Where In the World Is Vicki Iseman?

Oh, there she is... and she's suing the New York Times for defamation.

A Washington lobbyist on Tuesday sued The New York Times for publishing an article that she says suggests she once had a romantic relationship with 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

The lawsuit, filed by lawyers for Vicki Iseman in a Richmond, Virginia, federal court, seeks $27 million in damages.

It claims that Iseman, a lobbyist at the firm Alcalde & Fay, was defamed by the Feb. 21 article and that she suffered damage to her reputation as well as to her emotional and mental health.

Okay, I have no problem with someone who believes they have been publicly defamed to sue. But what the fuck took so long? Why is this suit coming TEN MONTHS after the article? If I remember correctly, no one, NO ONE, could find this woman as she apparently went into hiding after the article was published. We couldn't even find a fucking current photo of her and still can't. All we got was this.

And now she's deciding to sue for $27 million?! I'm sorry, but if there was a time to do this, it was February 22, 2008 - the day after the article came out - a sign that she wasn't going to take this shit and was going to vigorously defend herself. Instead, she did her best impression of Greta Garbo*. If she had nothing to hide, why go into hiding? And I'm not going to accept the argument that it would have been a distraction from the presidential race. I'll dismiss that faster than you can say Rev. Wright. That's a bullshit excuse.

There ought to be a statute of limitations on stupidity.

* - Rumor has it that John McCain dated Greta Garbo in high school.

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.

Breaking: NY Times - McCain Implicated In Improper Relationship with Female Lobbyist...

...during his 2000 presidential campaign.

NY TIMES: ...A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, in his offices and aboard a client’s corporate jet. Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself — instructing staff members to block the woman’s access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity.

When news organizations reported that Mr. McCain had written letters to government regulators on behalf of the lobbyist’s clients, the former campaign associates said, some aides feared for a time that attention would fall on her involvement.

Mr. McCain, 71, and the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, 40, both say they never had a romantic relationship. But to his advisers, even the appearance of a close bond with a lobbyist whose clients often had business before the Senate committee Mr. McCain led threatened the story of redemption and rectitude that defined his political identity.

I'm guessing the other presidential candidates will steer clear of this story, as they should, at least until more facts arise. I don't know what wingnuts like Rush Limbaugh or Laura Ingraham will say about it though.