Newsweek: We caught McCain in a contradiction! Update: I met personally with McCain, says Paxson
posted at 5:46 pm on February 22, 2008 by Allahpundit
Share on Facebook | printer-friendly
So, judging by Memeorandum, here’s the big scoop that’s going to wreck Maverick’s candidacy. His campaign put out a statement the other night claiming he’d never been personally asked by a firm named Paxson in 1999 to send a letter to the FCC about approving a transaction they had pending. There’s no dispute that Paxson contacted McCain’s staff to send a letter, a reminder that the great anti-lobbyist isn’t so anti-lobbyist after all; the question is purely whether anyone went to Maverick himself. Michael Isikoff dug around and found out McCain said in a deposition in 2002, “I was contacted by Mr. Paxson on this issue.” So he’s lying! But wait:
“We do not think there is a contradiction here,” campaign spokeswoman Ann Begeman e-mailed NEWSWEEK after being asked about the senator’s sworn testimony five and a half years ago. “We do not have the transcript you excerpted and do not know the exact questions Senator McCain was asked, but it appears that Senator McCain, when speaking of being contacted by Paxson, was speaking in shorthand of his staff being contacted by representatives of Paxson. Senator McCain does not recall being asked directly by Paxson or any representative of him or by Alcalde & Fay to contact the FCC regarding the Pittsburgh license transaction.
“Senator McCain’s staff recalls meeting with representatives of Paxson, and staff was asked to contact the FCC on behalf of Senator McCain,” Begemen continued. “The staff relayed to Senator McCain the message from Paxson’s representatives. But we have checked the records of the Senator’s 1999 schedule and it does not appear there were any meetings between Senator McCain and Paxson or any representative of Paxson regarding the issue.”
Read down to the very end of the piece for the full 2002 exchange, in which McCain stresses that he did write the letter but made sure Paxson’s people understood that he couldn’t and wouldn’t ask the FCC to rule a certain way. The one eyebrow-raising detail in all this is that the FCC chair at the time described McCain’s communications as “highly unusual.” But listen to this audio from the John Gibson radio show with Lanny Davis, the former Clinton aide who was lobbying on the same deal as Paxson, about just how unusual it was. Stick with it until the end, as it includes a relevant detail or two that the Times didn’t see fit to make much of. Like David Brooks says, the extent to which this story has legs depends on the sex angle, which is easy for the public to digest and stay on top of. If McCain diddled, he burns. If not, not.
Update: That Silkyesque fundraising ploy? Silky indeed.
Update: Paxson says he did meet with McCain and Vicky Iseman was probably there, and, er, that’s it.
“We understood that he [McCain] did not speak directly with him [Paxson]. Now it appears he did speak to him. What is the difference?” [McCain's lawyer, Bob] Bennett said. “McCain has never denied that Paxson asked for assistance from his office. It doesn’t seem relevant whether the request got to him through Paxson or the staff. His letters to the FCC concerning the matter urged the commission to make up its mind. He did not ask the FCC to approve or deny the application. It’s not that big a deal.”…
Paxson defended Iseman as a complete professional and said she was at her best when she worked on the Pittsburgh deal. He said they turned to McCain often when they ran into interference at the FCC, but Paxson added that McCain did not always agree with him. In three other major issues, Paxson said, McCain took the opposing viewpoint.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Comment pages:
Just keep throwing and see what sticks.
davidk on February 22, 2008 at 5:50 PM
ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz………..
Chakra Hammer on February 22, 2008 at 5:54 PM
MSM loses this one, in as much as it can be seen by any sane ,rational person that this whole issue is just plain lame.
But, then again, sane and rational is not the provence of fainting ,drooling acolytes.
bbz123 on February 22, 2008 at 5:56 PM
Michael Isikoff is an obnoxious little beta male who LOVES GOTCHA’ no matter if it is apropos of anything at all. And he always has been.
Ex-tex on February 22, 2008 at 5:59 PM
A Nero allusion?
ronsfi on February 22, 2008 at 5:59 PM
This is not going to stop. The MSM is going to continue to pile on until the election ends in a 50 state sweep for the Dems. McCain is an easy target for them. The prediction that the media was going to turn on McCain the second he secured the nomination was probably the easiest prediction of this campaign season. They are going to make damn sure that McCain is completely unelectable when matched up agains either Dem candidate. They propped him up and they can just as easily knock him down. Perfect! Other then that things look sunny and bright for the Republicans. This ought to be a good lesson for us right leaning voters: If the NYTimes endorses, place your votes elsewhere.
Zetterson on February 22, 2008 at 5:59 PM
Diddling is bad. I suppose diddling a lobbyist is worse. I suppose diddling a lobbyist then doing her a favor is even worse. This sure didn’t take long, did it? Next thing, we’ll probably find out she is an illegal immigrant.
a capella on February 22, 2008 at 6:00 PM
And again, as even lapdog Lanny Davis said yesterday, Senator McCain was asked to intervene and did not, in keeping with the law and propriety.
The MSM has done more in the last 48 hours to bring Republicans together than the entirety of the campaign season to date. Thank you, idiots.
thirtypundit on February 22, 2008 at 6:02 PM
The liberal media start rooting through 7-year-old depositions after McCain’s nomination is locked up? Not a chance in Hell. There was a REASON the liberal media backed this guy to the hilt during the nomination.
logis on February 22, 2008 at 6:03 PM
Oh yeah, don’t forget, Isikoff was involved in Newsweek’s spiking of the Monica story which launched a thousand alarm lights on Drudge. So he knows when to ignore a story.
thirtypundit on February 22, 2008 at 6:04 PM
Sweep the leg, Johnny. Sweep the leg.
liquidflorian on February 22, 2008 at 6:06 PM
McCain needs to drop his candidacy now for the good of the party and for the good of the country. Can his ego really be so big that he would drag the nation down with him? Make us pay for his sins?
Buddahpundit on February 22, 2008 at 6:09 PM
I didn’t think the FEC was going to let him off the hook on still being part of the federal funding program till August. Didn’t they tell him he couldn’t do this?
a capella on February 22, 2008 at 6:09 PM
Ok, Liberal media, it’s getting kind of sad now. Not that I’m not interested in any real scandal, but there are no facts and no on-the-record sources to back this 8-year-old story up.
Now we’re looking through 6-year-old depositions to see if we can prove on part of McCain’s litany of defense wrong. Oy.
amerpundit on February 22, 2008 at 6:10 PM
Everyone needs to understand something: McCain will not drop his candidacy. Besides, who’s going to replace him? Tax-raising, Nanny-stater Huckabee?
amerpundit on February 22, 2008 at 6:12 PM
That’s the downside of being able to claim he has the most experience. The media will take it as a challenge/opportunity. Gonna be a long summer.
a capella on February 22, 2008 at 6:13 PM
a capella: he can fundraise to his heart’s content; he can only spend $54M before the convention; he’s already spent $49M. All this with the proviso that the FEC sustains the status quo.
thirtypundit on February 22, 2008 at 6:13 PM
Right. That’s why I question McCain’s decision to decline further comment. It leaves MSM in control of the public narrative, and they will hammer him relentlessly with their smears.
The best defense to this bs is a good offense. I think McCain should seize on the NYT story as an object lesson in MSM dishonesty, and ride that pony from here to November.
petefrt on February 22, 2008 at 6:14 PM
Over eight months to go. This is just the first and weakest salvo.
IIRC, media heads said they would deliver 16 points to Kerry in 04. Looks like they are working on 20 for 08.
jukin on February 22, 2008 at 6:14 PM
Ol’s Mav, sitting in his room. rubbing his hands together..
saying thanks to the NYT…
and saying “SUCKERS” to the conservatives
TOPV on February 22, 2008 at 6:15 PM
OK, we are talking about the same John McCain here, right? This guy still thinks this is some sort of lover’s spat, that and the New York Times will start endorsing him again any day now.
It’s the Cynthia Mckinney syndrome. McCain has been living in this fuzzy warm ego-inflating media bubble for years. He’s just now entering the first stage of withdrawal: denial.
logis on February 22, 2008 at 6:16 PM
Ah, I see. Thank you. At least he doesn’t have to pay for the publicity in the NYT. A freebie!
a capella on February 22, 2008 at 6:18 PM
I think your tinfoil hat is on too tight. If you seriously think the NYT’s goal is to help McCain against Obama, you need to get some fresh air.
amerpundit on February 22, 2008 at 6:23 PM
It would be between Huckabee and Romney. They already qualify by RNC rules because they have received a majority of delegates in at least five states each.
There is probably a process by which the rules can be changed with enough delegate votes that would allow for other candidates to be considered.
Buddahpundit on February 22, 2008 at 6:26 PM
The fainting in the Obama crowds is nothing unusual according to Karl Rove. Any time you pack a large number of people into a condensed area, it is not unusual to have someone faint. What is unusual is that Obama is the first politician to bring this fact out to the crowd and give directives on how the person should be helped. This in turn makes the fainting in his presence seem like a phenomenon. This guy is better than Slick Willie on his best day.
volsense on February 22, 2008 at 6:27 PM
Ok anti-Johnny Macs, how do you fix it? Obama gets in. The courts have been packed. The laws have been passed. The military has been forted up. The terrorists are suing YOU right and left for damages. Israel is toast. You have to go to the police station to get permission to take your firearm out of the safe and assemble it at the range. Your taxes are through the roof and you worry that your mandatory-volunteerism voucher isn’t satisfactory. How do you fix it?
You gonna pass new laws? Repeal the ‘bad’ ones. Great. Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and the EU will shake in their boots! Horray for victory in 2024 or 2034. Those now citizens will be ’stripped’ of their citizen ship and exiled. Great. Love it. That is thinking on your feet. They’ll never see it coming! Stupid Dems anyway. We’ll take the country back. We’ll show em!
Limerick on February 22, 2008 at 6:29 PM
Hahahaahhahahahaaha!!
Oh, wait a minute. You were being serious? Whoa.
To your point though, considering the NYTimes agenda, why would they be behaving in a manner detrimental to the Democrat candidates? If you put a little bit more thought into this then you already have you will come to realize, they wouldn’t. They are going to do everything they can to elect the Democrat. Everything. And its going to work. Not because its printed on the front page of the NYTimes but because the NYTimes dictates what is going to be the lead story on every TV station around the country. As a result it is the topic of discussion everywhere. Its how the establishment media functions.
And also, what are you going to say when one morning you look up to see a severly destroyed McCain campaign adjacent to a NYTimes reporter rubbing his/her hands together saying thank you to Independents and Dems who turned out to vote for McCain and saying “sucker” to TOPV? Just wondering.
If you don’t think its going to come to that, do you want to place a bet? Its as sure as the sun rising tomorrow. Watch and see.
Zetterson on February 22, 2008 at 6:30 PM
Huckabee is a nanny-stater, Romney is already out. And, again, McCain isn’t going to give up his candidacy. This is his last shot.
amerpundit on February 22, 2008 at 6:30 PM
Now Isiskoff, there’s is a unbiased journalist…/sarc
d1carter on February 22, 2008 at 6:32 PM
I still want to see how this plays out. Seriously does anyone think that the Times didn’t know how weak the story was? Everything that has happened after the story has been completely and entirely predictable and little ol’ me can see that, I think the NYTimes knew what would happen. McCain’s initial nondenial really makes me wonder. I hate McCain and am at odds with many fellow Republicans on many issues, but I still do not want to see the NYTimes win and am worried they are snookering you all.
This was either one of the biggest and dumbest mistakes in history of media or a trap. Only one makes sense to me.
LevStrauss on February 22, 2008 at 6:35 PM
Romney suspended his campaign. I believe its senarios such as this that is why a candidate suspends their campaign as opposed to, I don’t know, officially dropping out or cancelling or whatever its called. It’ll never happen though. McCain is our nominee. That is settled. No matter what story comes out he is still going to be our nominee.
Zetterson on February 22, 2008 at 6:37 PM
You know, it the Dims were going to nominate someone who wasn’t going to be a socialist, dictator jock sniffing, tax raising, surrender monkey… this might matter.
Sugar Land on February 22, 2008 at 6:39 PM
LevStrauss, you are right but I don’t see this story as a singular event. This is just the begining. Its a tone setter. They are going to attack from every angle imagineable until something really sticks. It will be a weekly occurance and they will not run out of ideas until after the general election is finished.
Zetterson on February 22, 2008 at 6:39 PM
Powerful! It’s what I’ve been thinking too.
petefrt on February 22, 2008 at 6:54 PM
Why would he drop out? If he says he didnt do it thats the story. The NYT can run this thing into the groud if they want it will only take them with it. This crap may have worked in the old days but not anymore.
TroubledMonkey on February 22, 2008 at 6:55 PM
Just to fully explain why I think the trap is a strong possibility:
New Republic and the NYTimes
Why would the New Republic want to go after the NYTimes?
Isn’t it convenient that the New Republic rushed the NYTimes?
Wasn’t McCain supposedly mad the New Republic according to Drudge?
Wouldn’t it be convenient if a hypothetical concrete source did not allow his or her story to be included by the story’s print, the New Republic’s story is excused as the reason for rushing the story without the concrete source, and then they have plausible deniability on the trap scenario. This really could be tag teaming. Then they drop it after Rush lined up behind McCain, after many voters jumped behind McCain, and after a whole bunch of suckers sent him money.
LevStrauss on February 22, 2008 at 6:56 PM
I think you’re right.
God help us.
davidk on February 22, 2008 at 7:02 PM
The NYTimes wouldn’t waste its money or energy on this conspiracy. They want Obama to sit in the Oval office, not McCain. Believe me, they are not going to do anything to help McCain on purpose.
Zetterson on February 22, 2008 at 7:03 PM
…that is… after the primaries of course.
Zetterson on February 22, 2008 at 7:04 PM
The NYT is committed to the ‘Star Trek Universe’. No money. No greed. Everything you want is yours, just ask. Some people will want less. Some more. Some will want to be scientists, some musicians. Barter rules the day, but only until you are ‘comfortable’. Then the rest goes to the ‘common good’.
Where do I sign?
Limerick on February 22, 2008 at 7:07 PM
I dismiss the whole notion that there is anything wrong with working with lobbyists in the first place.
There was nothing nefarious about what Paxon wanted accomplished and the FCC was taking too long to make a decision.
Buy Danish on February 22, 2008 at 7:09 PM
The current situation helps McCain. My scenario hurts McCain and his reluctant supporters. It gets McCain and his reluctant supporters and water carriers on record before they screw him.
LevStrauss on February 22, 2008 at 7:09 PM
And while you’re wasting money, time and effort working for a stillborn vanity campaign, the House and Senate get bluer and bluer. You just blew your wad on a campaign that netted you a blue White House and zero infrastructure for mounting a congressional counterattack.
You just screwed us all. Thanks!
spmat on February 22, 2008 at 7:14 PM
And your plan to counter Limerick’s?
Limerick on February 22, 2008 at 7:21 PM
Aahhhh! I gotcha now. Thanks for the clarification.
Zetterson on February 22, 2008 at 7:23 PM
The situation as stands is a win for McCain. It’s raising him money, it got Rush on his side and much of the Talk Radio Right, it discredits the NYTimes. Even MSNBC is saying wtf. It has help align and somewhat solidify the base of McCain’s general election campaign. But the NYTimes would have known that would be the response and not a long time later, but an instant response. It’s like leaving yourself open for a double jump in checkers. It’s stupidity and it makes absolutely no sense which is why I don’t believe it is over.
LevStrauss on February 22, 2008 at 7:37 PM
The RNC had the solicitation email out before the story settled, all scmhoozie about our common enemy the NYT. So McCain gets to prove he is not one with the MSM.
I think everyone rushed the gun. The fools should not have handed over their delegates before the convention. When Romney bailed it made it look like a rigged convention. At the point, the NYT has every reason to rescue mcCain.
McCain is the preferred GOP candidate of the NYT. They kept him alive and deflated the others
When the spoilers made it look like they were controlled by McCain, McCain needed to become an underdog, fast. The NYT might have been fed a line, or they might have chosen a softball on purpose. It doesn’t matter because McCain got to make a show of banishing the MSM to the back of the plane, and he got to be a a victim of the left.
The RNC mailed out the sobbing fliers and the river changed course flowing back upstream
entagor on February 22, 2008 at 8:39 PM
Interesting take. I have to admit the thought ran through my head during brainstorming the potential motives, but could not say that it was so. It goes to an, “we’re all in this together” scenario kind of like the Judith Miller stories on the war buildup. It is possible, but I would still like to know how the New Republic fits. Was the New Republic story just a catalyst and nothing else? How boring is a story about a story. If getting a scoop was the goal it failed miserably because the NYTimes and the Washington Post were getting all the TV time.
LevStrauss on February 22, 2008 at 8:50 PM
former associates of Bill Keller have heard that he suffers from premature ejaculation syndrome
windansea on February 22, 2008 at 9:11 PM
don’t bogart that joint bro
windansea on February 22, 2008 at 9:14 PM
I can’t remember what I did last week, much less 2002. Nothing to see here folks, move along.
THE CHOSEN ONE on February 22, 2008 at 9:15 PM
What I didn’t see coming was how they would do it…it’s so ingenious: With 24 years in the senate, they have so much history to choose from to twist and spin, by the time the details (of whatever the latest charge is) are hammered out and he’s exonerated, no one is paying attention. Even if he is as pure as snow (which no one is) but even if he is, all they have to do is keep his name in the headlines with assertion after assertion after assertion. The public will soon associate his name with scandal, and he won’t even be able to win back his senate seat.
What a shameful thing to do to a man who has given so much for his country. It reveals the perversion and complete lack of character of our true enemy: the 5th column, the enemy within our borders, our countrymen.
Unless….what? How does he fight back without wallowing down in the very mud he’s trying to stay out of?
JustTruth101 on February 22, 2008 at 9:24 PM
Only when looking at hairy goats.
EJDolbow on February 22, 2008 at 10:14 PM
McCain can be innuendoed for months, and, though none of it has any particular basis, the shadow of slime will give him a shady appearance.
All people will remember is: jeez, these accusations never end!
And that’s good enough to vote for Obama for the sem-cogent.
profitsbeard on February 22, 2008 at 11:35 PM
I’m unmoved by McCain’s tribulations with the NYT. He had no reason to expect anything else, and, as a matter of fact, he’ll have much more serious issues to deal with as we approach the election. He’d best be wearing a cup.
thegreatbeast on February 22, 2008 at 11:42 PM
Don’t worry. We’ll all be able to vacation in Cuba soon. Do you think we’ll be able to catch a glimpse of Teddy, Nancy, Harry, Johnny Kerry, Chuckie Schumer and Barbara Boxer basking near the water’s edge? Relax.
Travis1 on February 23, 2008 at 12:07 AM
So far, this story has helped John mcCain far more than it has hurt him.
No conservative trusts the New York Times and the reporting in that piece was unbelievable shoddy.
This lobbying story doesn’t seem to have legs either. Even if there is some impropriety on McCain’s part, there are too many confusing details about too much stuff for John Q. Public to care.
bigred on February 23, 2008 at 2:10 AM
Funny, how the msm’s going to win this for Mav.
LtE126 on February 23, 2008 at 7:43 AM
testing, sorry
Saltysam on February 23, 2008 at 6:43 PM
Comment pages: