“Questions of honor are raised as much by appearances as by reality in politics,” wrote John McCain in his book Worth Fighting For. “And because they incite public distrust they need to be addressed no less directly than we would address evidence of expressly illegal corruption.”It was for reasons of appearances - not facts - that McCain aides in 1999 were reported as having attempted to distance the Senator from an attractive lobbyist that was half his age.
From what the
New York Times and
Washington Post are both reporting today in terms of substance it appears to me that the biggest threat the blonde haired, Vicki Iseman presented was the appearance of hypocrisy in McCain's push for ethics standards.
For the NYTimes to intimate more than that - without hard evidence - is appalling but not surprising given the Times' political bias and bent.
If it WAS completely out of the norm for Senator McCain to write such "highly unusual" letters to the FCC as chairman of the committee that had oversight then the case could be made I suppose that he was mysteriously motivated for action on the matter regarding Paxon Communications, but the fact that the letters don't seem to ask for a resolution one way or the other seems to indicate that McCain is telling the truth when it comes to the substance of the charges.
One last word... McCain better steel himself. He has had the free-est of free rides these last eight years. He was the media's darling as long as he was opposing the "evil" President Bush. But that ship has sailed, that affair over, and he had best be ready for every skeleton in his closet, every vote and action he has taken, and every moment of his private life to be revealed.
Because the NYTimes and others will see to it that they are...