{"id":14658,"date":"2008-02-21T16:00:10","date_gmt":"2008-02-21T21:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/14658.html"},"modified":"2008-02-21T16:00:10","modified_gmt":"2008-02-21T21:00:10","slug":"mccain-seeks-to-exploit-controversy-for-cash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/mccain-seeks-to-exploit-controversy-for-cash\/","title":{"rendered":"McCain seeks to exploit controversy for cash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just this morning, John McCain was accused of another adulterous affair, this time with a lobbyist for whom he may have done special legislative favors. Naturally, the McCain campaign responded this afternoon with the next logical step in crisis management: exploiting the controversy<\/a> for a quick buck.<\/p>\n

John McCain’s presidential campaign wasted no time taking advantage of an article in the New York Times which portrayed a relationship with a female lobbyist that troubled his advisers nearly a decade ago.<\/p>\n

The article “is particularly disgusting \u2013 an un-sourced hit-and-run smear campaign designed to distract from the issues at stake in this election,” McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, wrote in an e-mail to supporters Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

“We need your help to counteract the liberal establishment and fight back against the New York Times by making an immediate contribution today,” the e-mail also said in text that links to an online contribution form on the McCain campaign’s website.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The very silly fundraising letter, which should insult the intelligence of even the most sycophantic Republican donor, went on to argue “the liberal establishment and their [sic<\/i>] allies at the New York Times” went on the “attack” because McCain is just now “locking up” the GOP nomination. (Wouldn’t it be great if the “liberal establishment” really could just order up critical exposes in the NYT?) That the NYT investigation began three months ago would only detract from the sales pitch.<\/p>\n

The same letter went on to argue, “With John McCain leading a number of general-election polls against Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the New York Times knew the time to attack was now, and they did.” Besides sounding paranoid, can the McCain campaign really identify “a number of general-election polls” in which McCain leads Obama? Because I’ve looked, and they don’t to appear to exist outside the Republican campaign’s fervent imagination.
\n
\nOf course, the Republican National Committee — official motto: Anything you can do, we can do dumber — sent its own letter out today, arguing<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“The New York Times has proven once again that the liberal mainstream media will do whatever it takes to put Senator Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama in the White House.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This would be the “liberal mainstream media” that’s treated McCain like a folk hero<\/a> for eight years? The one often described as “McCain’s base”? The one that heaps praise<\/a> on McCain for pandering, flip-flopping, and abandoning his principles? That’s<\/i> the “liberal mainstream media” intent on destroying John McCain? Just checking.<\/p>\n

And would now be an inconvenient time to note the New York Times’ glowing endorsement<\/a> of McCain less than a month ago, before the New York GOP primary? I’m sure it’s part of some sinister conspiracy that’s only evident to conservatives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just this morning, John McCain was accused of another adulterous affair, this time with a lobbyist for whom he may have done special legislative favors. Naturally, the McCain campaign responded this afternoon with the next logical step in crisis management: exploiting the controversy for a quick buck. John McCain’s presidential campaign wasted no time taking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14658\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}