Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

Whatever the truth is about the details of John McCain’s relationship with ”that” lobbyist, it looks like finally the media’s favorite candidate is going to get scrutinized the same way any other candidate would.

There has been some too easy dismissal of the more salacious charges. Chris Matthews, for example, had an interview with a McCain campaign operative which veered between “poor Johnny is being picked on” and the usual Matthews schtick when talking about McCain.

There are portions of the media whose skepticism of the St. John of All Ethics image is finally starting to assert itself. For example, the Washington Post had a piece about the lobbyists that work his campaign. It is an unfortunate reality that many lobbyists go back and forth between campaigns and their lobbying firms. But most candidates who have lobbyists working for them don’t criticize other candidates for having them on board, and don’t claim that they are the scourge of lobbyists and don’t criticize other candidates for being advised by them.

In the Post piece, they mention Charlie Black, who is quoted in the article as McCain’s “chief political advisor.” Black has been a presence in every Republican presidential campaign since, I think, John C. Frémont. He also isn’t just a lobbyist, but one of the most odious variety that represents brutal dictators, ’cause they deserve a break too. Despite McCain’s assertions of purity, Black is not only a lobbyist who works for him: Black, by his own admission, conducts his lobbying buisiness from the Straight Talk Express.

In a further tarnishing of the image of McCain are revelations that in his press conference the day after the charges broke, he misspoke on two important points. One his denial of anything unusual in his work on behalf of Paxson Communications in a matter before the FCC. His actions were so unusual that the FCC Chairman said as much at the time it happened. As it turns out, some of his denials are contradicted by a source he doesn’t dare attack: John McCain himself in a deposition he gave in an earlier investigation of the matter.

He also denies that there was any pressure exerted on the New York Times. This is from an article in the New Republic, another publication pursuing the same story. The article is by Gabriel Sherman and was critical of the sourcing of the Times story:

From the outset, the Times reporters encountered stiff resistance from the McCain camp. After working on the story for several weeks, Thompson learned that McCain had personally retained Bill Clinton’s former attorney Bob Bennett to defend himself against the Times’ questioning. At the same time, two McCain campaign advisers, Mark Salter and Charlie Black, vigorously pressed the Times reporters to drop the matter.

Sounds like a bit of pressure to me.

I’ve gone way over my self-imposed word limit for this post, but there are also problems on the horizon with the FEC. There is the issue of McCain’s ties to Rick Renzi, campaigning for him after he was under investigation and even putting him on his own campaign committee. To make matters even worse, there are rumors that a Washington Post reporter has been poking around Phoenix to investigate allegations about McCain’s personal life.

Welcome to Earth, John.