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Bob Bennett’s been running around trying to spike this story but so far it’s just been too good to pass up:
Iseman, 40, who joined the Arlington-based firm of Alcalde & Fay as a secretary and rose to partner within a few years, often touted her access to the chairman of the Senate commerce committee as she worked on behalf of clients such as Cablevision, EchoStar and Tribune Broadcasting, according to several other lobbyists who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
McCain, after his unsuccessful 2000 campaign, has emerged as the front-runner for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. His reputation as a crusader for Washington reform — forged during almost 30 years in the Senate — is based largely on his stinging critiques of the role played by lobbyists. He routinely decries earmarks, or pet projects, inserted into legislation. He has claimed repeatedly that he has "never, ever done a favor for any lobbyist or special interest group." It was this reputation that McCain’s closest aides sought to protect.
"We were running a campaign about reforming Washington, and her showing up at events and saying she had close ties to McCain was harmful," said one aide.
Yeah, that would present a few problems.
As always, it’s all good for the Republicans. That is, if your name is Mike Huckabee.
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Jane!
Jane!
Jane!
Jane!
This story evidently is so well known that one wonders if that is why Huck hung on so long.
Ya think? *g*
well, they say it had nothing to do with “romance” *g*
Sorry, couldn’t help it.
Rev. Huck just got his miracle.
-G
ding
It was so ordained…! ;-)
Re-MITT, Re-MITT!! Re-MITT!! Re-MITT!! Re-MITT!! Re-MITT!! …
Sure sounds like it, doesn’t it?
Note her closeness to Bush as well. Did Karl Rove take note of McCain’s weakness for pert willowy blondes and send Iseman to stake out the “Stray Cock Express”?
Yep, it’s the corruption, but no one pays enough attention to that (compare the brouhaha over Haliburton vs Clinton’s bj). Throw in a little sex…and, well, it’s going to take down the straight-shooter.
No. It’s the sex.
Trust me.
“There was no romantic relationship. We were just fucking, that’s all.”
Jane on Late Nite!!!
Is it too early to predict that this story will be gone by Monday?
Please note that the statement from Team McCain doesn’t deny anything.
Hey Jane. What’s up?
Look, we’ve all been through the whole age thing here before recently, so if what i’m saying is bad, i’m sure somebody will tell me. But i’m with Valley Girl from the end of the last thread.
40? Bullshit.
hey tbogg
EPU’d
___________
Make one wonder, who has what on whom, all the way around, and when will it be released?
Yeah, John you’re sick of gutter politics, as are we ostensibly all. Where the fuck were you when Kerry got garroted and punji staked by the GOP Swift Boat pukes?
isnt hypocrisy just ducky? repugs are breaking their red necks to pooh-pooh this…. all the while they were persecuting clinton THEY were doing far more!! i swear i cant take those bastards… charles barkley sure called their asses out the other day…
and saying she had close ties to McCain was harmful,
first torture, now bondage?
Nope. But I’ll take that bet. It’s already looking like McCain didn’t report one of their private jet flights. “Well, technically, I never SAT on the plane.”
Nope. bondage first, then torture.
it wasn’t sex – it was uh uh ah stress reduction, yeah, that’s what it was – stress reduction.
Well, if anyone had doubts about FEMA, rest assured that they are ready and prepared to help you should a spy satellite fall near you. Whew!
Their safe word was “earmarks”.
I don’t know if anyone noticed but Saint McCain’s team never actually denies the affair. They just go on the usual Rethuglican bashing of the NY Times. That speaks a thousand words right there.
straight talk express has really jumped off the track….. he’s been a lil whore for years and not such a stand-up guy sfter all – look how he’s jumped on the pro-torture bandwagon – he’s gotten to be quite disgusting in this run for the WH…
No. Not too early at all. There will just have to be a new story on Monday. The sex/affair end of it will be over. But the lobbyist angle will probably keep going for a awhile. Not just with this strumpet, but with other lobbyists as well. You know. That Mr. Clean ain’t so clean. that could well be a recurruing theme.
i think.
You are so funny!
damn i need a drink – ’scuse me for a sec – rhum run ;o}
Is that lobbyist-speak for “handled with insufficient care?”
Yes, it might focus the media’s attention on McCain’s long sordid history with lobbyists. If they can pull themselves away from the “Michelle hates America” story, that is.
Such an image. You are evil.
Thank you, BFL for confirming my view.
I looked at the HuffPo. And did my math.
I think she has a case of “I’m 39″ aka “I’m 40″
Cue Jack Benny.
I’m willing to let that part slide. She’s a private citizen. She’s allowed to lie about her age.
“Other duties as required”
I’d said earlier today that the Hope Pope will defrock St. McCain, let me retract that, McCain did it all by himself…! *g*
I found this very interesting item from opensecrets.org written back in 1999 about exactly whom was financing McCains’ campaign. Besides groups like Verizon, in that mix was Paxson. And the writer pointed even at that time that McCain’s legislation appeared to be directed towards pushing large-scale corporate control of broadcasting, cable and the internet….and helping his contributors.
“Other duties as required”
words no employee likes to hear
“Mr. McCain promised, for example, never to fly directly from Washington to Phoenix, his hometown, to avoid the impression of self-interest because he sponsored a law that opened the route nearly a decade ago.”
guess he got tired of folks bangin’ on the door while he was in a “mile high club” meeting?
Maybe if we get real lucky, McCrazy will lose his temper in front of the cameras. A twofer: sex and violence.
ole johnny sent for mr fix-it…. bob bennett to try and salvage something lol
Yeah, I’m getting that same funny feeling I get when I hear personal attacks on Monica Lewinsky.
In all fairness to McCain, it really is distracting when people do that.
i do not wish for violence
but i would like to hear a lotta bleeps coming from the tv set
thank god for KO!!
It’s not the cheat, it’s the cupidity.
So — assume for the sake of argument that the dirt is true — where do the Goopers turn?
That’ll be Cindy tomorrow…! ;-0
i wonder what the reaction is from the wingnuttosphere. i bet those righty blogs are fanning their faces and taking their antacid tablets.
okay line of the night
the goopers have anointed ole johnny – didnt you see poppa bush give his blessing?
“A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, visiting his offices and accompanying him on a client’s corporate jet. Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself”
I bet Vicki Iseman can verify if John McCain is, in fact, a straight shooter.
That’s assuming there was no turbulence at altitude, of course.
Larry Johnson wrote this tonight:
Information Warfare
Is there anything the NYT won’t sit on until it’s properly ripened?
First hint for the public….
Bend over, stik yer head between yer knees and Kiss Yer Ass Good-Bye!
I was thinking the same thing. If he and Obama are in a debate, all Obama has to do is say:
“Stay in Iraq 100 years? That’s crazy, you are a crazy old man…)
Watch what happens…
Re-MITT-ances for the anti-immigrant crowd.
pages?wherever they see an open hand – and a deal they can grease.
Post over at kos about McBush’s actions in 1998….
McCain: Experienced in the ways of Washington lobbyists
right now cindy is being heavily medicated – i mean HEAVILY medicated
That’s what I’m trying to get a handle on. I think this scandal will bury him. I think he’s done. Someone at TBogg said this had to be from Newt. But, where the hell are they going to get a candidate? Every repub out there is just awful.
Need more popcorn.
I’m more concerned about the benefits that Senator McCain offered for the campaign contributions and help he received (flights, fund-raising parties, etc.) for his votes on Bills. The report from opensecrets I posted above suggests that the corporations, at least, were in competition to influence McCains’ votes. They were in a bidding war. And where there’s smoke, there is fire! Why have a bidding war unless the Honorable Senator can be bought!
Obama’d have to be an idiot to say “crazy old man”. Picking on a vet who’s been what McCain’s been through would be stupid beyond belief. Just say “that’s crazy talk” and don’t make it personal.
I don’t think McCain’s fuse is even long enough to deal with that, to tell you the truth.
Ralph Nader must have a chubbie right now.
‘An opening…’
I think MO story is going to die and soon. i mean, she’s the wife not the candidate. Could you imgine if MO killed somebody like Lauira Bush did? They’d be all over her.
mr fix-it is on it…. it’ll be smoothed over
Nader’s looking better all the time, and it’s not because he’s improving.
Gotta love Gail Collins!
However, as details emerged, the plan began to seem somewhat less attractive. We’ve been sending stuff into orbit for half a century. An estimated 17,000 items, weighing up to 100 tons, have already fallen back into the atmosphere. The odds against one of them hitting a human being — I am thinking in particular of me — are, at worst, several million to one.
Good one! *g*
We need John on live TV to deny this in an interview or taking questions live from the press. We need to see his temper explode. We need to ask his wife about this. We need to start asking around if there have been others only one girl seems a little hard to believe.
Any other blond lobbyists with reputations? The DC madame or her like, or maybe just the local DC strip clubs there must be a few that cater to Congress.
Heck where is Larry Flint with the cash for ex Straight talk groupies?
No prob with this Hottie…well, I am making allowances have you actually looked at McCain lately…ewwwwww.
She just shows that McCain ain’t too old to be Preznint.
He can do her…
He can to the job folks.
You know, for a Presidential race that started out so promising we’ve sure hit the bottom of the barrel.
Scrapin’ that suka with McShooter and Senators TweedleDee and TweedleDum.
Is in to late to start a ‘Draft Edwards’ movement for the convention?
I know Obama can’t say that, but I wish someone would. It’s the truth.
Ron, Frank, I don’t normally take those kind of shots. But, these days, any woman with an ounce of integrity doesn’t lie about their age. My view, and mine only. YMMV.
Nah I’d say she really is. That earlier link is an alumni link and it lists her as a ‘90 grad, which would be right if she was 40 now.
One of the disadvantages of being super skinny when you get to 40 is that your face gets gaunt and you actually look older, so it’s good for women over 40 to carry around an extra couple pounds.
She’s got that Lee Radzwill thing going on and it’ll age you.
okay line of the night
darn… missed it by that much
somewhere tucked away, there is an underseat cushion flotation device with a McStain on it.
What about this theory regarding the McCain story: It’s being floated now [or pushed] by the Obama side for several reasons. One, to take attention away from Michelle’s “proud of America” remarks and any flubs Barak may make tomorrow in the TX debate.
But second, after reading a story on MyDD about McCain and Hillary and their teams being pretty friendly and that they respect one another, the story goes on to say that McCain could actually help Hillary out in TX by taking a lot of the Independent voters [and probably a lot of moderate Republicans] away from Obama. Thus, the Obama team needs to tarnish him before TX to deter Indies from voting Republican.
You all are focusing too much on the alleged sex part of the story. The real potential damage to McCain is the fact that Mr. Clean did favors for lobbyists. That fits into the Obama meme that he’s “The One” who doesn’t take $$ from lobbyists.
The most disappointing thing to me about all this is that the “romance” part is probably totally absent. It was just a gray-haired senator fucking a pretty blond lobbyist in return for government contracts. I’m sure he was polite, and maybe she politely faked a few orgasms, but let’s face it, we’re talking about a business deal, not the golden flames of eternal love.
Where has the romance gone in senator/lobbyist sex? Yet another reason to get money out of politics.
Totally O/T -
My guys started with Bette Midler tonight. We’re havin’ a great week here in Vegas! BTW, I’m podcasting via my blog now.
Great ongoing therapeutic respite from all this other crap.
okay.
Jane, sorry for raising the issue. And I did raise the issue.
I trust your judgment.
I need to tell my spouse you said this, maybe she’ll stop asking “do I look fat?”
I’d buy that. Were they double-dating?
Why not just remind people about Bob Bennett’s previous client list?
Tainted by the Clenis.
-G
She’s a Washington lobbyist, ergo she is NOT a person “with an ounce of integrity”.
One interesting little snippet about Hawaii’s caucus last nite, they’d so woefully prepared for the masses that parking was nonexistent at virtually all locations statewide. As I illegally parked last nite, I muttered to myself; ‘No way they’ll ticket us all…!’ Fortunately, Hilo’s finest didn’t, but, Honolulu’s was out in force…!
Well thank God it’s not the corruption!
You had me worried for a minute there.
What was it Zsa Zsa said? After 40 you have to choose. Face or figure.
Ah, schadenfreude! As I said, McCain is February’s Giuliani… March forth, Huckabee!
Oh it was perfectly raisable and a valid line of inquiry, enquiring minds, etc. etc. I thought about it for a minute but finally went “nah, I think she probably is.”
Yep- I remembered that line too!
Really? Did not know that.
Wise woman, Zsa Zsa. She’s right.
i dont think this goes to huck’s benefit…. the white shoe crowd will not allow hick to get the nom
one upside to this is that McStain can authentically follow in BobDole’s footsteps as a Vi*gra pitchman
“1975 Case http://laws.findlaw.com/US/420/770.html “When to the idea of an offense plurality of agents is logically necessary, conspiracy, which assumes the voluntary accession of a person to a crime of such a character that it is aggravated by a plurality of agents, cannot be maintained. . . . In other words, when the law says, `a combination between two persons to effect a particular end shall be called, if the end be effected, by a certain name,’ it is not lawful for the prosecution to call it by some other name; and when the law says, such an offense – e. g., adultery – shall have a certain punishment, it is not lawful for the prosecution to evade this limitation by indicting the offense as conspiracy.” 2 F. Wharton, Criminal Law 1604, p. 1862 (12th ed. 1932).5 [420 U.S. 770, 774] The Rule has been applied by numerous courts, state and federal alike. “
Any Lawyers out there to confirm Arizona adultery laws this case seems old.
Oh, Jane, have I told you lately that I love you? In a totally hetero-fem to hetero-fem sort of way? ;)
So how many delegates do Romster and Hucklebee have and what happens with McCain’s if he bails out?
(I hope no bones are broken this time.)
Brokered convention?
Who knows….. for years it was illegal for Elmore and I to live together without being married …. NO ONE enforced the law but was against the law….until it was repealed just a fews ago.
But when did the Statute of limitation clock get punched…? When did the dalliances stop…?
Apparently part of the reason that this is coming out now is longtime McCain aide John Weaver, who left the McCain campaign last year, told the Washington Post, he met with Vicki Iseman and urged her to stay away from McCain. So he may also be one of The New York Times sources.
“McCain’s campaign issued a lengthy statement insisting that his actions did not benefit any one party or favor any particular interest.”
Interesting phrasing. “Any one party”…that simply means that several different interests collectively benefited from his acts. And “any particular interest” could mean that “Well, Yes, it did benefit the Telecom Companies…but it also helped MY Campaign…and a bunch of lawyers!”
“In late 1999, McCain twice wrote letters to the Federal Communications Commission on behalf of Florida-based Paxson Communications — which had paid Iseman as its lobbyist — urging quick consideration of a proposal to buy a television station license in Pittsburgh. At the time, Paxson’s chief executive, Lowell W. “Bud” Paxson, also was a major contributor to McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign.
McCain did not urge the FCC commissioners to approve the proposal, but he asked for speedy consideration of the deal, which was pending from two years earlier. In an unusual response, then-FCC Chairman William Kennard complained that McCain’s request “comes at a sensitive time in the deliberative process” and “could have procedural and substantive impacts on the commission’s deliberations and, thus, on the due process rights of the parties.”
McCain wrote the letters after he received more than $20,000 in contributions from Paxson executives and lobbyists. Paxson also lent McCain his company’s jet at least four times during 1999 for campaign travel.”
Thus McCain has a repeated tendency to approach Administrative groups attempting to sway their decisionmaking. He did it in the case of Lincoln Savings and Loan during the S&L Scandal, and he pulled the same bulldada here!
It seems he has a very low “learning curve”…very burned once, and barely escapes…then he’s back doing it.
Seems the same risk-taking behavior is found with his tightrope walking with much younger, pretty women that have no business being in his office so often. I seriously doubt that other “constituents” get so much “face-time” as Ms. Iseman. Oh wait! She isn’t even FROM Arizona.
I’d think that Arizonans would be incensed at such behavior by their Senator, whether or not Ms. Iseman was sexually involved with the Senator, or was merely a Geisha.
Jeebus, McCain and Lieberman attended the same skullduggery school.
John McCain condones torture by the United States of America.
That says more than anything the New York Times published tonight, as to why he should not be president.
But whatever works…
Did anyone else’s eyebrows perk up at the mention of Union Station? Between Larry Craig and this, that place is getting a lot of free press.
Does not matter we Lefties are not running on Family Values and if there is a law on the books will the Arizona DA prosecute now that its so public knowledge? I don’t think so but Huck must be expecting a big boost from his base.
No kidding. Yet I bet this will get more attention than anything he has or has not done regarding torture.
Raw Story reports McCain is denying the story. He said (wait for it) I did not have sex with that woman.
Nope….. the local news….We will take the word of the Senator… not some newspaper from NYC (put in nasty snarky way of saying newspaper and NYC)
If the Senator said he did nothing wrong then it MUST be true…. liberal commmie pinko newspaper
Another one of her clients:
BearingPoint Inc
December 2007:
The Independent on Sunday continues its excellent reporting on the origins and scandal behind the soon to be introduced, US approved, Iraqi oil law. Last week the IoS reported that Bearing Point, a Virginia based contractor, heavily advised the Ministry of Oil on the law. This week we discover that Bearing Point contributed more than $117,000 to the Bush campaigns in 2000 and 2004 – more than any other Iraqi contractor.
http://priceofoil.org/2007/01/…..financier/
TNR’s saying that the only reason the NYT published is that TNR was working on a story on what chickenshits the NYT folks are:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyo…..911/460825
Iraq and torture. enough said.
Read it again. He never says they didn’t have sex.
The Mile High Club – membership has is privileges
Frank, its a joke. Who cares what he said.
all righty… I am off to bed….. nite everyone…
So your saying McCain charged his girl friends clients for doing his job, if we assume everything was on the up and up you would think just sleeping with John and explaining the companies position if it was legal would be enough.
I wonder what that does to a girl’s ego. He must like humiliating women with sex.
I know you were kidding. I’m just pointing out that the rawstory headline says he denied the affair, which he didn’t do. He’s huffing and puffing, but he isn’t denying.
Who gives a crap about the sex, he was literally “in bed” with telecommunications lobbyists! I find it a lot more outrageous that the GOP candidate actually supports committing war crimes (torture), what is this country coming to?
Check out this article: Torture isn’t an issue, it’s a war crime.
Another thing about McCain:
Anyone notice how often the man blinks when he’s speaking? Last I checked, excessive blinking was a subconcious tell that had “LIAR” written all over it.
There is a way that John McCain, if he is innocent in this matter, can clear his name.
He can volunteer to be waterboarded (note: not torture!) and then we can see what he has to say about it.
What he really said was, “I didn’t have sex with that woman.”
Anyone know how to track down video of McCain’s floor speech at Clinton’s impeachment trial?
ole johnny married lil cindy for her money – not her sex – that he gets elsewhere – its why cindy was/is addicted to “painkillers”
We need to interview his first wife. We need to ask if John is paying her to keep quiet.
For her sake, I certainly hope so.
forget the subtleties…dont worry about what the TIMES actually said–which is that McCain has some lobbying blind spots. the MSM thinks this is about a sex scandal. you cant swim upstream.
if this was about our candidate, the goopers would just try to get folks thinking that he was oversexed and liked to bone anyone in sight.
Lotta talk about the Keating Five this eve: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_Five
But in case anyone has forgotten, Neil Bush was also part of this S&L disaster. Silverado.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S…..oan_crisis
I checked out some of the wiki links, and found an old WaPo article.
MWHAHAH!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..ge=printer
~~~The Relatively Charmed Life Of Neil Bush
Despite Silverado and Voodoo, Fortune Still Smiles on the President’s Brother [snip]
Life sure is fun when you’re Neil Bush, son of one president, brother of another.
Just how much fun was revealed in a deposition taken last March (2003), during Bush’s very nasty divorce battle. Asked by his wife’s attorney whether he’d had any extramarital affairs, Bush told the story of his Asian hotel room escapades.
“Mr. Bush,” said the attorney, Marshall Davis Brown, “you have to admit that it’s a pretty remarkable thing for a man just to go to a hotel room door and open it and have a woman standing there and have sex with her.”
“It was very unusual,” Bush replied.
Actually, it wasn’t that unusual. It happened at least three or four times during Bush’s business trips to Asia, he said: “I don’t remember the exact number.”
“Were they prostitutes?” asked Brown.
“I don’t — I don’t know,” Neil replied. ~~~~~
omigod!
Spelunking my way through the C-Span archives now…
John McCain, he liked the dollies with the goodies and his campaign tried to get him to not be so obvious about it.
I mean what did cindy have….youth and millions.
remember that Bush surrogates tried to nail him for selling out the other POWs in the Hanoi Hilton. No meme was too low for them.
I wonder if MoDo will touch this story, adultery, a hot younger woman, hypocrisy over his vote to impeach Bill just the kind of thing MoDo loves in a story…about Democrats.
Or will she just drool over Obama in a swimsuit again in that creepy way of hers.
Hmmm. From an interview with McCain in 1999. Not quite as hypocritical as I was hoping for, but close. (Link here: http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS…..ccain.html)
SHAW: You want Americans to be proud. What would you do that’s not being done to make that so?
MCCAIN: First thing I’d do is do everything I could to instill integrity, honesty and ethics in the office of the presidency of the United States, to try to restore that respect.
The second thing I would try to do is reduce or even do away with overtime the influence of special interests here in Washington, which predominates the legislative process, which makes the American people believe that we no longer represent them and has led to an ever decreasing vote of participation, and an ever decreasing participation of qualified young men and women in the political process.
I just went to look for a book on the Keating 5 at Amazon.com. Nothing came up. Anyone know of a book?
I found this to be true when I quit smoking. Voila, my face (and other places) filled out a little.
It was just a gray-haired senator fucking a pretty blond lobbyist in return for government contracts. I’m sure he was polite, and maybe she politely faked a few orgasms
the Iseman cometh?
Lobbyist are paid to do a job, get politicians to pass laws there clients want in exchange for cash now if John was sleeping with a Lobbyist where do you draw the line at prostitution? How do we or John know that she wasn’t sleeping her way to the top?
John might have been sleeping with her.
her clients paid John
John passed laws.
If we find out that yes he was sleeping with her well what is the difference between what she does and some street corner girl?
hetero-fem?
Never said that sex was or wasn’t involved, OR NOT.
But McCain’s defense is that he didn’t do these deals for sex, so maybe he just liked to have her around as an “escort”…she “entertained him” (i.e. the conversational part of being a Geisha…laughing at his stupid jokes, etc.). But it would mean his votes come really cheap, just a few thousand dollars and some “face time” (kissy or otherwise). And when Arizonans can’t even get in the door…his claims that he was too busy to meet his real constituents must smell pretty badly.
And I thought that Senators were so awfully busy!
McLobbyMoney on clinton’s impeachment:
Uh, you have gone way beyond what I was thinking or saying.
My comment was firstly meant as a reminder that apart from the “Keating Five” Neil Bush also had his hand in the S&L disaster, via Silverdo.
But when I checked out the wiki links, I found that old (2003) WaPo article, which I had never read before. Parts of it just struck me as absurd and laughable, and I just had to quote… another insight into the dysfunctional BushCo. family.
bwa-ha!
_ _ _
and re the question at 137:
location, location, location:
hooker – on corner sidewalk
lobbyist – in corner office
Kirk- I was meaning “heterosexual feminist” (hetero-fem) I invented the abbreviation on the spot, while typing. If there is more to the label, I surely don’t know it.
VG -
oh my goodness – if ever i needed to remember the /s key, that was the comment.
your meaning was quite clear (and seemed quite innocent)
mine clearly wasn’t. my bad.
i was just moved to channel the General.
must be all this talk of little soldiers…
*g*
Sorry Valley Girl My mind jumps steps in equations… sometimes into oblivion
You are forgiven ;)
Whew! I know what you mean. I’ve done that myself in the past. ;)
The Bush Crime Familiy… http://rationalrevolution.net/….._the_s.htm
It’s only crime if we do it.
That was exactly my first thought. Why would Huckuberry stay on and on, unless it was just for his own publicity for later, OR something like this!
“Rose to partner in a few years.”
Oh, it’s the sex, too.