John McCain's Bill Clinton impression

Many moons ago, America Wants to Know worked for a high-profile Hollywood talent agent at a high-profile Hollywood talent agency and personally witnessed an astounding act of self-delusion that we thought at the time would never be topped.

The agent was attempting to convince a skeptical world that one of his clients, a certain singer, was generating the kind of excitement in the country that had not been seen since Elvis Presley broke free of the state fair circuit.

He got on the telephone to an entertainment reporter at the New York Times and fabricated a story about crowd reaction to the singer's performance at a recent live appearance. He told the reporter he had not seen anything like it since Elvis.

He was very convincing.

The next day, the New York Times carried an item about the singer that favorably mentioned the sensation her live performance had caused.

The agent showed the newspaper article to everyone in the office as if he was seeing the story for the first time. As if we hadn't all been there when he made it up. As if it was unquestionably true because it was printed in the New York Times.

By the time he finished telling us what the New York Times reporter had written, he genuinely, completely believed the fabricated story that he himself had fed him. Then he got on the phone and called a series of people to read them the article and to rave about the client. She is the next Elvis, he told everyone who would take his call. It's in the New York Times.

The point of this story is not that the New York Times doesn't check facts, but that there is a certain type of personality who is capable of convincing himself that he is telling the absolute truth when he is simply not. Not even close. Not in the ballpark.

John McCain is one of those personalities.

Today the New York Times posted on its web site a story about Senator John McCain's close relationship with a lobbyist named Vicki Iseman, a lobbyist who happens to be a woman, happens to be very attractive, and happens to be about thirty years younger than the married senator from Arizona.

These things happen.

The story says that in 1999, as Senator McCain was making a run for the presidency, his campaign aides were so dismayed by what appeared to them to be a romantic relationship with a lobbyist that they confronted him, told him he was risking the campaign and his political career, and took steps to bar Ms. Iseman from coming around to see him.

The aides told the New York Times that Senator McCain "acknowledged behaving inappropriately" and promised to "keep his distance from Ms. Iseman."

Today, the senator denies that he had a romantic relationship with Ms. Iseman, and Ms. Iseman denies that she had a romantic relationship with the senator, and unless one of them decided to telephone Linda Tripp and ask for advice, no one will likely prove otherwise.

Still, it's a fair question to ask if a married presidential candidate who is campaigning on his I-can't-be-bought-by-any-lobbyist high horse ought to be seen around town with a lovely young lobbyist on his arm, especially one who represents companies with business before the Senate commerce committee that McCain chaired.

"Recklessness" is not the answer given by many focus group participants when they're asked what qualities they're looking for in a president.

Scarier than the recklessness, though, is the self-delusion. Over and over the Times cites instances of McCain grasping for cash and free plane rides from lobbyists, then sanctimoniously sponsoring legislation to put a stop to that kind of thing. Once he set up a "Reform Institute" and funded it with hundreds of thousands of dollars in unlimited contributions from businesses seeking favor with the Senate commerce committee. Citing "bad publicity," he severed his ties to the Reform Institute, four years later.

John McCain likes to spend his time riding on a bus with reporters and telling them he's a maverick, he's a reformer, he's the only one in Washington who's going to put a stop to the lobbyist-driven pork barrel spending and the waste and the corrupt influence and... LOOK! He's the next Elvis! It says so right here in the paper!

Congratulations to the New York Times for finally having the courage to run a perfectly legitimate story that raises perfectly legitimate questions about the ethics and the judgment of a man who is running for president on his ethics and his judgment.

Too bad they held the story until everybody dropped out of the Republican race except Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul.

Ron Paul for president. If you're reading this in Texas or Ohio, buy a button and don't forget to vote on March 4.


Copyright 2008


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