Sex, lobbying and media debates
February 21, 2008
US elections 2008: The reporting of a titillating scandal may have the perverse effect of helping John McCain and hurting Hillary Clinton
For the last 24 hours Washington has been aflutter with the most titillating scandal this swampy city has seen in some time. For those inured to the Beltway bubble's siren songs, the issue at hand is a front page New York Times story (published this morning but posted online last night) that alleges Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, had an improper relationship with a lobbyist named Vicki Iseman in 1999.
By February of that year, says the story: "The Senator's advisers had grown so concerned the relationship had become romantic that they took steps to intervene." McCain has roundly denounced the paper, his wife Cindy pronounced herself "disappointed" with the New York Times, the left has questioned why the paper has so little beyond hearsay in the actual story, and right wing commentators have rushed in to chastise the "liberal media" for trying to sully an American hero.
Why this story is important - and why it's not - explains a lot about the unique hot house environment of American politics: our prurient and puritan ways. In the end, when this settles down, there will be likely be one winner - Barack Obama - for reasons I'll detail momentarily. And the person it hurts most? Hillary Clinton.
Politicians and sex go together like beans and cornbread - US history is filled with salacious rumors about this pol or that president. The twentieth century alone is juicy enough - from FDR's relationship with his wife's secretary (Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd) to JFK and LBJ's boundless dalliances, to those shot down before their time - Gary Hart comes quickly to mind, the poor Senator whose presidential hopes were dashed during the 1988 presidential race when Donna Rice was photographed sitting in his lap on a yacht. And then, of course, there was Bill. But we'll get back to Bill.
The conservative right has made sexual impropriety a part of their general package of approved immorality. Extramarital sex goes along with Darwinism (evolution), gay rights and abortion in their lists of the things that are unchristian and therefore un-American. But a subset of that list of no-nos for conservatives, which might have given this story a possibly a secondary impact on Senator McCain, is campaign finance reform.
McCain is now best known in DC as an independent and unsulliable maverick, the kind of guy who (and you hear this phrase a lot) stuck his thumb in the eye of the Republican mainstream for years. But he's also most often associated with campaign finance legislation and his tireless campaign for campaign finance reform. But McCain's fervor is that of a convert. In 1991 he was investigated for his role in theKeating Five, the savings and loan scandal that cost American taxpayers billions of dollars. It's old news here, but today's New York Times story gave it a new airing - both because it calls into question McCain's relationship to his lobbyists (whether in bed or out) and because it reminds everyone of a less black and white time in his personal political history.
It would be more difficult for him had this story broken elsewhere. But the right has chosen to make this a battle between conservatives and liberals. This is the "liberal media" demonising McCain - and every conservative, even those who felt McCain wasn't nearly worthy of the Republican platform, has rushed to tell MSNBC and CNN that is a liberal smear.
Even Rush Limbaugh, who has mocked the senator (even going so far as to make hostage jokes about him back in 2004), came to his defense. "This is what you get when you walk across the aisle and try to make these people your friends. I'm not surprised in the least that the Times would try to take out John McCain," the uber-conservative radio host said today.
It's a pivot - it repositions this story not as a question about campaign finance or sex, both of which could get the only viable Republican candidate in trouble with the base of the party, but one where it is only the so-called "reality-based community" (liberals) versus everyone else (conservatives). It casts immediate doubt on the Times story, and anything else the paper of record says going forward. If conservatives continue to rally to him in this way, the New York Times may have, inadvertently, done more to bind the fractured Republican Party together than tear it apart. Even so there will be those who wonder.
Which brings us back to the Democrats. Why? Because tonight the Dems square off face to face in a debate before the big contests of Texas and Ohio - two electoral battles Hillary Clinton can't afford to lose. Breaking today, this scandal does two things: first it drew - and continues to draw - focus away from tonight's debate, thus drastically reducing the likelihood Clinton can halt Obama's momentum. Second, and more importantly, there is nothing that sexual peccadilloes remind voters of than Hillary's erstwhile life partner, President Bill Clinton. Sex and the White House? Everything pales in comparison to Monica. And that doesn't help Hillary one bit.
So: John McCain = victim to rally around, Hillary Clinton = forever tied to that philandering husband. And Barack Obama? Stands alone.
For more blogs on the US elections, click here.
McCain Hits Back With Donor Plea
Fund-Raising Appeals
Cast Candidate as Victim;
Defense Goes on Offensive
By LAURA MECKLER and SUSAN DAVIS
February 22, 2008; Page A4
WASHINGTON -- John McCain's attempt to portray himself as a reformer taking on entrenched interests faced a high-profile challenge amid widespread coverage of allegations that he had an inappropriate relationship with a telecommunications lobbyist.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee and his allies went on the offense as they dismissed the charges -- published in the New York Times and picked up widely yesterday by news organizations. His campaign and the Republican National Committee each sent fund-raising appeals portraying Mr. McCain as the victim of an unfair story.
Mr. McCain answered the charges directly in a morning news conference in Ohio, and his supporters fanned out over TV and radio talk shows to defend the Arizona senator and accuse the newspaper of pressing an agenda. "I'm very disappointed in the article. It's not true," he said.
More than most politicians, Mr. McCain has built his image as a straight-talking crusader unafraid to take on moneyed interests. But a months-long presidential campaign was sure to rough up his image. His Democratic counterparts have also faced increased scrutiny. Illinois Sen. Barack Obama faces questions as his onetime fund-raiser, Antoin Rezko, faces a criminal trial in Chicago.
The New York Times story, first published Wednesday on its Web site, said McCain aides had urged the senator and lobbyist Vicki Iseman to steer clear of one another prior to his unsuccessful 2000 presidential run. It said that aides suspected a romantic relationship, something that both Mr. McCain and Ms. Iseman denied. The report also said Mr. McCain wrote government regulators on behalf of one of Ms. Iseman's clients.
At a news conference in Toledo with his wife, Cindy, by his side, Mr. McCain emphatically denied a romantic relationship, describing Ms. Iseman as a friend.
"I've served this nation honorably for more than half a century," he said. "At no time have I ever done anything that would betray the public trust."
The story comes as Mr. McCain is trying to win over skeptical social conservatives. But it may not be particularly damaging, said Charmaine Yoest, a vice president at the Washington-based Family Research Council Action. "Questions of character are ones that values voters pay attention to. They'll be looking at the story but so far there doesn't seem to be a lot of there there."
WASHINGTON WIRE
MORE ON CAMPAIGN 2008
Some prominent conservatives who have been highly critical of Mr. McCain as he emerged at the top of the Republican pack were prompted yesterday to rally to his defense for the first time this year.
"What is the lesson? The lesson is liberals are to be defeated," conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh said on air yesterday. "You cannot welcome their media members on your bus and get all cozy with them and expect eternal love from them."
One of Mr. McCain's top advisers, Charlie Black, said the campaign planned to move beyond the story after its aggressive response yesterday morning. By yesterday afternoon, Mr. McCain was refusing to answer further questions, canceling a news conference scheduled after he toured a Ford Motor Co. factory in Wayne, Mich.
Meantime, the campaign tried to turn the story into an advantage with a fund-raising appeal to supporters. "Well, here we go. We could expect attacks were coming; as soon as John McCain appeared to be locking up the Republican nomination, the liberal establishment and their allies at the New York Times have gone on the attack," wrote campaign manager Rick Davis. The Republican National Committee issued a similar appeal.
Neither mentioned that the Times editorial page endorsed Mr. McCain for the Republican nomination.
New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller said in a statement that "the story speaks for itself" and denied that the story was timed for any political purpose.
Write to Laura Meckler at laura.meckler@wsj.com and Susan Davis atsusan.davis@wsj.com
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John McCain disputed a New York Times article suggesting he had a romantic relationship with a lobbyist and that he showed favoritism to one of her clients. |
AFP/GETTY IMAGES/File Photo: Democratic presidential candidate Sen.
Hillary Clinton speaks at a "Low Dollar" fundraiser at Hunter College.
AFP/GETTY IMAGES/File Photo: Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton speaks at a "Low Dollar" fundraiser at Hunter College...
Clinton attacks Obama ahead of debate
By Steve Holland Thu Feb 21, 5:13 PM ET
LAREDO, Texas (Reuters) - Democrat Hillary Clinton on Thursday questioned rivalBarack Obama's readiness to serve as commander in chief and his ability to win the White House as the two presidential contenders prepared for a crucial debate
.
The Thursday night showdown in Austin, Texas, gives Clinton a chance to halt Obama's momentum and turn around a Democratic presidential fight that has shifted decisively in the Illinois senator's favor after his streak of 10 straight victories.
"I want you to think, 'Who do you want to have in the White House answering the phone at 3 o'clock in the morning when some crisis breaks out around the world?"' Clinton asked a heavily Hispanic crowd at a rally in downtown Laredo.
"'Who is best prepared to be commander in chief on day one?"' she added, pushing her latest line of attack on Obama in their hard-fought duel to be the Democratic candidate in November's presidential election.
In the Republican race, front-runner John McCain dismissed a New York Times report suggesting he had a close and possibly romantic relationship with a female lobbyist nine years ago who represented companies that did business with the Senate committee he led.
The newspaper reported his aides became concerned the potentially embarrassing conflict of interest could harm his ultimately failed presidential bid in 2000. The Arizona senator told reporters in Toledo, Ohio, the article was "not true."
"At no time have I ever done anything that would betray the public trust or make a decision which in any way would not be in the public interest and would favor any one or any organization," McCain said.
McCain aides and allies launched a counter-attack on the Times, with his campaign manager Rick Davis telling supporters the story was part of an "unsourced hit-and-run smear campaign."
McCain has an almost insurmountable lead in the Republican race over his last major rival, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who has refused to give up until McCain has enough convention delegates to clinch the nomination.
Obama has taken control of the Democratic race after winning 10 consecutive contests by wide margins. Clinton needs to win March 4 contests in Ohio and Texas if she hopes to block Obama's march to the nomination.
Obama has a growing lead in pledged convention delegates who will choose the Democratic candidate at the August convention. The latest count by MSNBC gives Obama 1,168 to Clinton's 1,018.
OBAMA WINS DEMOCRATS ABROAD
Obama picked up more good news on Thursday with word he had won primary voting among Democrats who live abroad. Obama won about 66 percent of the vote and Clinton 33 percent.
Democrats in 164 countries participated in the primary, voting by Internet, mail and in person between February 5 and February 12, organizers said. Obama won 2.5 delegates and Clinton 2 delegates in the voting.
Obama also won the endorsement of the Change to Win labor federation, an umbrella group representing seven unions -- including four that already backed him. The other three abstained, including the United Farm Workers, who support Clinton.
The debate on Thursday night will give Clinton a broad public stage to try to begin her comeback, and she has cranked up her recent attacks on Obama as she searches for a message that works.
"I want you to think, 'Who is best able to stand on a stage with Senator John McCainto make a case to elect a Democrat?"' Clinton told the crowd in Laredo in south Texas on the Mexican border, where she is counting on strong support from Hispanics.
The New York senator and former first lady said she had learned from her husband,former President Bill Clinton, how difficult the job could be. She also kept up her criticism of Obama's high-flying rhetoric as lacking in real-world substance.
"We need to have someone who is prepared with solutions to our problems, not just speeches," she said.
Obama has managed to gain an increasing share of Clinton's core voting blocs of blue-collar and low-income workers while cutting into her margins with Hispanics.
The two big states of Ohio and Texas, with a combined total of 334 delegates at stake on March 4, have plenty of both. Clinton strategists have targeted the two states as good environments for her economic message. Rhode Island and Vermontalso vote on March 4.
Obama, in Austin to prepare for the debate, visited the stadium and football facilities for the University of Texas Longhorns. The Texas football coach, Mack Brown, scolded a reporter who tried to ask Obama about McCain and lobbyists.
"Coach solved that one, didn't he?" Obama said.
(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason and Jason Szep; Writing by John Whitesides; Editing by David Wiessler)
(To read more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online at http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)
AFP/GETTY IMAGES/File Photo:
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton speaks
at a "Low Dollar" fundraiser at Hunter College...
Clinton:
Obama 'change you can Xerox'
By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent
AUSTIN, Texas -
Hillary Rodham Clinton accused presidential rival
Barack Obama of political plagiarism Thursday night, but drew boos from a Democratic debate audience when she ridiculed him as the candidate of "change you can Xerox."
Obama dismissed the charge out of hand, then turned the jeers to applause when he countered, "What we shouldn't be spending time doing is tearing each other down. We should be spending time lifting the country up."
The exchange marked an unusually pointed moment in an otherwise civil encounter in the days before March 4 primaries in Texas and Ohio — contests that even some of Clinton's supporters say she must win to sustain her campaign for the White House.
The former first lady has lost 11 straight primaries and caucuses, and trails her rival in convention delegates. Obama has won a pair of big union endorsements in the past two days.
In a university auditorium in the heart of Texas, the two rivals agreed that high-tech surveillance measures are preferable to construction of a fence to curtail illegal immigration.
They disagreed on the proper response to a change in government in Cuba in the wake of Fidel Castro's resignation. Clinton said she would refuse to sit down with incoming President Raul Castro until he implements political and economic reforms. Obama said he would meet "without preconditions," but added the U.S. agenda for such a session would include human rights in the Communist island nation.
They also sparred frequently about health care, a core issue of the campaign.
Clinton said repeatedly that Obama's plan would leave 15 million Americans uncovered.
But he, in turn, accused the former first lady of mishandling the issue by working in secrecy when her husband was in the White House.
"I'm going to do things differently," he said. "We can have great plans, but if we don't change how the politics is working in Washington, then neither of our plans are going to happen."
Clinton was combative and complimentary by turns, and reflected on her well-known personal struggles in the debate's final moments.
"Everyone here knows I've lived through some crises and some challenging moments in my life," she said — a thinly veiled but clear reference to her husband's affair with Monica Lewinsky and subsequent impeachment. But she added that nothing she had been through matched the everyday struggles of voters.
Then, offering unprompted praise to her rival, the one-time front-runner said, "No matter what happens in this contest, I am honored to be here with Barack Obama."
Both candidates were plainly popular with the debate audience. During one break someone in the crowd shouted "Si se puede," Spanish for Obama's trademark phrase, "Yes we can."
Clinton largely sidestepped a question about so-called superdelegates, members of Congress, governors and party leaders who were not picked in primaries and caucuses. She said the issue would sort itself out, and "we'll have a unified Democratic party" for the fall campaign.
But Obama, who has won more primaries and caucuses said the contests must "count for something ... that the will of the voters ... is what ultimately will determine who our next nominee is going to be."
Clinton went into the debate needing a change in the course of the campaign, and waited patiently for an opening to try to diminish her rival, seated inches away on the stage. "I think you can tell from the first 45 minutes Senator Obama and I have a lot in common," she said.
Barely pausing for breath, she went on to say there were differences.
First, she said she had seen a supporter of Obama interviewed on television recently, and unable to name a single accomplishment the Illinois senator had on his record.
"Words are important and words matter but actions speak louder than words," she said.
Obama agreed with that, then noted that Clinton lately had been urging voters to turn against him by saying, "let's get real."
"And the implication is that the people who've been voting for me or are involved in my campaign are somehow delusional," Obama said.
Clinton also raised Obama's use in his campaign speeches of words first uttered by his friend, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.
"If your candidacy is going to be about words then they should be your own words," she said. "...Lifting whole passages from someone else's speeches is not change you can believe in, it's change you can Xerox."
The debate audience booed.
Obama said the entire controversy was evidence of a "silly season" that the public finds dispiriting. Besides, he said of his speeches at one point, "I've got to admit, some of them are pretty good."
The two rivals sat next to one another in swivel chairs in a University of Texasauditorium for the 90-minute debate, one in a dwindling number of opportunities for the former first lady to chart a new course in the presidential race.
She has lost 11 straight primaries and caucuses to Obama — including an overseas competition for support among Americans living aboard — and has fallen behind in the chase for the number of delegates needed to become the presidential nominee.
Obama's strong showing has made him the man to beat in a historic struggle between a black man and a white woman, and even former President Bill Clinton has said his wife must win both Ohio and Texas early next month to preserve her candidacy. New polls show Texas a dead heat, and give Clinton a lead in Ohio, but far smaller than the one she held in recent weeks.
Rhode Island and Vermont also vote on March 4, but offer far fewer delegates and have drawn less attention.
The encounter was the 19th in an episodic series of debates and forums, a run that has ranged from highly civilized to hotly confrontational.
The last time the two met, in Los Angeles, they sat side by side and disagreed politely. But in an earlier encounter last month, in Myrtle Beach, S.C., each accused the other of repeatedly and deliberately distorting the truth for political gain in a highly personal, finger-wagging showdown.
In The Associated Press' delegate count Thursday, Obama had 1,358.5 to 1,264 for Clinton. It takes 2,025 delegates to claim the nomination at this summer's convention.
In a further sign of his growing strength, Obama won the endorsement during the day of the Change to Win labor federation, which claims 6 million members. The Teamsters union announced its support for Obama on Wednesday.
The debate was sponsored by CNN, Univision and the Texas Democratic Party.
McCain tangles with Obama over campaign money
Wed Feb 20, 5:02 PM ET
COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) - Republican presidential front-runner John McCainaccused Democrat Barack Obama on Wednesday of rolling back on a pledge to limit himself to public money in November's presidential election.
Obama is raising as much as $1 million day, generating a big money advantage over both McCain and Democratic rival Sen. Hillary Clinton in what is expected to be the costliest U.S. presidential election ever.
Obama, an Illinois senator, pledged in February last year to accept public financing and its accompanying spending limit of an estimated $85 million in the general election race if he wins the nomination and his Republican opponent agreed to limits too.
"I committed to public financing," McCain told a news conference. "He committed to public financing. It is not more complicated than that ... I'll keep my word. I want him to keep his."
As he has scored back-to-back wins in nominating contests, Obama has refused to recommit while moving steadily ahead of Clinton in the race to become theDemocratic presidential nominee in the election.
Obama spokesman Bill Burton countered that McCain was in no position to raise the issue.
"John McCain is in no place to question anyone on pledges when he abandoned the latest campaign finance reform efforts