Anonymous Web Poster Had Goods on McCain, Times weeks ago

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2008/02/weeks-before-the-new-york.php

Weeks before the New York Times posted its piece about Republican Presidential candidate John McCain's alleged improper relationship with lobbyist Vicki Iseman, some Web-borne wag using the screen name "EllaLohan" was dropping both McCain's and Iseman's names in random comments all over the 'net. The poster hinted at a sexual relationship between the two, an angle not even Drudge took when it reported on the lobbying angle between Iseman and McCain months ago.

(Also, Iseman's revealing online CV is archived here.)

Here's what EllaLohan wrote on a YouTube video posted by Senator McCain's campaign: "EllaLohan (4 weeks ago): John McCain plus lobbyist Vicki Iseman equals trouble for Republicans. Just ask the New York Times."

Then EllaLohan popped up elsewhere on YouTube with a similar comment for an anti-McCain video: "EllaLohan (1 month ago): i've heard from a bunch of my d.c. friends that mccain is doing special favors for a female lobbyist, who's returning the favor, if you catch my drift. this is the story that his lawyers are trying to prevent the new york times from writing. he's a crook just like the rest of the politicians."

It seems Ella, at the very least, had an idea what the Times was holding back. The only info found on her YouTube profile is her gender—female—and age—40.

[hwmnbn]

1. The plot thickens....

I love it!

It's like a whodunnit! Who is sticking the knife in Crazy Train McCain? :shrug:

[stanwyck]

2. She's female and 40.

Vicki, is that you? Maybe the lure of a book deal and the talk show circuit beats working PR and, um, handling politicians.

[hwmnbn]

6. OMG, is Miss Vickie a woman scorned??..

I hadn't even considered that angle.

[greyghost]

10. If she is, the straight shooting express just derailed!

[samdogmom]

3. Thanks for your hard work researching this!

With hope, the lazy press will rise up and match your diligence! And, then, we'll have a ballgame!

Aren't you frustrated that things like this get ignored/buried forever until one press outlet decides to act "professional"?????/

[livetohike]

4. Ms. Iseman is an alumnus of my alma mater

:eyes: I'm sure there will be some juicy info on tonight's local news.

Edited: for extremely poor grammar.

[greyghost]

8. Really? You went to IUP? St. Vincent here.:)

[livetohike]

9. Many years ago

:sigh: and :hi:

[greyghost]

11. Same story for me...

:toast:

[AlCzervik]

5. is Ella Lohan really Iseman?

[greyghost]

7. People seem to forget...

that Mr. Straight Shooter threw over his first wife for Cindy.

Of course Cindy's family being one of the WEALTHIEST in Arizona had NOTHING to do with it.:sarcasm:

His new wifes $ had NOTHING to do with McPimp's political career starting in earnest at this point.:sarcasm:

It should surprise no one that McCain was caught banging a younger/sober version of Cindy.

[Fleshdancer]

12. his/her youtube profile:

http://www.youtube.com/user/EllaLohan

[LSK]

13. link to the posts

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=EllaLohan&hl=en&num=10&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&cr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=youtube.com&as_rights=&safe=off

[tanyev]

14. Hmm...what's Linda Tripp been up to lately?

[MADem]

15. Ella Lohan smells like a drunken MATT DRUDGE to me!!

But ACTUALLY, I think Ella is one of the NYT SOURCES...."she" is all over the web...she likes YOUTUBE, it seems

Here (unrelated to the story, making a benign comment about an ELO video) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE6RqGgmPZA

and here, two weeks ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkcVXIhssCI

EllaLohan (2 weeks ago) Show Hide Marked as spam 0 Reply McCain loves Democrats - loves to be their stooge. He fights with Republicans - loves to antagonize them. He should run with Hillary on a fusion ticket, and leave the GOP once and for all...

She dropped the "Ask John McCain" remark here, too: http://www.budads.net/video/EgbQviUqndg


And, she's even been spamming McCain's ads up on YOUTUBE...only they take them down as soon as they see them. THese were up, and then, poof, they disappeared:

YouTube - Health Care AlertEllaLohan (20 hours ago) Show Hide Marked as spam. -3 Good comment Poor comment. Reply. Ask John McCain about his lobbyist "friend" Vicki Iseman. ...
youtobe.51ksp.com/watch?v=1OryNOITzHE - 110k - Cached - Similar pages

YouTube - Web Ad: Character in SpadesEllaLohan (7 hours ago) Show Hide Marked as spam. -1 Good comment Poor comment. Reply. John McCain plus lobbyist Vicki Iseman equals trouble for Republicans ...
2luo.com/watch?v=TuN57wD-EkM&feature=related - 125k - Cached - Similar pages

I think it might be a former McCainiac who drank the KoolAid and worked for Romney this time around--that's my sense. And Romney probably endorsed McCain to throw the suspicion off of him in case this whole thing went badly. I'm not the only one who feels that way, either:

First, the source of the Times article can only be detected by parsing, but it is clear that the details could have only come from -- and been confirmed by -- operatives in McCain's 2000 campaign, all of whom, let's assume, were Republicans. As to motive, how about sour grapes from a 2000 staffer who was not asked to work on the 2008 campaign? Or perhaps one of the 2000 operatives was an extreme-right Dittohead mole, who was working on a rival GOP campaign when the story was originally set to run in December.

Second, the timing: Whoever leaked the story to the Times appears to have synched it to the campaign schedule so that, with fact-checking and the other vetting, the story would be ready to go around December 20 -- immediately before public attention turned away from the campaigns and onto the holidays -- and two weeks before the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 3.

In late December, the Democratic campaigns were focused on each other, and weren't expending much, if any, energy on their Republican rivals. At that point, it was far from clear that McCain would become the frontrunner.

The source of the story was most likely one of McCain's rivals. Judging by their actions, almost all of them could be eliminated except for Mitt Romney, who, as has been noted here and elsewhere, made a big show of "suspending," not ending his campaign. (Campaigns are often technically "suspended" when they close in order to keep payroll and accounting functions open but the difference here is how Romney stressed the word "suspended" in his concession.)

The fact that Romney's mitts could have been all over this might also explain McCain's antipathy toward him, which was so palpable that even pundits and newsreaders -- all of whom have known about this story since before Christmas -- even mentioned it on air.

The Huckabee campaign has known about the story, too, which explains Huckabee's insistence on staying in, despite the dead-certain odds he'll never get the delegates to beat McCain at the convention. Huckabee has said he's sticking around in case McCain has a "macaca moment."

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/77434/#more