"I Told Her To Lie Dere In Dat Position!"

[phamos]

My take on the Times McCain piece? That is one story that has been lawyered to DEATH. They're basically saying everything that they could legally get away with saying, and then ending on a sorta wink-wink-nudge-nudge-say-no-more.

I have no trouble believing that McCain has had affairs. He's pretty much admitted to affairs during his first marriage -- hell, he married Cindy a month after his divorce was finalized. And he pretty obviously has a type -- one which this lovely lobbyist lady fits to a T. I'm seeing a fair amount of argument on the liberal blogs about how the Democrats should play this one out, which I think is good. There's the vengeance camp, and they're all "good for the goose is good for the gander" and pretty much want to destroy him. There's the guilty-conscience folks, who rightly point out how much our side protested about staying out of politicians' pants when it doesn't affect their governance. I tend towards this second group. However, the question is -- did this relationship, which can't currently be defined on the advice of the NYT lawyers, affect John McCain's priorities as a legislator? It's not looking good for the maverick...

Also, you gotta love his camp's total non-denial denial. He's "never violated the public trust"? There are a couple of people who did their banking with the Lincoln Savings and Loan that might have something to say about that.

Comments

Another check for obama

[madisonmassage.livejournal.com]

If it is Clinton and McCain talking about extramarital affairs and finiancial irregularities would devolve into extreme ugly campaigning.

Obama on the other hand would be a different matter. Obama's positive campaign style wouldn't mesh very well with attacking McCain over these issues.

In my view the dems should leave that alone. Focus on policy issues and keep a positive tone. McCain has a lot of respect from moderate voters, i doubt that support would be erroded by attacking the former prisoner of war who has championed finace reform in the legislature...It just won't sell.

Although if Clinton does get the nomination, I would bet she while slog right in to the mud. I really don't want to see a Clinton McCain general election. I think it would be ugly, mean spirited and hurt the country as a whole.

I'm hoping for an Obama McCain race, I think the tone of the election would be much more productive.

later yo

[talamasca.livejournal.com]

I haven't yet read the allegations against McCain. But my view on whether or not to bring up a Republican candidate's affair in an election is that it should depend on whether or not said candidate had attacked others previously for similar marital indiscretions. For instance, if McCain had been on the attack against Clinton for Lewinsky. (I really can't remember if he was in on that.) Then, the charge should be base hypocrisy, not sexual indiscretion, since I don't care one bit what a politician does with his winkie, but I do care about whether said politician is going to hold others to some archaic moral standard that he doesn't hold himself to. (It's like with the Larry Craig thing. I think he should be exonerated legally for his bathroom antics--even if he was indeed trying to pick up someone for sex. But I think he should have been kicked out of the Senate for being a fucking hypocrite on gay issues.)

[phamos818.livejournal.com]

He voted for impeachment, but he actually was careful to say that it WASN'T because of Clinton's indiscretion but simply because of the perjury charge.

Here's the quote, from February '99:

I do not desire to sit in judgement of the President's private misconduct. It is truly a matter for him and his family to resolve. I sincerely wish circumstances had allowed the President to keep his personal life private. I have done things in my private life that I am not proud of. I suspect many of us have. But we are not asked to judge the President's character flaws. We are asked to judge whether the President, who swore an oath to faithfully execute his office, deliberately subverted--for whatever purpose--the rule of law.

He hedged his bets a little. So I'm going to go by his own definition -- I'm not going to judge McCain's character flaws, but instead judge whether the Senator deliberately subverted the rule of law. And on that charge, he's lookin' a little sketchy.