In Search Of Utopia: Those who live in Glass Houses

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February 20, 2008

Those who live in Glass Houses

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, 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.

When news organizations reported that Mr. McCain had written letters to government regulators on behalf of the lobbyist's clients, 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.

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...

~~should not toss stones!~~ Need to shut the hell up!

Oh yeah and for those who tried to drag Michelle into the mud too... SHUT UP! Same page, see her clarrification...

Posted by David A at February 20, 2008 06:53 PM
Filed Under 2008 Elections | 330 Words

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Comments

I don't see how you connect the two, David.

And as usual, regardless of who it is or what party they represent, I'm waiting to see if someone comes up with something substantive on this. The NYT story seems to be awfully short on sources for this information.

And while you may be able to sneer at some on the right about how they'd leap on this in a heartbeat if it were an accusation against Obama instead of McCain, you know that's not true for everyone (namely, me!).

Posted by: Boyd at February 21, 2008 07:10 AM

I agree that you would not pile on.... At least not until there was more proof. But I do see a link. The link is that he is claiming to be St. John and attacking Obama for MAYBE not taking public funds...

Posted by: David Scott Anderson at February 21, 2008 01:21 PM

While it appears, affair or no affair, that at minimum he used improper influence to help a lobbyist.

Posted by: David Scott Anderson at February 21, 2008 01:26 PM