memeorandum: Inside Cover — Bennett Slams NY Times Hit Job on McCain (NewsMax.com)

3:30 AM ET, February 21, 2008

Top Items:

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: Crooks and Liars, Hullabaloo, Washington Monthly, Washington Wire, American Spectator, Megan McArdle, The New Republic, The Campaign Spot, You Decide 08!, NO QUARTER, michellemalkin.com, TalkLeft, Patterico's Pontifications, Firedoglake, DownWithTyranny!, Shakespeare's Sister, Reason Magazine, Salon, Left in the West, Daily Kos, Don Surber, Political Machine, Pandagon, Wonkette, Riehl World View, TownHall Blog, Attytood, Emptywheel, Gateway Pundit, The Moderate Voice, the talking dog, Bang the Drum, THE LIBERAL JOURNAL, Open Left, AMERICAblog, PERRspectives Blog, Jules Crittenden, McCain Central, Prairie Weather, TBogg, Commentary, Booman Tribune, FOX Embeds, Pensito Review, Sister Toldjah, MyDD, NewsBusters.org, No More Mister Nice Blog, Oliver Willis, PrestoPundit, JammieWearingFool, Lawyers, Guns and Money, BlueOregon, Brains and Eggs, Blue Crab Boulevard, Taylor Marsh, IntoxiNation, Random Thoughts from Reno, The Impolitic, The Gun Toting Liberal™, Corrente and Big Head DC

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 …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, JustOneMinute, Crooks and Liars, The New Republic, Firedoglake, Daily Kos and PSoTD

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 …

Discussion: Eschaton, Rolling Stone and The RBC

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: protein wisdom

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:

Discussion: The New Republic

Allahpundit / Hot Air:

NYT: McCain may have behaved unethically and cheated on his wife, but we're not sure; Update: Pressured by the New Republic? Update: McCain responds; Update: Carl Cameron video added; Update: TNR confirms? Update: WaPo piles on — A sex scandal that may not be a scandal tucked inside …

Discussion: The Sundries Shack

Noam Scheiber / The New Republic:

McCain Bombshell — About two-thirds of one anyway. See here. — Some key passages: … The story reads to me like it had originally been much more ambitious, but had its guts ripped out somewhere along the way. The obvious question is whether those guts will ever trickle out now that this story has surfaced.

Discussion: I Am TRex

RADAR:

WAS JOHN MCCAIN GETTING ‘LOBBIED’ BY A WOMAN 30 YEARS HIS JUNIOR? — This evening the New York Times posted a 3,000 word takedown of Senator John McCain's ethics—and a possibly inappropriate relationship with a female lobbyist—after rival publications became aware of the details of the story …

Discussion: American Spectator

Mary Katharine Ham / TownHall Blog: What's the Quickest Way to Rally Conservatives 'Round McCain?

Marc Ambinder:
McCain/Lobbyist Story In The New York Times Finally Drops

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …, Atlas Shrugs and The New Republic

Ana Marie Cox / TIME: Swampland: McCain Senior Adviser Responds to Times Story

David Kurtz / Talking Points Memo:
MCCAIN CAMPAIGN ISSUES STATEMENT

Discussion: Liberal Values

Hindrocket / Power Line:
THE TIMES UPHOLDS ITS STANDARDS

Discussion: The Huffington Post and protein wisdom

Will / Attytood:
McCain's lobbyist friend: “A View from the Top”

Discussion: Wonkette and The Raw Story

NewsMax.com: Inside Cover — Bennett Slams NY Times Hit Job on McCain

Jonathan Martin / The Politico:
NYT prints allegation of McCain relationship

Discussion: Washington Monthly, protein wisdom and Macsmind

Jeralyn / TalkLeft:
McCain Slams NY Times Article Linking Him to Female Lobbyist

Discussion: McCain Central

Sara Just / Political Radar:
McCain Campaign Responds Angrily to Report Questioning Ethics

Discussion: Big Head DC

Texas Senator Kirk Watson:

MSNBC and Me — On Tuesday night, after an important and historic victory in the Wisconsin Presidential Primary by Senator Barack Obama, I appeared on the MSNBC post-election program. “Hardball” host Chris Matthews (who is, it turns out, as ferocious as they say), began grilling me on Senator Obama's legislative record.

Hilzoy / The Daily Dish:

Dear Chris Matthews: Please Do Your Job — Last night, Texas State Senator Kirk Watson, an Obama supporter, was embarrassed on national TV when he couldn't name any of Obama's legislative achievements. (He wrote what I think is a pretty decent and disarming account of it here.)

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Swamp, Newsweek Blogs, Weekly Standard and The Democratic Daily

Media Matters for America:

O'Reilly: “I don't want to go on a lynching party against Michelle Obama unless there's evidence, hard facts, that say this is how the woman really feels" — During the February 19 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, Bill O'Reilly took a call from a listener who said of Michelle Obama …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Crooks and Liars, Firedoglake, Los Angeles Times, Talking Points Memo, Shakespeare's Sister, The Agitator, Taylor Marsh, Wonkette, Pam's House Blend, Associated Press, News Hounds and Daily Kos

CNN:

Michelle Obama clarifies: I've always loved my country — (CNN) - Michelle Obama said Wednesday she has always loved America, seeking to quell the firestorm over her comment earlier in the week that seemed to suggest she is only now proud to be an American.

Discussion: GINA COBB, Spin Cycle and PERRspectives Blog

Sarah Lyall / New York Times:

Use of Private Care Tests British Health System — LONDON — Created 60 years ago as a cornerstone of the British welfare state, the National Health Service is devoted to the principle of free medical care for everyone. But recently it has been wrestling with a problem its founders never anticipated …

Discussion: protein wisdom, Democracy Project, Megan McArdle, Redstate and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:

Clinton's Blueprint — A trio of senior advisers to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (N.Y.) presidential campaign held a conference call this afternoon to lay out what they believe is a blueprint that — over the next two weeks — will restore the race for the nomination to rough parity between …

Discussion: Power Line and Wonkette

Mike Allen / The Politico: Obama camp slams Clinton ‘lunacy’

Thomas W. / tbo.com:

TIA Passenger Had Box Cutter In Hollowed-Out Book — A security officer at Tampa International Airport found a box cutter hidden in a hollowed-out book on Sunday. — TAMPA — A 21-year-old Clearwater man was arrested at Tampa International Airport this weekend after security personnel found …

Discussion: Power Line, michellemalkin.com, Captain's Quarters, Atlas Shrugs, Jihad Watch, Wake up America and Little Green Footballs

Spiegel Online:

Danish Caricaturist of Muhammad Fame Now Homeless — Two years ago Kurt Westergaard was in his Copenhagen home drawing pictures. One of them was of the Muslim prophet, Muhammad. Now Westergaard is homeless. — Draw a picture offensive to Muslim extremists, and you might find yourself without a roof.

Discussion: Hot Air, The Jawa Report and Captain's Quarters

Robert Burns / Associated Press:

Navy Missile Hits Spy Satellite — WASHINGTON (AP) - A missile launched from a Navy ship successfully struck a dying U.S. spy satellite passing 130 miles over the Pacific on Wednesday, a defense official said. Full details were not immediately available. — It happened just after 10:30 p.m. EST.

Discussion: Redstate and Jules Crittenden

Thom Shanker / New York Times:

Officials Review Weather to Plan Shooting Down of Satellite — WASHINGTON — The many moving parts of a mission to shoot down a dying spy satellite with an antimissile interceptor lined up Wednesday after the space shuttle Atlantis returned to Earth, officials said.

CNN:
Military sources: Dying spy satellite hit by missile

Discussion: AngryBlackBitch