Thursday, February 21, 2008

CAMPAIGN 2008 - The Cost of Being In the Spotlight

"For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk" by Jim Rutenberg, Marilyn W. Thompson, David D. Kirkpatrick, & Stephen Labaton, New York Times

In part

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.

There's more in the full article.

Ah, yes. Being under the microscope. One has to wonder why the McCain people did not see this coming and head it off. After all, they were aware of the problem back "then."

Of course, all the GOP Attack-Dogs will denounce this as a Liberal, Commie, smear campaign when it applies to their own.

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