Jama Oliver

While John McCain attempts to present himself as the “ethical” candidate, the NY Times tonight released a story on the web raising questions about McCain’s behavior during his 2000 Presidential campaign.

McCain reportedly spent a questionable amount of time with a particular female lobbyist:

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 (NY Times).

While the question of McCain’s possible infidelity is certainly concerning, the more serious political issue is the fact that he was spending this time with a lobbyist. Following the Keating Five scandal, McCain began reworking his image as a champion of ethics and campaign finance reform, so the notion that he was simultaneously carrying on with a female lobbyist is quite damning.

This story has been percolating for a while, as the NY Times has been working on it for several months. Matt Drudge ran a piece on December 20 in which it was revealed that McCain was trying to convince the Times to chuck the story.

What I find terribly interesting about this story is the timing. Granted, we are talking about the NY Times here, but why not run the story when other Republican candidates still actually had a shot of beating out McCain for the nomination? I suppose it’s possible that the Times was still working on gathering sources, etc., but the fact that the NYT is a notoriously liberal paper leaves one with doubts.

Because the story just came out this evening, I’m sure we’ve only heard the tip of the iceberg, and I look forward, in particular, to hearing McCain’s response to the accusations.