Ahhhhhhhhh
You have to love that McCain was the only GOPer involved in the Keating 5 as well. (Yes, Virginia, us Democrats have some corrupt politicians too...)
Damn, the dude just manages to cross the aisle at all the wrong moments and to piss off all the wrong people.
I have to go giggle now.....
I was thinking along the same lines for awhile this evening-- maybe Huckabee had an inkling that this NYT story was coming and thus he stayed in the race longer than he might have otherwise. Or perhaps he was somehow pro-active in making it happen.
If either of the above are true, we can probably expect the full force of the GOP to get behind St. McCain on this story. Huckabee scares the shit out of the Republican establishment because he is essentially a populist. His base is the cultural conservatives, the snake-handlers and the fundies. He's an insurgent candidate born of the people, and not in the pocket of the big money interests who run the GOP. The entrenched economic and political interests in both the Republican and Democratic parties will shit a brick if the two finalists in November are Obama and Huckabee. That wasn't how the script was written.
I'd agree, VC, but McCain is the man behind McCain-Feingold. The Republicans fear populists, but they loathe anybody that gets between money and power.
Well, Huckabee has always said he believes in miracles - and lo and behold! God has intervened??
It was reported in the Washington Post back in December, so it wasn't like this story was totally unknown, but the mainstream media buried it because they love John McMummy. Wonder what Cindy Patriot Drug Addict McCuckoo has to say now? The New York Times probably would have kept it buried but with others on their tail they dropped their bombshell. The Times article, with four reporters, was pretty badly written, gutted or something. Maybe we'll get the true story eventually, because the 4 reporters appear to want to convince the reader that they have proof that McCain was banging this 30-something chick and doing her bidding, but they delicately dance around it. It's got the wingers sounding off like roman candles on the Times site, so I hope they bring the noise and a bit more proof. She lobbied for some awful companies, BTW, like CACI, involved in Abu Ghraib. And remember, McMoribund voted to give the telecoms immunity for illegally wiretapping all of us. No surprise there.
Just looking at the actuarial tables for a 71 year old man, the odds are around 3.5% that McCain will drop dead in the coming year. And when you consider McCain's family history, the odds might even go up quite a bit. Sure McCain's mother has lived to be 95 years old, but his father died (suddenly) at age 71. So I don't think Huckabee's "hanging around" strategy is a dumb idea at all, nor one that needs to be explained by postulating Huckabee knew about McCain's supposed affair. At McCain's age, and given the stress McCain's under (presidential campaign, bad food, not a lot of sleep), odds are greater than 1 in 30 that Huckabee could luck into the nomination by nothing more unusual than McCain dropping dead from natural causes. From Huckabee's point of view, why not hang around, especially after Romney dropped out? Might lead to a VP nomination if nothing else, and if Huckabee were to become VP, the odds that McCain will die in office aren't inconsequential and they go up every year.
And now this -- it's not entirely shocking that a practiced old philanderer like St. John would get caught. So Huckabee's not necessarily smart, he's not necessarily prescient, he's not necessarily "in the know," but he's not dumb either.
Don't forget that Romney didn't quit the race, he suspended his campaign. Reporters on MSNBC said that they had heard rumors in December, and if they heard rumors, so did Romney's camp, at the very least. And given the bad blood between them, he shouldn't be written off as a potential source of this ratfuck.
I don't know if it's Huckabee or not, but I think it would be interesting to watch if Republicans think that it's Huckabee's doing. It could tear them apart.
I have to say I don't follow the Huckabee argument. McCain already has the delegates he needs, more or less. (He's close enough now to go over the line no matter how poorly he does in the polls, especially because even in the worst case it would take a few weeks for the story to really take). If he doesn't drop out, the race is his; if he does drop out, Romney will jump back in, and at the brokered convention either Romney gets it or someone random like Newt Gingrich takes it. Heck, if McCain doesn't drop out but goes down to 0 support, Romney will jump back in and become the instant frontrunner for the convention.
Hey, McCain is a MAVERICK, Man!
mav·er·ick [ mávvərik, mávvrik ] (plural mav·er·icks)
noun
Definition:
1. independent person: an independent thinker who refuses to conform to the accepted views on a subject
(Nah, can't be him)
2. unbranded animal: an unbranded animal, especially a calf that has become separated from its mother and herd. By convention, it can become the property of *whoever finds it and brands it.
Hmmmmm.
Does *whoever mean Corporations
and their lobbyists?
Pertaining to JMcCain, I don't know about #1, but #2 works for me.
No, it wasn't a hit job by Huckabee. Or the GOP or anyone else. If so, it would have occurred earlier in the race, sometime between when McCain was going from "comeback kid" to "front runner" but before "presumptive nominee with a stranglehold on the nomination."
Coming now, it does too much damage to the GOP to be a clever maneuver from within. A majority of the party are committed to McCain at this stage.
Better in fact for the story to come ou now, after the nomination has been (all but) concluded and well before the Fall campaign season. That way it's old news in November.
It's standard operating procedure.
McCain will never drop out. He's wants it too badly and sold his soul to Bush for the opportunity.
I got two words for you:
"Ed Rollins"
The End.
I have a relative who works in Washington raising money for Repugs. She told us a while ago that McCain had a long-time lobbyist girlfriend, and that everyone in Washington knew about it.
The rest of us, the unwashed masses, are just the last to know. Cuz we don't really matter.
I agree re Romney--he can always unendorse and jump back in.
Re: the Radar article, Howard Fineman said as much on MSNBC last night, explaining why the Times held on to the story. (a paraphrase is at my site) Also various journalists like JMM are saying the story is heavily edited.... indicating lots of lawyerly revision. The fact that it was leaked to Drudge in Dec. would also indicate that someone in the conservative McCain-hating wing of the party is responsible for this. The Times piece indicates that the information came from former staffers who became disenchanted with McCain... who becomes disenchanted with St. John? Hard core fundies who support Huck and his ilk.
Huck may not be responsible for the the story, but his behavior indicates at the very least that he knew what was coming, and was holding out for a reason. Might also explain Romney's decision to "suspend" rather than drop out.
Wonder what Cindy Patriot Drug Addict McCuckoo has to say now?
I have more sympathy for her now that we know more details about the...mummy-like creature...she is married to. If you had to face McCracker's explosive, random temper fits AND his "plunging the depths" of other women (so to speak) all the time, would you not seek surcease in the fog of drugs? It would be dangerous to go out and have your own depths plunged with such a volatile torture-monger as a spouse...so that leaves the drugs as the only safe outlet.
high back, from a Digby reader
the repuglitards are getting ready to implode
those "rat fuckers" are a Democrat's best friend
so I guess NYT will pull their endorsement of McCain now...
The fact that it was leaked to Drudge in Dec. would also indicate that someone in the conservative McCain-hating wing of the party is responsible for this.
Ed Rollins -- former Reagan campaign manager -- joined Huckabee's campaign in (wait for it) December.
The only other explanation for why Huckabee stayed in is that he is positioning for 2012 and wanted to have a really strong showing in Texas in the face of the Bushes -- to solidify his base.
But your guess is also highly plausible -- these things are often quite widely known within party circles, especially if it had reached the point of McCain's staff trying to stop it. Staffs are a pretty beg group of insiders, all with lots of insider friends.
Two points:
1. It's doubtful that this sinks McCain unless there is a LOT more to come and it actually comes out. Given the way scandals that SHOULD have been front page news have been buried in the MSM for years now, I have ZERO confidence that all the reporters won't let this one die.
It's certainly strange McCain hasn't rushed to deny the rumors of an affair, but he could do so any time, and unless the woman contradicted him or there was some indisputable evidence, like a hotel bill or something, where can the story go? It just becomes a nasty rumor that goes away in time.
2. As for the lobbying scandal, that does impact his credibility. But, Republicans don't care about corrupt lobbyist ties or they would be Democrats! They LIKE the fact that their politicians are bought & paid for by corporations.
It could certainly hurt him with independents if the story keeps revealing more, but if it's just that he had an affair (deniable) and that he tried to call in a favor or two for her client years ago, that isn't going to be an ONGOING story for long.
I think the ratfuck Huckabee angle is overplayed as well. It makes such a wonderful story that I doubt it. I think Huckabee stayed in because he's positioning himself in case McCain loses (a good bet right now unless he can take down Obama) as the presumptive front-runner in 4 years.
He solidifies his base of support among conservatives. Plus conservative activists are hard-headed absolutists and they still don't like McCain. And some of them take their "movement conservative" label seriously even if most don't -- and those people want a candidate, like Bush or Reagan, who is ONE OF THEM.
McCain will NEVER be one of them. He can talk a good game about faith and God, but they know in their hearts that he doesn't really care about any of it.
He's really a secularist of power at heart. And, after 8 years of Bush, that's an unwelcome change for them.
Whatever the source of this story, I'm not convinced it will have much effect on the race. True Believers will forgive all sins, especially the sexual ones. Just another unfortunate incident (or string of incidents) to distract people from McCain's corporate overlords.
THIS IS SOOOOO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!!!!!
I need to get a life.
And always keep in mind there are many many voters who will contort themselves into anatomically-impossible shapes to justify voting for whichever white male is on the ballot.
All that other stuff is just noise.
I think Huckabee stayed in the race for many reasons, not least of which is that McCain has had a number of past scandals -- sex, corruption, or (as in this case) both -- under the surface that the press was declining to break, and that eventually one was bound to come out.
But I think Hucky also stayed in the race because McCain is 172 years old, give or take a century, and there's still six months before the Republican convention. A 72-year-old man, even in good health, stands a decent chance of dropping dead or at least falling incapacitated in any given six-month period. Eventually something wears out.
(Evidently not that, though.)
Got here through a couple of links that got me to Digby then to you. This is a great outliner, and that country preacher doesn't look so HICK now, does he?
He never did. Huckabee has always struck me as cannier than he looks; just look at his absolutely masterful handling of the earned media problem.
(I have never, in my life, seen someone gain and exploit earned media with as much skill as Huckabee. Never. The Colbert and Norris angles alone were masterstrokes.)
His problem is that he still has to cater to a segment of the American audience that is somewhat unpopular with the rest of it, and that limits his appeal. FairTax doesn't help, either; the implications of that would devastate him in the general, but he's never struck me as especially committed to that scheme.
(In any case, rikyrah, if you like the entry, feel free to add me to your RSS reader. And to comment: I try to respond to every comment, though I think that's probably not going to be workable in this case)
Charles/cugel: For normal Republicans, I'd absolutely agree with you. Sex with a lobbyist wouldn't be a scandal, it'd be Tuesday.
McCain, though, is particularly vulnerable here, for all the reasons I laid out. The St. McCain thing is tarnished, Keating is now going to be front-and-center, sex always sells, and the Republican machine hates the man for muzzling money.
I'd agree with the people saying that it was someone in the Republican machine that pushed this, except that this is the worst time to be doing that. The time to do it was when there were alternatives besides Huckabee, whom they dislike almost as much.
It's a common practice for "huckster", evangelical preachers to have special knowledge beforehand or a plant in the congregation to make it seem like a "miracle" has occurred.
Dittoing Raoul Paste's comment; the only way McCain is leaving this presidential race is feet-first. Unless someone comes up with graphic pictures or something, this will eventually blow over and he'll plow on.
McCain's most vocal conservative critics are supporting him and dising the Times story. If this was supposed to hurt him it backfired in a big way.
There is a possibility that the McCainicans will be able to play this against Huckabee, and John will still get the nomination. If not, though, I think us Obamacrats can breathe a sigh of relief. (Unless Hillary gets the nomination. March 4th can't come quickly enough!)
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