McCain and His Lobbyist Lover: The Final Straw for the GOP Base? [VIDEO]

Posted by Pam Spaulding, Pam's House Blend at 5:47 AM on February 21, 2008.

In the Washington Post followup to the NYT piece on John McCain's murky relationship with lobbyist, a name is now attached to one of the previously unnamed aides who confronted Vicki Iseman and told her to stay away from the senator.

John Weaver, who was McCain's closest confidant until leaving his current campaign last year, said he met with Vicki Iseman at the Center Cafe at Union Station and urged her to stay away from McCain. Association with a lobbyist would undermine his image as an opponent of special interests, aides had concluded.

...McCain, after his unsuccessful 2000 campaign, has emerged as the front-runner for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. His reputation as a crusader for Washington reform -- forged during almost 30 years in the Senate -- is based largely on his stinging critiques of the role played by lobbyists. He routinely decries earmarks, or pet projects, inserted into legislation. He has repeatedly maintained that he has "never, ever done a favor for any lobbyist or special interest group." It was this reputation that McCain's closest aides sought to protect.

"We were running a campaign about reforming Washington, and her showing up at events and saying she had close ties to McCain was harmful," one aide said.

The moralist wing of the party is outraged, particularly Bay Buchanan, who was with the currently suspended Romney campaign. She was frothing at mouth last night on CNN's AC360, stoking the fundie fires. She obviously thinks her man Mitt would have walked away with the nomination had this story dropped back before Florida.

COOPER: Bay Buchanan, I have got to ask you. As you were working for the Romney campaign, would this have made a difference when you were with the campaign? I mean, how would this have changed things had that story broken months ago?

BUCHANAN: Oh. Oh, there's no question it would have impacted. No question it would have impacted our primaries.

We -- we -- you know, conservatives are -- we believe that we are the family value party. We believe it seriously. We expect our candidates to live up to those values, not just to talk about them and expect us to vote for them, and not be there really when it counts.

And our -- we have a basic belief. If can you lie to your wife and your children, then the voter doesn't have a prayer. And, so, that's where we stand. We assume our candidates are that way, unless we -- we have reason to believe otherwise.

Considering this is the party of Mark Foley, Larry Craig, David Vitter and a host of Republican Sexual Hypocrites, the above is a howler. David Gergen was on as well, and he later called out Bay on God's Own Party's hypocrisy. That's after the jump.

GERGEN: What I -- what I also feel with my friend, Bay, I must say, I do agree with the notion -- listen, before we get too high and mighty about the Republican Party, I don't remember a lot of outrage in the Republican Party over the question about their -- the House members and pages. You know, we have -- let's not -- I don't think we ought to get too high and mighty about this.

BUCHANAN: No. No, no, no.

GERGEN: But, you know, but...

(CROSSTALK)

BUCHANAN: David, look what happened in the general -- in the general election as a result of that scandal. Republicans were -- were decimated.

GERGEN: They were decimated. But I -- you know, at the leadership level, there was an awful lot of hoofing and hawing and sort of not wanting to get to the bottom of it.

(CROSSTALK)

BUCHANAN: Absolutely true. And that's why the -- the grassroots really, really turned on them.

Yes, and it's the grassroots that McCain will need if he has prayer of winning in the general. He simply cannot win if they stay home AND he loses independents on the lobbying ethics front.

Ally on the conservative side of the blogosphere, Joe Murray, former staff attorney for the American Family Association, thinks McCain could be toast solely on the ethics/lobbying front:

The possibility Mr. McCain may have had an affair is not the driving force behind this inquest; far from it. Rather, the idea that this maverick, a man who bucked his party to restore the people's trust in their government, could have pulled strings for inappropriate reasons is an innuendo that could topple Mr. McCain.

If this is the tip of the iceberg, it is clear Mr. McCain has assumed the role of Edward John Smith. There will be no rebounding from this betrayal of trust; no rehabilitation.

On the left Mr. McCain will be pummeled by Barack Obama, a man who will cast Mr. McCain as exhibit A in his case for change, and on the right Mr. McCain will be greeted by a deflated base.

Deflated is an understatement. He's been trying to win over The Base of bible beaters since he declared the race over, and the professional "Christian" set (Daddy D notably not among them) had begun to circle the wagons around the Arizona senator.

Daddy D recently endorsed Huckabee -- do you think he knew the NYT piece might drop? Who knows.

Even more troublesome for the McCain camp is the fact that Mr. Huckabee is still buzzing around the mule and Mr. Romney can still jump back in this race (he only suspended his campaign). Conservatives were never enthusiastic about a McCain nomination and this could be the crack in the armor.

While it is too premature to begin drafting Mr. McCain's last will and testament, considerations of stepping down should be entertained.

***

And here's an added bit of entertainment to the scandal. Last night the McCain released a tepid statement that dodged the sexual allegations. It came from his press officer, Jill Hazelbaker. Who is she?

Apparently John McCain hires only the best, brightest and most ethical for his team. Check out the diary John McCain's Integrity in Action: Hiring Concern Troll to be Communications Director. She was busted by Blue Jersey's Juan Melli astroturfing away from an IP addy for the Tom Kean Jr. campaign, and was later caught by the MSM lying about it.

During the 2006 Senate campaign in New Jersey, Jill Hazelbaker worked for Republican candidate Tom Kean, Jr. Juan Melli, the founder of Blue Jersey, noticed that the site had a lot of concern trolls. You know, the kind of commentator who says he is a "lifelong liberal," but he just can't vote for Menendez due to ethics concerns. Unfortunately for Hazelbaker, the concern trolls all came from the Kean campaign's IP address. Indeed, Juan showed that one troll posted information that had not yet been published, leading to his belief (though it certainly cannot be proven) that Hazelbaker herself may have posted the comments. She after all, was in a position to know the information, and a low-level intern would not have been.

Tagged as: mccain, iseman, adultery, lobbying, conservatives, buchanan, republican party, romney, republican hypocrisy

Pam Spaulding blogs at Pam's House Blend.