John McCain, Ethics and the Right’s Resolve
I don’t believe John McCain did anything improper with Vicki Iseman, despite what the New York Times tries to imply in the first paragraph of their breaking news article here. They begin by setting the scene as McCain and a ‘female lobbyist’ who had been linked up with him a few times too many, purely platonic.
The real story is much deeper in the article, where once again, allegations surface which question McCain’s ethics in the harsh light of McCain’s self-defined role as ethics reformer.
Start with this: There is a deep, dark rift in the Republican party over McCain and his sponsorship of the sweeping ethics reform bill — McCain/Feingold (which was originally introduced by Senator Obama). Part of the depth of the rift stems from his relationship with the Keating Five and the Savings & Loan scandals of the 90’s. The real attack isn’t the suggestion that he might have had a dalliance with a woman (though it probably plays well to the Huckabee contingent), but the conflicts of interest, both real and imagined. From the NYT:
Mr. McCain promised, for example, never to fly directly from Washington to Phoenix, his hometown, to avoid the impression of self-interest because he sponsored a law that opened the route nearly a decade ago. But like other lawmakers, he often flew on the corporate jets of business executives seeking his support, including the media moguls Rupert Murdoch, Michael R. Bloomberg and Lowell W. Paxson, Ms. Iseman’s client. (Last year he voted to end the practice.)
Mr. McCain helped found a nonprofit group to promote his personal battle for tighter campaign finance rules. But he later resigned as its chairman after news reports disclosed that the group was tapping the same kinds of unlimited corporate contributions he opposed, including those from companies seeking his favor. He has criticized the cozy ties between lawmakers and lobbyists, but is relying on corporate lobbyists to donate their time running his presidential race and recently hired a lobbyist to run his Senate office.
McCain is an easy target when it comes to philandering, given his marriage to current wife Cindy one month after his divorce from his first wife. It’s easy to believe the “always a philanderer” axiom, but I’m not buying it, though it plays well when splashed across the tabloids and so-called “investigative reports” shows.
But consider what McCain has been doing over the past two days. He’s challenged Barack Obama about agreeing to public funds for the general election on the strength of his own agreement to run his campaign on public funds. If the allegations in this article are true, it’s a pretty audacious thing to do, given his duality with respect to his relationships with lobbyists and corporate interests.
Who benefits from a McCain takedown? Not the Democrats, because polls are showing McCain trailing Barack Obama by a significant statistical margin. Obama himself has to be giving some Republicans heartburn, given his momentum, high profile and attention in the news cycle, which won’t go away anytime soon and which is certainly wooing independents and middle-of-the road Republicans.
There’s a lot about this article that smells bad. The New York Times had the story since December but waited until today to run it? Why, and where did it originate? The tactic is right out of the GOP playbook, which leads me to believe that the far right hard line conservative core of the GOP has no intention of meekly walking to their convention in May behind John McCain.
Who benefits in the short term? Huckabee, of course. Especially with the sly insinuation that there was something improper about his relationship with a young pretty lobbyist with a very similar look to his very pretty much-younger wife.
One way or the other, I’m not sure this has legs unless more details emerge. The crux of the article is that there may have been improper behavior or at the very least, the appearance of improper behavior, which then opens the door to unhinge his candidacy and give the GOP a do-over with respect to their choice of candidate.
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