Thursday, February 21, 2008

Don't Go There?

While being interviewed by phone last night on MSNBC, Pat Buchanan advised Democratic candidates and their campaign staffs on how to react to the McCain-lobbyist rumors. Buchanan suggested that it should not be discussed when he said, "Don't go there."

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Don't go there??? Fat chance.

Staten Island Live:
Aides to Sen. John McCain confronted a telecommunications lobbyist in late 1999 and asked her to distance herself from the senator during the presidential campaign he was about to launch, according to one of McCain's longest-serving political strategists.

John Weaver, who was McCain's closest confidant until leaving his current campaign last year, said he met with Vicki Iseman at the Center Cafe at Union Station and urged her to stay away from McCain. Association with a lobbyist would undermine his image as an opponent of special interests, aides had concluded......

....Three telecom lobbyists and a former McCain aide, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that Iseman spoke up regularly at meetings of telecom lobbyists in Washington, extolling her connections to McCain and his office. She would regularly volunteer at those meetings to be the point person for the telecom industry in dealing with McCain's office.....

......and this from The New York Times: (This is a very large article and I suggest that you follow the like and read all of it.)

Early in Senator 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 fund-raisers, 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.....

I wonder how the Republicans will react to these rumors?