The hatchet job on John McCain

A key tenant of a Progressive platform is fairness and John McCain got anything but that from a hatchet job in this morning's New York Times.

The story's headline, "For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk," is fair enough; part of the story examines McCain's involvement with the Charles Keating scandal and that issue is fair game in this campaign.

But the story uses suspicions and rumors of an affair that no one is sure even happened as a way of getting into the Keating story. The Times never nails it down and only writes that staffers were concerned that things might look bad for their candidate.

I disagree with most of what John McCain wants to do, but as Progressives, we can't allow cheap hatchet jobs like this to go unchallenged. Publishing rumors such as this does nothing to aid our knowledge of the candidate or his character. It only tells us about his staff's willingness to spread gossip and the media's willingness to lower standards.

Times editors should know better than to behave like supermarket tabloids.

    -- Jim Grinstead

Comments

[newscoma]

I agree. There isn't any weight to the story although as it was breaking last night I was eager to see where it was going.
I agree the Keating element is fair game in this election year.
Why can't this nation talk about the issues instead of creating a seemingly faux sex scandal escapes me.

[concerned]

I like McCain's leadership on campaign finance reform, however, since she IS a lobbyist and the Senator failed to disclose the flight on one of her client's corporate jets with her to the Senate Ethics Committee (but he disclosed other flights he took on corporate jets without her,) the whole thing taints his reputation. Why disclose others but not that one?

After having worked on the Hill, if staffers are concerned to the point that they try to tell a Senator that he should not see one of his friends, there could possibly be something to it.

Affairs are rampant on the Hill, but the allegations of McCain's are more worthy of airing because of a possible conflict of interest. He should have stuck to a flight attendant or staff assistant and the story would have never hit the newspaper.