Given the lameness of the rebuttal, this morning McCain took the extremely risky step -- and, I think made a huge mistake -- of denying the facts of the story:

Senator John McCain said on Thursday that an article in The New York Times about his close ties to a woman lobbyist was untrue, and that he had no romantic relationship with the lobbyist and no confrontations with worried staff members who told him to stay away from her.

It would be one thing to deny a romantic relationship -- the story doesn't say there was one; rather, that: "some of the senator’s advisers had grown so concerned that the relationship had become romantic that they took steps to intervene" -- but to deny that staffers had been concerned and expressed those concerns to him?!  Reading these two paragraphs, it's hard to come to any other conclusion than he's lying!

In interviews, the two former associates said they joined in a series of confrontations with Mr. McCain, warning him that he was risking his campaign and career. Both said Mr. McCain acknowledged behaving inappropriately and pledged to keep his distance from Ms. Iseman. The two associates, who said they had become disillusioned with the senator, spoke independently of each other and provided details that were corroborated by others.

Separately, a top McCain aide met with Ms. Iseman at Union Station in Washington to ask her to stay away from the senator. John Weaver, a former top strategist and now an informal campaign adviser, said in an e-mail message that he arranged the meeting after “a discussion among the campaign leadership” about her.

Instead of lying, he could have said something like: "Ms. Iseman is a friend and, with the benefit of hindsight, I should not have allowed this friendship to develop, given that she was a lobbyist representing companies with interests before Congress.  Some of my staffers recognized before I did that this could present the appearance of impropriety and even that some people could misconstrue our relationship as a romantic one -- which it was not -- so they brought these concerns to my attention.  I thanked them for doing so and took steps to address the problem, which has long since been resolved.  Now let's move on and start discussing the important issues that our country faces today..."

 

McCain is making the same mistake Bill Clinton made with the Monica Lewinsky story -- by implausably denying something embarassing (but not illegal or politically fatal) and instead attacking the messenger(s), he risks being caught in the lie, which would be politically fatal.  I think the odds of being caught in this lie are high, as there's no way the NY Times would risk running this story unless it had airtight proof that the two former associates are telling the truth.  By attacking the NY Times and calling it a smear, McCain is helping ensure his doom because he's forcing the NY Times and/or the former associates to come forward with their proof.

 

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February 21, 2008

McCain Denies Aides’ Statements About Lobbyist

By ELISABETH BUMILLER

www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/us/politics/21cnd-mccain.html

TOLEDO, Ohio — Senator John McCain said on Thursday that an article in The New York Times about his close ties to a woman lobbyist was untrue, and that he had no romantic relationship with the lobbyist and no confrontations with worried staff members who told him to stay away from her.