General Election Update: Casting Sleazy McCain Aspersions
I’m sick of the NYT/McCain scandal already.
Did he have improper lobbyist relationships? Did the NYT go to print with second-rate sources? And, most importantly, did Senator Straight Talk screw that lady that looks just like his second wife?
Because he was married before you know…
The NYT kneecap was sleazy enough. They might have had a good story with the lobbyist ties, but they messed it up by going for the sex angle with bad sourcing. Isn’t it enough that a senator who prides himself on being above Washington trash gets caught with his hands in the dumpster? Especially when he got bit it in the 90s for the same thing?
No.
So now, some lefty blogs - and I’m just picking on Crooks and Liars because it was a particularly bad example - are going to town on the sex angle. Here’s how John Amato opened up a Thursday post called ‘Cheaters Write Letters‘:
I find it interesting that McCain didn’t deny having a relationship with Iseman all that much, but that’s not the big story since he had cheated on his first wife anyway.
Mother of hell. Every liberal who ever criticized Republicans for railroading Bill Clinton over the Lewinsky scandal had better take a long, hard look at how they want to cover this story. That quote above is just some tacky, tacky horribleness.
Not to mention that all liberals had to do was sit back and let the right wing hate on John McCain all the way to an Obama/Clinton White House. Rush and all the usual suspects fancy McCain in the White House only marginally more than they like either of the Democratic contenders.
I read somewhere that this story - since it really started in December - might have originated as a right-wing hit piece to keep McCain from becoming the nominee. Well, that didn’t work. But now, with the ‘liberal’ NYT attacking McCain - and in such a audacious fashion - they’re all coming to his aid.
Plus, McCain had happily hamstringed himself with the FEC, and now he’s got donations coming in because of this story.
At least the NYT should have proved, once and for all, its lack of liberal bias - because they just played right into the hands of the McCain campaign. And the lefty blogosphere is doing the same.
So what I have to say is: Just Stop.
No more sex stories. No more pictures/captioning like this. Because every time the left behaves like what we detest, Rush and Co will stir up their base with stories of how horrible we are.
And the terrible part is, we’ll deserve it.
Links:
For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk [NYT]
McCain Gathers Support and Donations in Aftermath of Article in The Times [NYT]
Cheaters Write Letters [Crooks and Liars]
McCain story proves incendiary among journalists, conservatives [LA Times]
Analysis: McCain Loses Leverage [AP]
McCain’s FEC Problem [TPM Muckraker]
Rep. Rick Renzi Indicted For Extortion, Wire Fraud, Money Laundering And Other Crimes [Think Progress]
