A few months ago, just a few days before Christmas, Drudge reported that the New York Times was poised to publish a “high-impact report” involving John McCain and “key telecom legislation.” There were very few details, but McCain had reportedly already hired an attorney to deal with the controversy, while the senator and his campaign “pleaded” with the NYT not to run with the story.
And then … nothing. The story (and the rumors) went away, and the political world moved on. That is, until today, when the NYT ran this front-page blockbuster on McCain and his relationship with a younger telecom lobbyist who seemed to spend quite a bit of time around the Arizona senator.
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. […]
[I]n 1999 she began showing up so frequently in his offices and at campaign events that staff members took notice. One recalled asking, “Why is she always around?”
According to the article, McCain aides were ultimately instructed to keep Iseman away from the senator at public events. Even more seriously, two former McCain associates reportedly confronted McCain about the issue, and both said McCain “acknowledged behaving inappropriately and pledged to keep his distance from Ms. Iseman.”
We’ve all heard jokes about McCain being in bed with lobbyists, but few ever suggested the mockery was literal.
Now, reading through the Times’ very lengthy article, one notices that it feels at least a little thin. The evidence is hardly overwhelming, and the article is padded with extraneous details. As Josh Marshall put it:
[I]t seems to me that we have a story from the Times that reads like it’s had most of the meat lawyered out of it. And a lot of miscellany and fluff has been packed in where the meat was. Still, if the Times sources are to be believed, the staff thought he was having an affair with Iseman and when confronted about it he in so many words conceded that he was (much of course hangs on ‘behaving inappropriately’ but then, doesn’t it always?) and promised to shape up. And whatever the personal relationship it was a stem wound about a lobbying branch.
I find it very difficult to believe that the Times would have put their chin so far out on this story if they didn’t know a lot more than they felt they could put in the article, at least on the first go. But in a decade of doing this, I’ve learned not to give any benefits of the doubt, even to the most esteemed institutions.
Fair enough. But one also gets the sense that this NYT piece is the opening salvo.
As for McCain’s campaign, the response to the revelations was also a little thin.
“It is a shame that the New York Times has lowered its standards to engage in a hit and run smear campaign. John McCain has a 24-year record of serving our country with honor and integrity. He has never violated the public trust, never done favors for special interests or lobbyists, and he will not allow a smear campaign to distract from the issues at stake in this election.
“Americans are sick and tired of this kind of gutter politics, and there is nothing in this story to suggest that John McCain has ever violated the principles that have guided his career.”
You’ll notice, of course, that there aren’t any firm denials in the statement at all.
A few other angles to keep in mind:
* It’s not just about adultery: “In late 1999, Ms. Iseman asked Mr. McCain’s staff to send a letter to the commission to help Paxson … Mr. McCain complied. He sent two letters to the commission, drawing a rare rebuke for interference from its chairman.”
* It wouldn’t be the first instance of adultery: “McCain was still married and living with his wife in 1979 while, according to The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof, ‘aggressively courting a 25-year-old woman who was as beautiful as she was rich.’ McCain divorced his wife, who had raised their three children while he was imprisoned in Vietnam, then launched his political career with his new wife’s family money.”
It’s a story with all kinds of potential. We’ll know more soon.