The McCain Mutiny

Media reports are breaking that McCain may have had a romantic relationship with a 40 year old staffer.

From an article in the Houston Chronicle via The NY Times:

Early in Sen. 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 fundraisers, visiting his offices and accompanying him on 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.

And this:

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 McCain led threatened the story of redemption and rectitude that defined his political identity.

And finally this:

In 1999, she began showing up so frequently in his offices and at campaign events that staff members took notice. One recalled asking, “Why is she always around?”

In February 1999, McCain and Iseman attended a small fundraising dinner with several clients at the Miami-area home of a cruise-line executive and then flew back to Washington along with a campaign aide on the corporate jet of one of her clients, Paxson Communications. By then, according to two former McCain associates, some advisers had grown so concerned that the relationship had become romantic that they took steps to intervene.

A former campaign adviser described being instructed to keep Iseman away from the senator at public events, while a Senate aide recalled plans to limit Iseman’s access to his offices.

In interviews, the two former associates said they joined in a series of confrontations with McCain, warning him that he was risking his campaign and career. Both said McCain acknowledged behaving inappropriately and pledged to keep his distance from Iseman.

Observations:

• If McCain has had a relationship with this woman, it certainly will not enamor him to conservative voters.
• If true, and if rumors of this are known to Huckabee, it could explain a lot about Huckabee remaining in the race despite the now impossible odds of his victory.
• Regardless of whether it is true or not, it represents the long-predicted turn against McCain by the mainstream media. He has long been a media darling, but now that he stands in the way of a full-fledged Socialist from gaining the White House (something the media would love) - they’ll now stop at nothing to destroy McCain.

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