At the risk of sounding like I support McCain, which I don't...it stinks like Rove and a "Huckabee miracle". I would much rather have McCain running for the right than Huckabee. They both suck. But, I feel like we've seen this shit before. Now...if they have proof McCain traded favors for "favors"...then it's a whole different ballgame.
The NYT have been sitting on this story for ages. They only published now because a story slated for next week by The New Republic on the NYT holding this story forced their hand.
This in turn hurried up the TNR story (via Politico):
"According to Black, the Times only went with the story now because The New Republic was set to run a piece next Monday about internal dissensions at the paper over whether to run the long-held article.
After the TNR reporter, Gabriel Sherman, began making phone calls to the Times and others outside the paper, they decided to publish, Black alleged.
The Times called the McCain campaign this afternoon to give them notice that they were going with the story and asked campaign officials if they wanted to say anything more.
"We said we have nothing else to say unless you've got new questions. And they didn't," Black said.
In a blog posting late Wednesday, TNR senior editor Noam Scheiber wrote: "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, and the back-and-forth within the paper about whether to publish it. Gabe's story will be online tomorrow."
Black, who has been closely involved in talks with the paper, acknowledged that there would be initial damage from the story, but predicted little long-term impact.
"I think we're going to have a feeding frenzy for a day, maybe a day and a half then it will go away because it's a nothing story."
topshelf
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