Feeds: 
symbol identifies content for paid subscribers only.
BLOCKBUSTER!
From what I can gather, at least from the standpoint of someone who has never thought John McCain had any particularly high level of integrity and could care less even if unsubstantiated implications that he might have had sex with someone not his wife are true, this is about as much a "blockbuster" as The Hottie and the Nottie. I just don't see anything remotely surprising or, with the exception of the well-known Keating scandal, terribly important (although perhaps this portends something else or its political impact will be greater.) And although one might take solace from the fact that the Times is actually taking on the Straight Talkitude Express, the fact that they let his campaign kill an apparently more substantive version dilutes this.
Publius has more. In a rational world, I would agree that it's "hard to imagine the NYT (after institutional deliberation) going forward with such an explosive article with such a thin foundation," but when we're talking about the former employer of Jeff Gerth and Judy Miller this isn't necessarily true.
--Scott Lemieux
COMMENTS (3)
The romantic part is just the fluff, the real damaging part of the story is the fact that McCain is using corporate jets of Paxon Communications at the time they have business in front of his Commerce Committee, especially when you've built a reputation as having "seen the light "after the Keating Five affair. It may not be illegal but it sure is a questionable ethical practice.
At least with incident, the Keating Five incident and the pressure he brought to bear to cover up Cindy McCain's theft and usage of drugs from her medical charity incident, it's obvious his ethical lapses are for friends and family, not money.
Posted by: The Other Ed | February 21, 2008 10:27 AM
In the words of Matt Yglesias:
"Basically, in exchange for money and freebies, McCain sought to intervene in a federal regulatory process in favor of a company that had provided him with tens of thousands of dollars in cash and services. He could try to plead naiveté, but in light of the hot water he got into with the Keating Five affair, which had the exactly same structure, he clearly knew what he was doing and knew that it was wrong."
That's a freaking problem for McCain, whether he was schtupping the lobbyist or not. But given his schtuppage seems to have been an open secret in DC, I can see where the NYT would feel a need to report on it--however badly they did so.
Posted by: anonymous | February 21, 2008 10:45 AM
Trouble is, the substance of the matter involves things like regulation and gov't agencies and things that make people's eyes glaze over. Moreover, the fact that sex has entered into it means that unless this woman has a kid with McCain's DNA or there's a vido somewhere, the substance will be lost under a lot of pearl-clutching about the Times accusing St John The McCain of adultery.
I wish someone would point out that the man whom Nicholas Kristof and Froma Harrop hail as a principled and courageous opponent of torture not only voted for waterboarding (an "exquisite" form of torture, in his words), but is urging Bush to veto a ban on it. Then we can talk about the Military Commissions Act. The man is a fraud.
Posted by: Jim | February 21, 2008 12:39 PM