Wow what a crazy night/morning it has been. McCain is under siege by the press, wondering what the hell McCain was up to with a lobbyist by the name of Vicki Iseman. Vicki was seen as a close 'buddy' by his advisers back in 2000 when he last ran for the Presidency. When they got scared of the implications that he might have been having an affair with a telecommunications lobbyist, they ran her off from their precious "Maverick." Oh this story is too bad for him, the press will be like rabid dogs, hunting for more and more of McCain's blood political future.
From The NY Times:
Mr. McCain, 71, and the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, 40, both say they never had a romantic relationship. But to his advisers, even the appearance of a close bond with a lobbyist whose clients often had business before the Senate committee Mr. McCain led threatened the story of redemption and rectitude that defined his political identity.
It had been just a decade since an official favor for a friend with regulatory problems had nearly ended Mr. McCain’s political career by ensnaring him in the Keating Five scandal. In the years that followed, he reinvented himself as the scourge of special interests, a crusader for stricter ethics and campaign finance rules, a man of honor chastened by a brush with shame.
But the concerns about Mr. McCain’s relationship with Ms. Iseman underscored an enduring paradox of his post-Keating career. Even as he has vowed to hold himself to the highest ethical standards, his confidence in his own integrity has sometimes seemed to blind him to potentially embarrassing conflicts of interest.
Oooh. Thats gotta hurt. Well McCain came out swinging and is dismissing the article as hogwash (without being able to completely deny the evidence). He's going to have a press conference later to do, but won't take any questions (bad idea). We'll see him deny away, but that only gives the signal to the press to keep hunting.....and hunt they will. Watching this mess unfold should be interesting, with only bad news for the Maverick on the horizon.
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