The Senator For Sale story has legs - but don't expect the MSM to report it this way yet. It will take much discussion on the net before the talking heads pick up on how important it is. Only after the boring Sunday morning gods stick their dainty little toes in the water will the newscasters turn it to see this particular angle. Until then, the sex angle is their safety net.
Posted by jcricket at February 22, 2008 06:09 AMTo save nails, I wouldn't nail down McCain's coffin yet. Nixon came back and Obama is running on fumes from the get go.
Posted by Koshembos at February 22, 2008 06:11 AMNewsweek has an interesting article on this. As I see it, facts that we know, the romance angle is shaky, although he certainly has a history of that kind of thing..But the situation with the lobby money, and whether the woman actually said she could deliver him, is the real thing. Basically, there is a good indication that he's doing one thing and preaching another, and the facts on that shouldn't be hard to dig up, assuming the Media wants to. Lets be clear about one thing...McCain is the GOP presidential nominee. If damaging accusations/facts come out, they are screwed. Their fallback position? Hello, Dick. I'm guessing this will go away pretty quickly.
Posted by T2 at February 22, 2008 07:24 AMI agree with NYT Brooksey this morning when he said that McCain is finished if evidence of the affair or the warning meetings comes to light. I am all but certain about the latter meetings, given all the evidence, and his denial is a lie that should undo his Presidential bid.
Posted by bob h at February 22, 2008 07:52 AMThere is certainly enough meat on dem bones to derail the straight talk express. The danger, however, as we've already seen, is that the Corporate-Owned talking heads are obediently deflecting the easily distracted American public in two important ways.
First the McCain camp issue blatantly false, chutzpha-filled, flat out denials of many patently objective facts. It's the classic, are you going to believe me or your lying eyes? tactic. The press corpse helps out by ignoring the truth and squawking about the SEX aspect. IS IT TRUE? Despite the fact that it was entirely peripheral to the actual story, if they focus on that and there's no real evidence, then Dan Rather is a dog and there's nothing to see here!
The second enablement is simply "reporting" on all the unhinged attacks on the messenger. In this case, it's the loved-to-be-loathed LIBERAL, LEFTY, EEeevil New York Times. This evokes a Pavlovian response in all the wingnuts, the genuine liberals dismiss it as deranged and the media-based liberals, the Colmes squad, huddle protectively and say nothing.
Shameless lies almost always work for Republicans. The Washington Post is doing valuable work, so far, but I would wager if they get no support, or get hammered too heavily, the subject will fall into the River Lethe within the week. Let's hope there's more to the sex angle than we've seen so far. That's our best guarantee that this thing will grow more legs than a centipede.
I've read the the Huckabee camp are praising the Lord for this new proof of his mysterious ways. Maybe the religious wingnuts will be our allies in this, for once. Besides, it looks like we'll always have Michelle Malkin!
Posted by DeminNewJ at February 22, 2008 07:53 AMI also love the dual GOP attack on the New York Times for reporting this "unsubstantiated rumor" and...for not reporting it earlier.
It is reminiscent of that classic borscht-belt joke (also featured in Annie Hall) about the two elderly women exiting a restaurant:
"Boy, the food at this place is really terrible."
"Yeah, I know; and such small portions."
I think Kevin Drum has it right on this: now that McCain is avoiding the media instead of chumming with them, it is going to invite scrutiny and change his narrative.
Posted by CA Pol Junkie at February 22, 2008 09:23 AMoops....breaking news says McOld himself testified about his conversations with Paxon.....the ones he denied yesterday.
Posted by T2 at February 22, 2008 09:49 AM"Nixon came back"...
...Yea, and just like Nixon, McCain is being dogged by his checkered past.
Posted by TIKI AL at February 22, 2008 11:32 AM