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McCain takes on Times, denies link to lobbyist

BY TOM BRUNE | tom.brune@newsday.com

10:37 PM EST, February 21, 2008

WASHINGTON - A controversial New York Times story about John McCain and his relationship with a woman lobbyist eight years ago presents him with both a problem and an unexpected political opportunity, analysts said Thursday.

With the controversy erupting, the public faced a standoff Thursday as McCain stood with his wife, Cindy, and flatly denied the story in Toledo, Ohio, and the Times issued a statement that it stood by its reporting.

In the lengthy story first published Wednesday night on its Web site, the Times took dead aim at one of McCain's strongest appeals to independent and other voters by raising questions about his reputation for ethics and his ties to Washington lobbyists.

But the story's reporting that McCain's aides also feared he was having a romance with lobbyist Vicki Iseman stirred outrage among Republicans that McCain has tapped to rally once distrustful conservatives to his side.

"If you look past the more salacious allegations, this cuts to the heart of a signature issue for Sen. McCain," said Massie Ritsch, a spokesman for the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

"For any other longtime Washington politician, people would say that's how Washington works," he said. "But when you champion yourself as a fighter against special interest influence, it's more harmful."

Several Republican analysts insisted Thursday that the public would not buy a story they said failed to prove that McCain had any improper relationship with Iseman or that he had done anything wrong at a lobbyist's request.

"The story is such a blatantly cheap shot, totally and completely without evidence and foundation, that it will be perceived as a cheap shot even among people who are not fans of John McCain," said GOP pollster Whit Ayres.

"It is going to hurt The New York Times more than John McCain," he said, while rallying the right around McCain.

The story did win McCain rare support from two top conservative talk show hosts, Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham, who not long ago charged that McCain would destroy the Republican Party because of his "liberal" positions on campaign finance limits and immigration.

The McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee quickly sought to exploit the anger, sending out e-mail fundraising appeals attacking the Times article.

Yet McCain also faced questions about his close ties to many lobbyists in Washington, something he acknowledged in his 15-minute news conference.

According to his own campaign reports, McCain took the second most money, more than $422,000, from lobbyists of any of the presidential candidates, and over the years accepted millions in donations from the telecommunications, broadcast and technology industry, the Center for Responsive Politics reported.

On Thursday, McCain said he meets with lobbyists but that he always makes his decisions based on the public's interest. Appearing subdued but not angry, McCain answered many of the most pointed questions by reporters with a simple "no."

McCain denied key parts of the story, saying he did not have a romance with Iseman and that his aides did not warn him away from her because of appearances he was too close to a lobbyist.

Meanwhile, McCain and his campaign sought to turn the focus to the twists and turns of the Times own reporting and editing of the story, which was discussed in an article in the New Republic.

The fact that the Times was pursuing the story first became known in December when the Drudge Report broke an item about it. The difficulty in getting the story published left some reporters upset, and possibly led one of them to leave the paper, the New Republic said.

But Times Executive Editor Bill Keller denied there was internal dissent or pressure to run the story before the New Republic ran its article.

He said the story ran when it was "ready," and "the story speaks for itself."