memeorandum: Web Legal Scholar Considers Run for House (Jesse McKinley/New York Times)

9:00 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: Captain's Quarters, Matthew Yglesias, Firedoglake, The Swamp, protein wisdom, New York Times, The Huffington Post, Washington Post, Newsweek Blogs, Prairie Weather, First Draft, Don Surber, Obsidian Wings, The Carpetbagger Report, Ankle Biting Pundits, NewsMax.com, After W, Outside The Beltway, Hullabaloo, Crooks and Liars, toohotfortnr, US Elections, TIME, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, Economists for Obama, Betsy's Page, Los Angeles Times, Bark Bark Woof Woof, American Spectator, Political Radar, American Power, Right Wing News, Washington Monthly, Political Punch, Talking Points Memo, Publius Pundit, The Natural Truth, Bang the Drum, The Campaign Spot, NewsBusters.org, Politics1, TalkLeft, South Texas Chisme, Commentary, Patterico's Pontifications, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, You Decide 08!, Shakespeare's Sister, Group News Blog, Booman Tribune, Daily Kos, Left in the West, Emptywheel, FOX Embeds, Salon, Reason Magazine, NO QUARTER, The New Republic, Open Left, No More Mister Nice Blog, PERRspectives Blog, Pandagon, Mercury Rising, The Moderate Voice, All Spin Zone, the talking dog, Wonkette, TownHall Blog, Riehl World View, Pensito Review, Washington Wire, Political Machine, Attytood, About US Politics, The Democratic Daily, D-Day, Gateway Pundit, Megan McArdle, TBogg, Politics Blog, michellemalkin.com, Jules Crittenden, MyDD, THE LIBERAL JOURNAL, McCain Central, PrestoPundit and Sister Toldjah

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: Crooks and Liars, The Caucus, Buck Naked Politics, NY Daily News, Guardian, Pandagon, American Street, Democrats.com, DownWithTyranny!, The Corner, Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo, JustOneMinute and The New Republic

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: Firedoglake, The RBC and Rolling Stone

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:

Slimes At The Times — The New York Times launches its long-awaited smear of John McCain today, and the most impressive aspect of the smear is just how baseless it is. They basically emulate Page Six at the Post, but add in a rehash of a well-known scandal from twenty years ago to pad it out and make it look more impressive.

Discussion: Washington Monthly and NewsBusters.org

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 and The Page

Quin Hillyer / American Spectator:

Who is John McCain? — Here's the deal, folks: The New York Times has some damaging goods on John McCain, reportedly involving a female lobbyist. McCain threatened legal action if the Times printed the story. The Times backed off... for now. But you can be sure the Times will unload on McCain if he nails down the GOP nomination.

Discussion: CANNONFIRE, INSTAPUTZ and AMERICAblog

Ana Marie Cox / TIME: Swampland:

McCain Senior Adviser Responds to Times Story — Mark Salter, John McCain's obstreperous senior aide, just responded to Time's query about the New York Times's long-simmering McCain-mixed-up-with-lobbyists story. — Speaking from a parking garage in Toledo, where the campaign is overnighting …

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Commentary and The Page

Hindrocket / Power Line:

THE TIMES UPHOLDS ITS STANDARDS — The New York Times smears John McCain in tomorrow's paper, accusing him of ethics violations and insinuating that he had an affair with a lobbyist. What is most striking, though, if you actually read the story, is how thin it is.

Discussion: Political Machine, The Huffington Post and 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 and NewsBusters.org

The Politico:
McCain camp vows to ‘go to war’ with NYT

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …

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

Discussion: Jules Crittenden

Allahpundit / Hot Air:
NYT: McCain may have behaved unethically and cheated on his wife …

Discussion: The Fix and Don Surber

Dana Bash / CNN: McCain camp angrily denies report tying him to lobbyist

RADAR:
WAS JOHN MCCAIN GETTING ‘LOBBIED’ BY A WOMAN 30 YEARS HIS JUNIOR?

Discussion: protein wisdom and Prairie Weather

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

Discussion: Atlas Shrugs and Bang the Drum

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

Discussion: BAGnewsNotes, Firedoglake and Wonkette

Noam Scheiber / The New Republic: McCain Bombshell

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

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: Neptunus Lex, Fausta's blog and Redstate

Michael Goldfarb / Weekly Standard:
Missile Defense Works

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Danger Room and Hot Air

Thom Shanker / New York Times:
Officials Review Weather to Plan Shooting Down of Satellite

Discussion: Publius Pundit and Amygdala

George F. Will / Washington Post:

Playing the ‘Fair’ Card — Judging from complaints by her minions, Hillary Clinton considers it unfair that Barack Obama has been wafted close to the pinnacle of politics by an updraft from the continent-wide swoon of millions of Democrats and much of the media brought on by his Delphic utterances such as “we are the change.”

Discussion: Betsy's Page and Blue Crab Boulevard

The Editorial Board:

Democrats Obama, Clinton star in high-stakes Austin debate — Austin gets an unexpected turn as the center of the American political universe tonight as Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Clinton of New York face each other in debate on the University of Texas campus (7 p.m., CNN).

Discussion: Althouse

Richard S. Dunham / Houston Chronicle:
Tonight's Austin debate: What's at stake?

Discussion: New York Times

John McCormick / Baltimore Sun:

Even blowing his nose, Obama gets applause — DALLAS - It's probably safe to say that you have arrived as a politician when your audience applauds when you blow your nose. — Yes, just a day before a debate in Texas, Sen. Barack Obama has a head cold. — And about a half-hour into a speech here …

Discussion: Associated Press and Althouse

Victor Davis Hanson / Real Clear Politics:

Ivy League Populism — The rhetoric of Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton about the sad state of America is reminiscent of the suspect populism of John Edwards, the millionaire lawyer who recently dropped out of the Democratic presidential race. — Barack Obama may have gone to exclusive private schools.

Discussion: Power Line, protein wisdom and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

Jesse McKinley / New York Times:

Web Legal Scholar Considers Run for House — SAN FRANCISCO — Lawrence Lessig, the Web legal scholar, said Wednesday that he was mulling a campaign for the House of Representatives, a move that could pit the Internet icon in a race against a Democratic loyalist.

Discussion: Law Blog