I wonder if the Huckster knew of this story ahead of time or at least knew that it could come out when he made that comment about believing in miracles.
Miracles indeed.
Speaking of Gollum, wait'll they find out about the movie he secretly appeared in a couple of decades ago. 
bet mittins is pissed that they sat on this story for months
Look at that picture of Cindy McCain.
Give her slightly longer, poofier, and brown hair.
Is it just me, or does she look exactly like Laura Bush?
I'm not sure I'd call this weird, but the Republicans do seem to have a lot of sex-related scandals.
I'm not sure this will hurt him all that much either. Who cares about corruption and infidelity -- McCain is a real macho man! Look how he could bed a hot young blonde, even at the advanced age he was eight years ago!
I'm not saying it's right, just that some people might feel that way -- you know, the kind who are impressed by flight suits with codpieces.
From a Washington Post article:
"Iseman, 40, who joined the Arlington-based firm of Alcalde & Fay as a secretary and rose to partner within a few years, often touted her access to the chairman of the Senate commerce committee as she worked on behalf of clients such as Cablevision, EchoStar and Tribune Broadcasting, according to several other lobbyists who spoke on the condition of anonymity."
Bold face mine. Interpret it as you will, but it looks like some of those other lobbyists might have resented her meteoric rise in the firm. Not that some of the other partners are much better:
"L.A. "Skip" Bafalis, a former five-term Republican congressman from Florida, and Michael Brown, the son of former Commerce Secretary Ronald Brown and a former Democratic candidate for mayor of Washington, D.C."
but at least they made partner the "dignified" way (nepotism and suction with old colleagues). 
Really, the meat of the story is that St. McCain might have backslid a little toward his Keating 5 days, dealing with a firm whose client roster is "heavy with municipalities and local government entities, which suggests that its major emphasis is on the controversial business of winning narrowly targeted, or "earmarked," appropriations." Oh, Gollum...
The firm pulled Iseman's bio from their site. A shame for them about archive.org. They also buried their client list on their site when the story broke, but Google has a longer memory. Looks to me like an upstanding firm with nothing to hide.
And yet a huge sigh of relief can be heard if you listen closely: "Thank God it's not a guy!!!"
Yeah, I noticed that her firm pulled Iseman's bio. When the story broke, I went over to have a look. 45 minutes later, the page had 'disappeared'. Funny that.
As a Gollum fan, I resent any implied connection between St McVain, and the (relatively) upstanding member of society, Master Gollum. He only occasionally throttles and eats unsuspecting orcs and hobbits, and has the dignity and grace to argue with himself afterwards, endlessly.
I shall be awaiting the McVain campaign's denial of any viable connection with cannibalism.
Judging from the hot denials coming from the campaign, I'd say there was probably some truth to it.
I'm still waiting for someone to ask the wrong question and we see McCain blow up, complete with salty Navy verbiage. That'd be a hoot to see during a live debate, wouldn't it?
Jiffy Pop, anyone?
What's really neat about this with Iseman, is that it's like hitting the "refresh" button on all the shit about his influence peddling with Charles Keating. :o) He aint got no slack on stuff like that.
And, I like the way that McCain keeps saying that THAT experience triggered his lust for reforming lobbying laws. :o)
Fast learner, huh, John? :o)
Hmm. One of Alcalde & Fay's clients is CACI, inc. Aren't they right up there with Blackwater?
Inquiring minds...
.......... although her bio material is apparently back up over on the firm's website. Interesting conversations behind the scenes I suspect.
I'm just worried that the media will go for the salacious detail, i.e. did he screw her, versus the real meat which is his continued flouting of ethical standards.
I don't care as much who he slept with or the creepy resemblance between his current wife and her possible replacement but I absolutely want the Keating Five scandal revisited along with this.
Of course that may not happen considering the mancrushes many journalist seem to have for McCain.
One can hope though.
Saw an interesting nickname...
"More of the Same McCain"
ObamaTilDenver; a little problem:
I just posted the link to Huff's piece about Alcalde-Faye's taking Iseman's bio off their website, on a conservative site.
And, I got nailed with the fact that it's still right there on their "meet the firm" section.
I hate having to eat one, but it looks like I'm going to have to do it, unless the bio was taken down and they put it back up, as a result of Huff's post about it.
Your thoughts?
Tanbark,
Her bio disappeared last night....... I checked a couple of times, and it wasn't around early this morning. However it's back now.
I thought I'd go over to Huffpo and see if there was anything about her bio being removed, and then put back up today. Didn't see anything about that.
It makes sense, 'though, in that Alcalde&Faye may have heard of Huff, who of course, has a lot of readers, posting about the removal, and then decided that taking it down looked worse than leaving it up.
Bollox, thanks. :o)
I'm halfway out of the woods on this on my bluegrass site; if anyone hears anything more about this; a hard, fast, statement on HuffPo that F&A took it down and put it right back up, I'd sure like to get all the way out. :o)
"Your thoughts?"
Like Bollox said, it was definitely down last night. SOP with PR and lobbying firms in these situations is usually to go into panic mode and try to pull a "disappearing commissar" on their client/partner who's in deep doo-doo (it's a real Stalinist/Ministry of Truth mindset at these places when things get rough). I'm sure that when one of the senior partners heard the news, he called his webmaster and said to pull her bio and bury the client list (so they wouldn't get spattered).
Then this morning one of the other partners saw the Huffington Post article and other mirrors, and realized that this kind of Memory Hole shenanigan doesn't work so well between Archive.org and the Google cache. Again, Bollox: "Interesting conversations behind the scenes I suspect." And it was apparently decided that suffering her continued presence on the partnership list beat painting the firm as ham-handed techno-morons.
I'd be willing to lay down money that's how it happened. So nothing to eat, but thank all those conservatives for rushing to the defence of lobbying firms that specialize in squeezing pork and corporate welfare out of taxpayers.
ObamaTil'...
Ahhh...sweet salve...
Thankee, thankee...:o)
Can I put that up?
It's rife with common sense.:o)
Anonymously, of course...:o)
To paraphase Bones McCoy
"Jim, its a sex scandal, but not as we know it". Meaning for once we have a republican sex scandal thats purely heterosexual.
I really don't understand why ALL republicans have some sort of weird sexual thing going on.
Aww, come on, Hubris Sonic.
Sara told us all about the way RWAs draw their ruling elites from amongst their borderline sociopath SDO community some time back, did she not?
That's probably why the rank and file don't repudiate Republican pols who break their Only Commandment: "Thou shalt not get caught" - because they knew all along where these people were coming from.
I know it's not important (no bearing on the lobbyist side of this), but given the resemblance between Cindy McCain and Iseman, does anyone know what Carol Shepp (McCain's first wife) looked like? I've done a Google search, but nothing so far.
"Can I put that up?"
Be my guest.
I'm sure the narrative on the right will shift quickly to "that shameless blonde hussy, forcing her privates onto the dicks of fine upstanding men like St. McCain and an (as-yet unknown) senior partner of Alcalde-Faye in order to promote her career."
It's the hetero misogynist version of the "Why Do All These Homosexuals Keep Sucking My Cock?" excuse we've seen so often lately from other GOPers.
ObamaTil', For your help, I owe you and Bollox an explanation: it's the BG site where I've been, as Tanya Tucker sang; hanging out and hanging on, for 5 years and two months.
There's a separate forum for non-bluegrass subjects, and when I got on, there were quite a few posts about how Bill and Hillary were the satanic couple from hell, with photoshopped "haw, haw" pictures of Bill with his hand stuck up some young girl's dress.
I was the new kid on the block, and for a couple of weeks, I kept shut. And then I thought, "WTF. I like the music; pick it a liiittle; know all about Big Mon, and Earl and Lester; I get a say, here..."
And, since it was the koolaid-and-bullshit run-up to what I was sure was going to be one, gigantic, shitmire, I started asking people to call their congers and tell them to yank on bush's leash, because nothing but misery was going to come of it for all concerned.
Well, what happened pretty much defined "dogpile". I was called a "Saddam-lover" and a "terrist-supporter", among other things.
In fairness, there weren't tons of people coming out of the woodwork to come after me. It wasn't like LGF, or Freepers; they're better human beings than that bunch, and a couple of them even called out a few of the worst, for their reaction.
I stayed the course. :o) and some other people were emboldened to speak out, and we began to have a...dialogue...
okay, a rather intense dialogue.:o)
I won't bore you with too much more of this, but it's been a hell of a ride, and then, I got a couple of ponyos, in Myrtle June, and Larue, and we been makin' 'em jump and shout, using reality-ammo from AW.com and some other places like Steve's/GNB.
Of course, now, the carnivorous chickens are coming home to roost, and the word "Iraq" has practically disappeared from the vocabularies of republicans and conservatives. Natheless, we insist on discussing it; early and often.
The capper: we are unmoderated!
the ONLY bluegrass site on the whole fucking internet where that is true. On the others, a breath of politics will get you a warning, and then, banned, if you do it again.
The site creator and the guy who runs it, is, I'm pretty sure, fairly conservative, and I know he gets irritated at the fur flying sometimes, but for some reason, he has let us ROLL, and I regularly sing his praises for doing it.:o)
I was bounced more in my first month of posting at FDL, than in the entire 5 plus years at the BG site.:o) Zero bounces there. :o)
We had a couple of mods for about a month, but at that time, we all wanted to mix it up so much that they would have had to ban practically ALL of the regulars, and they finally threw up their hand and said fukkit, and left. :o) )
It's turned into one HELL of a pissy, profane, town-hall meeting. :o) The cons still outnumber us, but, we are THERE, and not going away.
Of course, now that the 19%/Obama shit is starting to come down on their heads, we're hearing THEIR version of the "unity" theme, as they complain about the divisiveness, and about my profanity (I have NO idea what THAT fucking shit is about...) and they alternate between playing the "can't we all just get along?" card. and lobbying to get me thrown off, but again, I think the site owner kind of enjoys watching the brawl. We're all scrupulous to keep it off the music forum.
Another thing we've all been scrupulous about is not bringing in ringers. E.G., If you don't know the first verse to "Blue Moon of Kentucky", you can watch but not post. :o)
There was a time, when Gilly was still serving the beer and sandwiches (snuffle...) and when Driftglass first showed up to dazzle us with his troll-shredding skills, that I, in a moment of the purest sadism and malice, thought of inviting him over for a guest shot at the BG site. :o)
To my everlasting credit, I didn't do it; it would have been like dropping a piranha into a tank of guppies. :o)
The better angels of my nature prevailed, and I'm glad.
So; that's the news from Lake Twang.
Thanks for the indulgence. And for being the bravehearts that you all are.
Who's got the beer? :o)
Periwinkle Spark Plug: To paraphase Bones McCoy "Jim, its a sex scandal, but not as we know it". Meaning for once we have a republican sex scandal thats purely heterosexual.
dammit, Periwinkle Spark Plug, you beat me to the punch!
Among the Vertigo obsessed, I'm one who thinks that AHitch (and STaylor, to give the writer some credit) had in mind a sociocultural critique of the emerging middle-America Republican (parts of which are evident in much of his post-WWII output).
Stuff like this does nothing to discourage me.
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