Oh boy, an all-but-certain Republican nominee who allegedly can’t keep it in his pants…my, my, what else can expect in this election year?
In a lengthy NYT piecethat has been in the works for some time — John McCain’s staffers in 2000 were so concerned about the 71-year-old Arizona senator’s relationship with Vicki Iseman, a 40-year-old lobbyist, that they told him to put the kibosh on contact with her on multiple occasions. Toss in some ethical issues — she had clients who donated to his campaign. This has to be causing agita in the Tool’s 2008 camp.
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, in his offices and aboard 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.
When news organizations reported that Mr. McCain had written letters to government regulators on behalf of the lobbyist’s client, the former campaign associates said, some aides feared for a time that attention would fall on her involvement.
…The lobbyist, a partner at the firm Alcalde & Fay, represented telecommunications companies for whom Mr. McCain’s commerce committee was pivotal. Her clients contributed tens of thousands of dollars to his campaigns.
Mr. Black said Mr. McCain and Ms. Iseman were friends and nothing more. But in 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?”
That February, Mr. McCain and Ms. Iseman attended a small fund-raising dinner with several clients at the Miami-area home of a cruise-line executive and then flew back to Washington along with a campaign aide on the corporate jet of one of her clients, Paxson Communications. By then, according to two former McCain associates, some of the senator’s advisers had grown so concerned that the relationship had become romantic that they took steps to intervene.
A former campaign adviser described being instructed to keep Ms. Iseman away from the senator at public events, while a Senate aide recalled plans to limit Ms. Iseman’s access to his offices.
In interviews, the two former associates said they joined in a series of confrontations with Mr. McCain, warning him that he was risking his campaign and career. Both said Mr. McCain acknowledged behaving inappropriately and pledged to keep his distance from Ms. Iseman. The two associates, who said they had become disillusioned with the senator, spoke independently of each other and provided details that were corroborated by others.
 |
“I believe that the institution of marriage should be reserved for the union of one man and one woman. The Protect Marriage Arizona Amendment would allow the people of Arizona to decide on the definition of marriage in our state. I wholeheartedly support the Protect Marriage Arizona Amendment and I hope that the voters in Arizona choose to support it as well.” – John McCain in 2005, smiling with glee alongside then-chair of Protect Marriage Arizona, the late Lynn Stanley. |
Just imagine all the moralist McCain haters on the far right are thinking right about now, after all, they all want into your bedroom and women’s wombs.
Will this hand the nomination to Pastor Huckabee? All kinds of bad jokes come to mind — was the lobbying horizontal or vertical? Was he lobbying to be the next Viagra spokesman? Is there a not-so-hidden meaning to “Straight Talk Express?
McCain’s interesting response is after the jump.
From ABCNews, a stock response that denies any impropriety in regards to the “lobbying,” but skirts the issue of infidelity:
McCain Communications Director Jill Hazelbaker released this statement to the press:McCain told the NYT that it was not a “romantic relationship.” Well, no, it could have been just all about the booty call. GOP head cases lurking in their personal hetero and homo closets specialize in double lives in order to protect their hypocrisy and voter base.“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.”
No news there. Except the Right never laid off Bill Clinton for his proclivities. It will be interesting to see how they handle this. Let’s get a Freeper report…
Actual Freeper QuotesWe have a country in big trouble, can’t any of these turkeys keep it in their pants and pay attention to business?
Bye bye McCain, this is the bombshell that will destroy McCain, it is allover for the GOP this election, the only question is will it be Hillary or Obama now the McCain is 100% finished….
Huckabee/Clinton/NYT/Obermann dirty trick.
So, this is the story the mediaWHORES were sitting on for months, waiting for an opportune time. Shocked? Hell no, nothing shocks me anymore! Move on nothing to see here just another romance….you know like the one bubba had and the mediawhores kept telling us bubba was just sowing his wild oats.
Nobodys accusing McCain of having an affair with this lady. His crime is talking to her because she is a lobbyist. You inferrred what they wanted you to. That’s the way sleazy scumbag bastards at the Times, MSNBC and the DNC operate.
Which one of our guys leaked this? This was inside information from his last campaign. Somebody who knows where the bodies are buried doesn’t want McCain either.
If Huck is nominated, the dems wins at least 40 states.
Good grief…I guess this is why Ron Paul stayed in too?
Smart freakin serpent mediaWHORES, they were waiting for McPAIN to be the front runner . Also it takes Osama’s wife off the front pages too. BUT, this too can be a ray of light for us, perhaps Romney can get the nomination at the convention…..HMMMM. God works in mysterious ways!
I have a bad feeling about McCain aside from his willingness to go to the other side….he just does not have the mojo to fire people up…..or to convince others that the lies are just that lies…Obama will eat McCain up in any debate…..
“This is a non-story. This will have no effect on McCain’s chances.”
I agree 100%. McCain will be demolished regardless of this story.
I’m just surprised that they didn’t pass it on to Drudge to report. Oh wait! They’d only do that with a Democrat. Dig up dirt on a Republican, and the big newspapers and national networks spill the beans. Dig up dirt on a Democrat, and the story is passed down to an internet site to leak.
The propaganda arm of the DNC launches it’s first attack on the Republican nominee and the weak kneed shmuck contingent here at FR cheers them on.
I think it was either Huck’s campaign or mcCain’s campaign. I find it hard believe that any would not wait til within 6 weeks of the election to release this. My guess it’s Huckabee’s oh so religious people.
Yes, that was the first question out of my hubbie’s mouth tonight - is it too late for Romney to come back or win the nomination? We can dream, but it’s a longshot. MSNBC is having a field day right now and is ripping McCain to shreds on lots of other issues, besides this story. It has begun.
McCain must now step aside, and Romney needs to get back in. Romney endorsed McCain and sent him his delegates. Now McCain must return the favor. For the good of the party.
28 Responses to “NYT: McCain’s team erupted over his relationship with female lobbyist”
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
Damn, where’s my popcorn?
What planet do the freepers live on? Seriously, it’s like walking into Bizzaro Universe…
You know they’ll find some way to blame it all on the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. In 3, 2, 1….
Popcorn with real butter and freshly ground sea salt. Here’s your bowl, Jeff. Only the best for this ocassion.
Am I the only one thinking that for 2 staffers to come forward at the same time, his temper erupted really badly recently? Or something slipped out that made his supporters think he’s unfit for office.
This reminds me a little of the election in Minnesota back in, I think, 1990 or thereabouts. John Grunseth, darling of Minnesota’s right-wing fuckwits had to pull out of the race a month or so before the general election because of pictures of him with “young ladies” at a pool party….
Arne Carlson stepped in and became Governor–and the right hated him the entire time he was in office. Since leaving office, he’s also left the Republican party.
The WaPo dives in. Folks, the lobbying and ethics matter are one matter, but clearly the woman was banned from McCain’s office because of the “close relationship.” It’s all about the GOP sexual hypocrites.
Can’t resist…. something slipped Samantha
It’ll be interesting to see if IOKIYAR or does the media tear McCain to pieces? We’ve got juicy sex and corruption on one side, but the fact that republicans can do horrible things and the TradMed ignores it. I hope it’s a popcorn moment
Ethical issues involving romance with a lobbyist, fine, we can criticize him for that. But I see no evidence that he actually had an affair with her, only that he seemed headed in that direction.
Holy crap, it’s like if Huckabee got caught having sex with Antoine Lavey!
I dunno… this might blow over. But damn, this is going to be fun to watch.
Ethical issues involving romance or the appearance of romance with a lobbyist, fine, we can criticize him for that. But I see no evidence that he actually had an affair, only that he was heading in that direction.
Ethical issues involving romance or the appearance of romance with a lobbyist, fine, we can criticize him for that. But I see no evidence that he actually had an affair, only that he was heading in that direction.
Hey, let’s not forget this portion of his public service… I mean, he’s not conventionally good looking, but if you take off those coke-bottle glasses and put some highlights in his hair, you could get a sort of Hannah and Her Sisters-era Max von Sydow thing going.
Now we know what the “straight” in “Straight Talk Express” is about.
I think Fark actually had a decent point with this one:
Could this be a return from crazy-repressed-gay-hypocritical-religious-right Republican rule to normal old corrupt-inappropriate-skirt-chasing Republican? Seriously, compared to the last 8 years, this is almost quaint. And McCain’s aides showed judgment and awareness, as though they exist in reality. Am I wrong to hope that whatever happens in November, the situation could downgrade from Complete Apocalypse to just Hell in a Handbasket?
Of course, it is also about a billion years old, so maybe he’s completely faithful to his wife and as batshit insane as any Bush disciple now, and we’re screwed.
Well, it’s not a billion years ago. It was eight years ago — probably right at the same time as McCain was howling about Bill and Monica. Were there any Republicans back then who weren’t doing the Nasty Canasta with younger women while impeaching the president for a blowjob?
A smart reporter could hit McCain with a buncha questions about this, toss in some questions about his creepy Bush-love, then jump over to a few questions about his wife’s drug problems and theft issues to see if we’d get a nice public explosion…
McCain ditched his first wife when he was 40 and Cindy was 22 — Maybe he thinks it’s Cindy’s turn to be booted for a younger version.
To be honest, the ethical issues are actually very important.
The potential sexual hypocrisy? (McCain voted for both articles of impeachment in the Senate trials in 1999, right when this was alleged to have happened) Delicious schadenfreude. MMMM, yummy.
I am a little concerned about the conclusions reached by the McCain’s staffers and the New York Times. I don’t know much about the lobbying business, but it seems to me that if you are a lobbyist you want to cultivate a close relationship with the politicians who are in a position to help you. But when a woman lobbyist does this — especially an attractive woman lobbyist — there is a chance that her cultivation of a male politician will be construed the wrong way. I have seen too many women professionals skewered by rumors of inappropriate relationships just because they happen to be female and cultivating business relationships in a male-dominated setting. Would the same questions have been raised about a male lobbyist who behaved the same way?
Was McCain really apologizing for an inappropriate relationship or for just creating the appearance of impropriety?
And for the record, I am NOT a McCain supporter and, if indeed, there is an adulterous relationship I would enjoy the shadenfreude quite a bit.
http://www.usvetdsp.com/mcaind…
Here ya go, Hector B! (re: swapping in the wife for newer model)
Sorry- trying again:
http://www.usvetdsp.com/mcaindiv.htm
Okay, that should work.
Anyone else notice how much Iseman resembles a younger Cindy McCain?
“In a lengthy NYT piece that has been in the works for some time…”
=========
What exactly is it about the New York Times that they’re so obliging as to hold off publication — as with the Bush wiretapping scandal, that one for over a year, until after the election — when a pol asks nicely?
And what got them to finally run it? Did this reporter have to go get a book deal too, or is there some vestigial newspaperly organ — the equivalent of an editorial vermiform appendix, not really good for anything to the modern Professional Journalist™ — that started to twinge and eventually had to be dealt with by actually (gasp!) going to press?
Amazing.
With kind regards,
Dog, etc.
papertrained!
Quoth McCain: “I did not have financial relations with that woman…”.
Margaret is also right about romantic smearing on women who are only doing what the men are doing.
Anyone else notice how much Iseman resembles a younger Cindy McCain?
I seem to remember a photo montage of how all of Teh Donald Trump’s ladies looked like his mother did when he was two years old. Only serially so, going from first wife to the last over time.
Dare we dream that Obama’s true magical power, the power to make his opponent drop his pants in public, is finally manifesting itself?
I can’t wait to have the Republican convention shake out and hear the immortal words the voters heard in Illinois: Alan Keyes.
Would the same questions have been raised about a male lobbyist who behaved the same way?
This is the other half of the problem, Margaret — McCain is a well-known and admitted adulterer who tomcatted around on his first wife and married his second because she was an heiress. With that kind of history, a female lobbyist would have to be extra-super-special-careful because people are judging him by his own past behavior.
There’s something hugely comic about Freepers thinking that Romney would be a bette nominee than McCain. Even if by some magic Romney got the nomination, he wouldn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the general.
Dare we dream that Obama’s true magical power, the power to make his opponent drop his pants in public, is finally manifesting itself?
Can we please wait until he officially wins the nomination before invoking this?
There’s enough garbage about Hillary in teh intertubes these days.