Top Items:
New York Times:
For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk — WASHINGTON — 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, in his offices and aboard a client's corporate jet.
Discussion:
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Washington Post:
McCain's Ties To Lobbyist Worried Aides — Before 2000 Campaign, Advisers Tried to Bar Her — 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 …
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
THE MCCAIN STORY — This afternoon, before the Times story came out, I was working on a post about national political reporters' tendency not to give much of any scrutiny to various McCain flipflops, contradictions and bamboozlements. Obviously, the terrain has changed a bit since …
Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
Slimes At The Times — The New York Times launches its long-awaited smear of John McCain today, and the most impressive aspect of the smear is just how baseless it is. They basically emulate Page Six at the Post, but add in a rehash of a well-known scandal from twenty years ago to pad it out and make it look more impressive.
Noam Scheiber / The New Republic:
Bonus TNR Angle on the McCain Story — The McCain campaign is apparently blaming TNR for forcing the Times' hand on this story. We can't yet confirm that. But we can say this: TNR correspondent Gabe Sherman is working on a piece about the Times' foot-dragging on the McCain story …
Discussion:
The Page
Quin Hillyer / American Spectator:
Who is John McCain? — Here's the deal, folks: The New York Times has some damaging goods on John McCain, reportedly involving a female lobbyist. McCain threatened legal action if the Times printed the story. The Times backed off... for now. But you can be sure the Times will unload on McCain if he nails down the GOP nomination.
Ana Marie Cox / TIME: Swampland:
McCain Senior Adviser Responds to Times Story — Mark Salter, John McCain's obstreperous senior aide, just responded to Time's query about the New York Times's long-simmering McCain-mixed-up-with-lobbyists story. — Speaking from a parking garage in Toledo, where the campaign is overnighting …
Hindrocket / Power Line:
THE TIMES UPHOLDS ITS STANDARDS — The New York Times smears John McCain in tomorrow's paper, accusing him of ethics violations and insinuating that he had an affair with a lobbyist. What is most striking, though, if you actually read the story, is how thin it is.
The Politico:
McCain camp vows to ‘go to war’ with NYT — John McCain's campaign promised to “go to war” against the New York Times Wednesday night after the newspaper posted its long-awaited story on McCain's alleged relationship with a telecom lobbyist. Both McCain and the woman in question denied having a romantic relationship.
Rich Lowry / The Corner:
First-Blush Reaction — The Times doesn't have the goods—at least from what's in the story—and shouldn't have run it. Let's be honest: this story is all about the alleged affair, and all the Keating Five and campaign finance reform re-hash is window dressing. A key passage:
Mary Katharine Ham / TownHall Blog:What's the Quickest Way to Rally Conservatives 'Round McCain?
Discussion:
Jules Crittenden
Michael Goldfarb / Weekly Standard:
Missile Defense Works — The fruits of missile defense: … This is a major success for the Missile Defense Agency, the successor to Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, and it's going to be a tough pill for the program's critics to swallow. There have been two recent, successful tests of the missile defense system.
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George F. Will / Washington Post:
Playing the ‘Fair’ Card — Judging from complaints by her minions, Hillary Clinton considers it unfair that Barack Obama has been wafted close to the pinnacle of politics by an updraft from the continent-wide swoon of millions of Democrats and much of the media brought on by his Delphic utterances such as “we are the change.”
The Editorial Board:
Democrats Obama, Clinton star in high-stakes Austin debate — Austin gets an unexpected turn as the center of the American political universe tonight as Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Clinton of New York face each other in debate on the University of Texas campus (7 p.m., CNN).
Discussion:
Althouse
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Richard S. Dunham / Houston Chronicle:Tonight's Austin debate: What's at stake?
Discussion:
New York Times
John McCormick / Baltimore Sun:
Even blowing his nose, Obama gets applause — DALLAS - It's probably safe to say that you have arrived as a politician when your audience applauds when you blow your nose. — Yes, just a day before a debate in Texas, Sen. Barack Obama has a head cold. — And about a half-hour into a speech here …
Victor Davis Hanson / Real Clear Politics:
Ivy League Populism — The rhetoric of Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton about the sad state of America is reminiscent of the suspect populism of John Edwards, the millionaire lawyer who recently dropped out of the Democratic presidential race. — Barack Obama may have gone to exclusive private schools.
Michael Grunwald / Time:
Clinton's Spin Machine: Spun Dry — Barack Obama beat Hillary Clinton for the ninth and tenth straight time last night, with blowouts in Wisconsin and Hawaii. Needless to say, this means nothing. As Clinton strategist Mark Penn explained yesterday, Wisconsin has a lot of independent voters, so it doesn't really matter.
Discussion:
Washington Wire
Mark Karlin / BuzzFlash.org:
Hillary Clinton for Supreme Court Justice — How does Supreme Court Justice Hillary Clinton sound? — It sounds superb to us. Freed of the constraints of “triangulating” political considerations that have hobbled and severely compromised her progressive values, a seat on the Supreme Court …
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Linda Greenhouse / New York Times:Justices Shield Medical Devices From Lawsuits
Discussion:
Balloon Juice
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