Strike One Against Mr. Straight Talk

It only took two days. After John McCain's vehement denial of every facet of the New York Times article regarding his relationship with Paxson Communications lobbyist Vicki Iseman, here comes the first contradiction... from Lowell Paxson!

Broadcaster Lowell "Bud" Paxson today contradicted statements from Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign that the senator did not meet with Paxson or his lobbyist before sending two controversial letters to the Federal Communications Commission on Paxson's behalf.

Paxson said he talked with McCain in his Washington office several weeks before the Arizona Republican wrote the letters to the FCC urging a rapid decision on Paxson's quest to acquire a Pittsburgh television station.

Paxson also recalled that his lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, attended the meeting in McCain's office and that Iseman helped arrange the meeting. "Was Vicki there? Probably," Paxson said in an interview with The Washington Post today. "The woman was a professional. She was good. She could get us meetings."

The recollection of the now-retired Paxson conflicted with the account provided by McCain about two letters at the center of a controversy about the senator's ties to Iseman, a partner at the lobbying firm of Alcalde & Fay.

Ohhhhh..... THAT Lowell Paxson....

This thing is far from over. Sniff, sniff... do you smell it?... sniff.. that's the stench of death.

What To Care About in the John McCain Scandal

Everyone and their whore is latching on to the "who banged who" non-story in the NY Times assertion that John McCain had an improper relationship with Vicki Iseman during his 2000 presidential campaign. The real story is that Mr. Straight Talk was friendly with a lobbyist for Paxson Communications and received over $20,000 in campaign contributions from the company.

RUDE PUNDIT: What's important is that, more and more, it seems like John McCain's push for campaign finance reform was to protect himself from himself - since the Keating Five scandal, the man has raked in lobbyists-and-their-clients' cash like a cheap whore on buck-a-blow night at the brothel: "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 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."

The Rude Pundit may be reading this wrong, but it doesn't seem to square with McCain's assertion today that "At no time have I ever done anything that would betray the public trust or make a decision which in any way would not be in the public interest or would favor anyone or organization." (And what a bizarro thing to say - as a member of Congress, McCain is constantly put in a position where he has to favor some individuals and organizations over others.)

This is after Maverick being on the "straight and narrow" due to the Keating Five Scandal had supposedly had scared him "straight." Some straight talk.