Now McCain is 'going to war' with the NYT.

[americanstranger]

This is starting to smell more like a setup to me.

The McCain campaign is using a two-pronged attack to push back against the story. First, they’ll argue it was thinly sourced piece of innuendo journalism. But McCain aides will also strike at the source, using the Times’ liberal reputation as a means of self-defense to draw sympathy from the GOP’s conservative base.

To this end, a top McCain adviser accused the paper of practicing tabloid journalism.

“It’s not every night I stay up to read the National Enquirer,” said Charlie Black, who was with other top McCain aides at the senator’s Arlington, Va., headquarters to mount the counter-attack.

Black noted he had taken heat from some of his “conservative friends’ after McCain won the paper’s endorsement in January. “We’re going to go to war with them now,” Black said. “We’ll see if that hurts or helps.”

(snip)

Asked about the impact that the allegation of adultery would have among social conservative activists, some of whom still aren’t entirely sold on McCain, Black said they would see it as “the New York Times spreading rumors and gossip.”

“We’re going to war with the New York Times, so they’ll probably like it.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8614.html

I'm tellin' ya. They planned this.

- as

[Vincardog]

1. This whole BS story is just a play by the McLAME camp to get in the znews,

[margotb822]

2. Yea, that whole Plame thing

definitely a liberal tabloid journalism practice.

Like my mom always says, "Character is what you do when no one is looking." I guess we know what type of character McCain has.

[margotb822]

3. Two more things

Here is someone else's theory: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2899163&mesg_id=2899163

Also, I guess McCain wanted to get his wars started early. Why wait til (if, please no) he gets elected? :eyes:

[americanstranger]

7. Actually, that one's mine, too.

I've been thinking about this since I got over the initial rush of schadenfreude. :)

- as

[Truth2Tell]

4. The timing is suspicious.

This would indeed be THE best time to get this story out there from the perspective of the McCain camp. McCain has the nom enough in the bag that this can't derail it, there is sill enough time til November to let things blow over, and the Hillary/Obama cage match is still sucking up a lot of the political-media bandwidth.

Classic inoculation. Get the bad news out there early on your own terms and get it behind you.

:shrug:

Edit to add: Just saw upthread that others have already posited this idea. Great minds...

[Mojorabbit]

5. I think that the NYT has more info

and I think rats will sidle out into the light with their corroboration of the story for their fifteen minutes of fame. maybe it is wishful thinking.

[dkf]

10. Yeah, I think they have the goods.

Otherwise that would be pretty unconscionable.

[Oilwellian]

6. Nope, it's not a setup

the Republican base HATES McCain so it makes no sense to add salt to their wounds at the same time he's trying to woo them over. And it goes much deeper than an affair with a lobbyist...it's what the firms she was lobbying for got in return for their, ahem, favors.

[americanstranger]

9. Part of the plan.

The base is going to love the fact that McCain will be braying about the 'liberal New York times' for the next few days.

He'll probably gain support from that base the longer he rides this pony.

And see the theory of 'inocculation' - after this blows over, McCain can do the whole Plame thing of 'this is an old story that's been covered and covered and covered' - even if there are new revelations.

It's right out of the rove playbook, and I gotta admit they snookered the NYT pretty good here. They dictated the timing of publication, now they get to trash the very newspaper that played footsie with their legal team.

- as

[McCamy Taylor]

8. I am beginning to think he may be caught in the middle of the Cable Wars

that are going on. There are some really big battles being waged right now over who is going to rule cable and how cable will be regulated and how much it will cost. The FCC, which never ever wanted to control any kind of telecom under W. has attempted this mad power grab of cable . As best I can tell this is for the sole purpose of stealing business from some companies and handing it to AT&T and Verizon in payment for their services for domestic spying. I may be wrong about the last part but the screwy stuff that Martin has done so far only seems to benefit AT&T.

If there really is a war going on over who will control cable and if McCain is in the middle of it, he could well be toast.

[tularetom]

11. Just watch his press conference tomorrow

and count the number of times he hisses "my friends" from between his tightly clenched jaws. If he says it a lot and in a hostile tone he's really pissed and probably not acting and the story has legs. If he seems upbeat and not particularly angry it's a plant (or at least timed for minimum impact on his campaign) and he is going along with it. He has some real anger issues and he's too stupid to be a very good actor.

[DainBramaged]

12. Gramps can't even plan his next bowel movement

All Bran be dammed.