McCain's sweeping denial may have hole

Newsweek ^ | Feb 22, 2008 | Michael Isikoff

[HapaxLegamenon]

A sworn deposition that Sen. John McCain gave in a lawsuit more than five years ago appears to contradict one part of a sweeping denial that his campaign issued this week to rebut a New York Times story about his ties to a Washington lobbyist.

[HapaxLegamenon]

Doesn't look good.

[mewzilla]

This is rich coming from Spikey Isikoff...

[Petronski]

To hell with Michael Isikoff.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

McCain WAS at the party at Canseco’s house?

[padre35]

Isikoff? Wasn’t that the Koran in the Toilet in Gitmo writer?

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Well, it looks like McCain has gone and let himself get caught in a bald face lie on live national television.

The best thing he could do now is gracefully exit the presidential race and turn all his delegates over to Duncan Hunter, who will go on to trash Obama during the general election... :)

[lady lawyer]

So, five years later he didn’t remember a particular conversation. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. What he has said is that he wrote a letter asking an agency to please make a decision on a matter that had been pending for twice as long as it usually took matters to get through that agency. But he was careful to say that he was not asking them to decide in favor of Paxson. I just fail to see anything wrong with that. And the fact that they keep trying to make this into something is beyond belief.

[AuntB]

McCain draws scrutiny over $1m loan to campaign

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/21/johnmccain.barackobama

[snip]Feb. 22, 2008 - The Federal Election Commission (FEC) released a letter to McCain today that questions his ability to withdraw from the presidential public financing system – and avoid the spending limits that come with it. The FEC asked McCain to explain whether he used public funds as collateral for a $1m bank loan last month, a move that would commit him to a taxpayer-funded campaign.

The query is especially awkward on a day the senator is fighting allegations he had an affair with a lobbyist, and given that he has blasted Obama for appearing to hedge on his pledge to accept public financing for the general election. The likely Republican nominee accused Obama of “Washington doublespeak” yesterday, noting that both men agreed to take taxpayer funds and play by the rules that doing so entails.

[trumandogz]

Gov. Huckabee, please pick up the Red Courtesy Phone.

[mewzilla]

From 1999, on Spikey....

Spikey's Hypocrisy

[TommyDale]

Isikoff is the guy who couldn’t pull the trigger in the Monica Lewinski story.

[K-oneTexas]

The goal here is to tie McCain up in knots and spend all his time answering old/ancient he said/she said and innuendo ... so he can not campaign and state policy and principle.

[MNJohnnie]

REALLY desperately reaching to find anything to keep the story alive.. Read what the article is actually claiming. The two statements do not contradict each other in any way shape or form. This is pathetic even by "they flushed a Koran at Gitmo" Newsweak standards. He said he was contacted by Paxson, not by the Lobbyist as the Times, and now Newsweak, claims.

No matter how much one may dislike McCain, this is just inexcusably sloppy "journalism"

Just hours after the Times's story was posted, the McCain campaign issued a point-by-point response that depicted the letters as routine correspondence handled by his staff—and insisted that McCain had never even spoken with anybody from Paxson or Alcalde & Fay about the matter. "No representative of Paxson or Alcalde & Fay personally asked Senator McCain to send a letter to the FCC," the campaign said in a statement e-mailed to reporters. But that flat claim seems to be contradicted by an impeccable source: McCain himself. "I was contacted by Mr. Paxson on this issue," McCain said in the Sept. 25, 2002, deposition obtained by NEWSWEEK. "He wanted their approval very bad for purposes of his business. I believe that Mr. Paxson had a legitimate complaint.

[mewzilla]

And on McCain, just for giggles...

McCain aide linked to Russian billionaire

[b4its2late]

Leave it to NewsWeak.

[mass55th]

Must be Mike is really getting his rocks off with the McCain story since he was never allowed to report the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal.

[stuartcr]

Yeah, I’m a dreamer too.

[KC_Conspirator]

That did not take long. We all knew that the MSM would turn on him when he got the nomination, but he has even won that yet! Sheesh.

[mewzilla]

Must be Mike is really getting his rocks off with the McCain story since he was never allowed to report the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal.

LOL. One wonders what Spikey's sitting on at this very moment....

[lady lawyer]

No doubt. I didn’t like McCain at all. But the pundits are right. This kind of crap is beginning to make me a supporter. Just as I became a Romney supporter only after Huckabee started his anti-Mormon schtick.

As for the election, politics is the art of the possible. McCain may be bad, but Obama is so much worse it’s not even funny. Elections are usually about the lesser of two evils. It’s time to grow up.

[NRG1973]

“”McCain’s sweeping denial may have hole””

OK, I’m convinced...now lets get Romney back on the ticket.

[ElkGroveDan]

It fits a pattern:

Gray testified that several U.S. senators had approached him and requested that he ease off on the Lincoln investigation. It came out that these senators had been beneficiaries of $1.3 million (collective total) in campaign contributions from Keating.

[ClearCase_guy]

So, five years later he didn’t remember a particular conversation.

In certain respects this reminds me of Scooter Libby. You can get in a lot of trouble by remembering things incorrectly.

[trumandogz]

Poor use of a headline for a story that implies McCain had an affair.

[Abathar]

Well said, I was thinking the exact same thing when I read your post.

[lady lawyer]

This is especially ridiculous when you consider that a senator probably talks with hundreds of people every week. Their entire day is taken up with meetings.

[11th Commandment]

Doesn’t look good you say, it depends on what the meaning of is “is”. From the article, “I was contacted by Mr. Paxson on this issue,” hmmm a phone call is not a meeting. Believe me, if you ever been depoed, you answer the question and nothing else to get those blood sucking, bottom feeding fisher out of your face.

[ARCADIA]

I agree, what Freepers don't realize, is that McCain has been given a FREE PASS by the media - because they felt he stood up to the rightwing in the Republican party.

So they never really investigated him at all. Now, he's the frontrunner so he's getting the scrutiny any others would get.

McCain has committed countless flip-flops and has had throughout his career countless relationships and business deals which give the impression of impropriety.

[Froufrou]

I couldn’t open it, page expired. LL, this is just typical liberal rhetoric designed to time with the primaries. Nothing short of fantastic, yes, but very short of believable.

[Nervous Tick]

>> No matter how much one may dislike McCain, this is just inexcusably sloppy “journalism”

You’re right to put journalism in quotes.

This is not journalism at all, it’s a naked attempt to manipulate the election.

[BallyBill]

Fake but Accurate.

We heard it all mikey, now go away.

[Petronski]

It’s all about the “gotcha.” I have no love for John McCain, but this is obscene.

[rrrod]

is it 2012 yet?

[rbmillerjr]

LOL, it seems a few “conservatives” are attempting to emulate the unbiased reporters from the NYSlimes. What a joke you people are.

[Proud2BeRight]

Thought for the day: Empty-suit and blank resume’ Obama won the landslide victory for the US Senate for Illinois due to a conveniently announced sex scandal involving the GOP candidate. How do you spell deja vu?

[org.whodat]

McCain's subsequent letters to the FCC—coming around the same time that Paxson's firm was flying the senator to campaign events aboard its corporate jet and contributing $20,000 to his campaign—

Sounds like a political kickback to me!

[isrul]

So is anyone surprised? Why do you think the MSM and the RATS wanted McCain for the dream candidate? Stuff, stuff and more stuff. Made up or true; makes no difference. It will keep coming. Support McCain or don’t. But this kind of stuff shouldn’t influence your decision, if you have a brain. This stuff is irrelevant as to what McCain is, for good or ill.

[Just mythoughts]

I can’t helped but be reminded that it was lord McCain that pulled together a gang of 14 to protect the Senate body in their neglect of advise and consent of Presidential nominees. Yet here McCain is allllll about using his particular power as oversight body demanding an act sooner rather than later for the good of lobbyists. What was that number recently cited by President Bush, of vacancies waiting for up or down vote by Senator McCain more respected body also known as the US Senate... 200????

It is a known and or a given one does reap what they sow.

[Rudder]

Someone should have warned McCain that his cozy relationship with the press was only superficial.

[elizabetty]

This is a lose/lose for McCain.

What can his excuse for contradicting himself be? His advanced age?

Wait for Obama to remind people during the campaign that McCain is old enough to be his father.

[TheLawyerFormerlyKnownAsAl]

Newsweek? I’ll try to check out his article the next time I’m at the dentist. I think he subscribes.

[Froufrou]

Oh course, you’re right; the timing tells it all.

[Polyxene]

Can we have a “do-over” of the GOP primaries??? I live in Ohio and haven’t voted yet!!

[apocalypto]

This isn’t his first lie in front of cameras. I cannot feel sorry for him after what he did to Mitt Romney.

[TBP]

Speaking as probably the only FReeper who has actually spoken to Isikoff, all I have to say is that I’ll believe theis when someone produces actual EVIDENCE!

But he did cheat on his first wife (with Cindy.) And he married money the second time around. So his vaunted “integrity” is a little soiled.

[OnRiver]

in your dreams and only in YOUR dreams

[TBP]

Someone should have warned McCain that his cozy relationship with the press was only superficial.

Someone should have warned McCain that his cozy relationship with the press was improper.

[HardStarboard]

>>>This is rich coming from Spikey Isikoff...<<<

The "hole" in the story is from where Isikoff spiked it for about 6 years until the "timing was just right for maximum negative impact on a McCain candidacy.

The Democrats play by a different rule book than us. They are masters of political sabotage.....and we walk around in a fog wondering "what happened".

[E. Cartman]

This is a lose/lose for McCain.

Poor McCain. Looks as if the MSM is going to Vladimir his putin.

[ncalburt]

Mikey I is a hard core leftist nutjob with a depth of hatred for Repub that can never be measured.Newsweek aka News speak ,The Pravda of the dying news magazine world has been marginalized years ago.