McCain's Lobbying Scandal Defense Falls Apart a Little More

Posted by Steve Benen, The Carpetbagger Report at 8:08 AM on February 23, 2008.

Since the NYT story about John McCain and Vicki Iseman broke on Wednesday, there have been two angles to the controversy, one of which clearly looked stronger than the other: 1) McCain's alleged romance with this telecom lobbyist; and 2) McCain's professional efforts to help the lobbyist's client. The senator and his campaign have rejected both points.

The evidence pointing to the alleged adultery is still elusive, but the evidence that McCain has lied about his efforts on behalf of Iseman's client keeps piling up.

On Wednesday, the McCain campaign said, in writing, that "no representative of Paxson or Alcalde & Fay personally asked Senator McCain to send a letter" to the FCC on its behalf. Yesterday, Newsweek reported that McCain gave a deposition in 2002 in which he contradicted his own claim. Today, the WaPo makes matters worse for McCain.

Broadcaster Lowell "Bud" Paxson yesterday 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 in 1999 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, likely 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 yesterday. "The woman was a professional. She was good. She could get us meetings."

Let's step back briefly and set the stage -- during his first presidential campaign, McCain took four trips aboard Paxson's corporate jet to campaign events. Paxson company executives -- the ones urging McCain to intervene on their behalf with federal regulators -- had just ponied up $20,000 in campaign contributions. Shortly thereafter, wouldn't you know it, McCain pressed the FCC to give those nice Paxson folks the break they've been looking for.

And then, years later, with the pressure on, McCain lied about his efforts. And got caught.

I think there's a perception in many circles that the NYT story was a dud because the paper hadn't nailed down the adultery angle. Maybe so. But the article has nevertheless created quite a headache for McCain, for reasons that have nothing to do with any inappropriate relationships.

The appearance of corruption certainly isn't helpful -- especially given the perception of integrity McCain has worked so hard to sell -- but reporters seem to be waking up to the fact that the senator and his campaign have tried to deceive people. As a rule, journalists a) don't care for that; and b) perceive this as a sign of trouble, causing them to dig deeper.

Tagged as: conservatives, new york times, mccain, republican party, washington post, lobbying, republican hypocrisy, adultery, iseman, paxson

Steve Benen is a freelance writer/researcher and creator of The Carpetbagger Report. In addition, he is the lead editor of Salon.com's Blog Report, and has been a contributor to Talking Points Memo, Washington Monthly, Crooks & Liars, The American Prospect, and the Guardian.