a little story about

mccain and ms iseman. and it ain't pretty. i'm not so offput by the possiblity of an (alleged) affair. i'm offput A LOT by her being a lobbyist with him being a senator

come to find out the ny times had the story for a couple of MONTHS. they just now published it. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. why the wait i ax meself?

'NYT' Publishes Bombshell McCain/Lobbyist Story"
By E&P Staff
NEW YORK It had the story back in December, rumor had it, but The New York Times did not run with it until tonight: detailing some kind of relationship between Sen. John McCain and a lobbyist more than 30 years his junior. The rumors last December died down after other reports suggested that that McCain and the unnamed woman had hired Washington lawyer/fixer Bob Bennett to strong arm the Times. Howard Kurtz of The Washington Post reported then that Bennett had dealt with specific issues raised in the reporting. Whatever went down, the story never ran. Until tonight.The relationship from back in 2000 is part of a much longer story on McCain's ethic that carries multiple bylines: Jim Rutenberg, Marilyn Thompson, David Kirkpatrick and Stephen Labaton. Both McCain and the woman deny the reports, so it is interesting what changed to make the paper carry the story, quite prominently, now, at www.nytimes.com.The Times story tonight reveals: "Mr. McCain said that the relationship was not romantic and that he never showed favoritism to Ms. Iseman or her clients. 'I have never betrayed the public trust by doing anything like that,' he said. He made the statements in a call to Bill Keller, the executive editor of The New York Times, to complain about the paper’s inquiries. .........

For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk
By JIM RUTENBERG, MARILYN W. THOMPSON, DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and STEPHEN LABATON
WASHINGTON — 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, visiting his offices and accompanying him on 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.
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......