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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (257306)	2/22/2008 6:44:47 PM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 281500

McCain, Dems in Fundraising Battle Over New York Times’ Lobbyist Article by FOXNews.com Friday, February 22, 2008 Border Facebook Stumble Upon del.icio.us Digg email Email comment John McCain speaks at a town hall meeting in Indianapolis, Ind., Friday. He said he would no longer be commenting on the critical New York Times article about him from Thursday. (AP Photo) John McCain and the Democratic National Committee are battling to reap the windfall from the fallout over the article in The New York Times Thursday suggesting the Arizona senator had a romantic relationship with a female lobbyist and did favors for her clients years ago. McCain said Friday morning he will no longer respond to questions about the article, leaving the newspaper to explain why it chose to publish the lengthy and critical profile. But after McCain and his advisers aggressively denounced the article Thursday as false and misleading, campaign aides say the story actually led to their most successful drive-by fundraising effort to date. “There was a lot of outrage across the country on this story, and the campaign has raised a lot of money in the last 24 hours,” said Steve Schmidt, senior campaign adviser, declining to specify how much was raised. Both the Republican National Committee and McCain used the article as a fundraising pitch Thursday. In an e-mail sent to donors, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis asked them “to counteract the liberal establishment and fight back against The New York Times.” Aides said it was the most lucrative e-mail of the campaign. In response, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean urged voters to “hit back.” “McCain and the right-wing noise machine will do anything and say anything to win,” Dean said in an e-mail, directing donors to a Web site where they could “match” the McCain fundraising. “Turning an ethics scandal into a fundraising opportunity is just the start, and exactly what you’d expect a team full of lobbyists to come up with.” Dean called McCain’s ability to benefit financially from the article “textbook sleaze.” McCain turned the tables on the newspaper Thursday, as conservatives and other prominent editors joined the chorus of criticism. The story, in the works for months, was published at a time when the Arizona senator is poised to lock down the GOP presidential nomination. Editors at The New York Times began to respond on its Web site Friday to the glut of reader questions and comments, many of which were negative. After standing by the story Thursday, executive editor Bill Keller wrote on the site that “we all expected the reaction to be intense.” He said the editors and writers knew some readers would disagree with the decision to publish and that they “wrestled” with their doubts, but that he was “surprised by the volume of the reaction.” Keller wrote that at the time he issued the online response, there were more than 2,400 reader comments on the site. He said he was surprised how “lopsided” public opinion was against the paper’s decision, but that few readers seemed to grasp the “larger point of the story.” Keller said the article, an installment in a broader series of campaign profiles, was meant to point out how the candidate who “prizes his honor above all things” has a history of being careless about his reputation. That’s where the suggestions about his relationship with lobbyist Vicki Iseman come into play, Keller said. The original Times article, quoting anonymous sources, described how campaign aides to McCain’s 2000 bid for president wanted to keep him and Iseman apart during that election for fear the two were giving the impression they were having an affair. It also noted how McCain wrote to government regulators on behalf of a client of Iseman’s while he was Commerce Committee chairman. A Washington Post story Friday also detailed how several members of his 2008 campaign have worked as lobbyists, despite his anti-special interest message. “Perhaps the defining narrative of Senator McCain’s career is his long, determined recovery from scandal,” Keller wrote. He added that the paper believed the Iseman relationship was something readers would want to know about their potential president: “Clearly, many of you did not agree.” One reader wrote, “I must say that the McCain article left me embarrassed for your paper. So little substance, but trumpeted prominently as though you somehow had the goods on him … .” The reader linked his comments to an article on Slate.com that said, “Regardless of whether he had the affair, McCain wins.” The New Republic magazine published a long article Thursday afternoon on its Web site detailing the story behind the story and claiming, “What’s most remarkable about the article is that it appeared in the paper at all.” The New Republic lambasted The New York Times for giving the green light, claiming the piece was “filled with awkward journalistic moves” and that it stepped around the suggested trysts with Iseman by focusing on the debate in the McCain campaign itself about the relationship. McCain said Friday in Indianapolis that he doesn’t have any more comment on the matter. “I am moving on. … I addressed every question that was addressed to me. And I do not intend to discuss it further,” he said. But that isn’t stopping observers, journalists and his own supporters from keeping the story — or the story about the story — alive. While introducing McCain Friday morning, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels made a crack at the Times’ expense. Urging people to buy McCain’s book, he said: “After you have canceled your New York Times subscription, you will have money leftover.” Click here to read and submit comments about the McCain story on The New York Times Web site. FOX News’ Mosheh Oinounou contributed to this report.