guy with a $20 waving in the air.
February 22nd, 2008 at 8:29 am
I think that the upshot for McCain will be that he will get a bit more support and a nice chunk of cash as well. Word on POTUS08 (XM Radio 130) yesterday that his folks had already sent out a request for funds to battle the ‘liberal media’
This is so early in the process that it won’t have much of problem for his campaign.
February 22nd, 2008 at 8:52 am
Adam, in the words of Molly Ivins: A US Senator is never lonely for long.
February 22nd, 2008 at 11:44 am
Given that this is the New York Times, I am very skeptical. This is the newspaper that gave us Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction via Judith Miller and Gordon Brown. There are other examples of the NYT’s less than stellar investigative journalism, but the most egregious is their contribution to justifying the invasion of Iraq for the Bush/Cheney administration.
The NYT McCain article is so weak that I suspect it’s publication at this time has more to do with an NYT agenda than anything else.
February 22nd, 2008 at 8:32 pm
As far as McCain having sex with a younger woman–
The Arizona Republic reported in 2000 that he joked that his marriage was based on a ’tissue of lies’– that both of them had lied to each other about their age (when they got married he was 43 and she was 25– he pretended to be younger than he was and she claimed to be older.)
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