February 23, 2008 [LINK / comment]
Throwing mud at McCain
Well, the New York Times didn't waste any time trying to undermine the presumptive GOP nominee almost as soon as the race was effectively decided this past week. The timing was so obviously calculated that it even prompted Rush Limbaugh to jump to McCain's defense. The accusation that the Arizona senator was unduly friendly to a female lobbyist, and may have exhibited favoritism in his official duties, comes from a former adviser who may bear some grudge. So far, it doesn't seem to be too serious, pretty much par for the course in Washington. The insinuation that the relationship may have been "intimate" seems rather far-fetched, however, given that it happened only a year after the Clinton impeachment hearings. (Politicians would have to be smarter than that, right?) Some people (including me, two years ago) have noted that McCain was the only Republican who was caught up in the "Keating 7" savings & loan scandal of the late 1980s. I never figured out how McCain transformed himself into a reformer after that episode, and the latest incident makes you wonder if he really learned his lesson back then.
Is McCain not green?
News that McCain got a ZERO rating from the League of Conservation Voters came as a shock to me. Eight other U.S. senators shared the same dubious distinction, all Republicans. On the other hand, one of the three senators to score a perfect 100 was Susan Collins of Maine. She is one of the dwindling breed of old-fashioned moderate Republicans. McCain will need to do a lot more to motivate disenchanted folks like me to help out during the fall campaign.
Waldo jeers at RPV
Waldo Jaquith, a public-spirited lefty if there ever was one, surveys the decline of the Grand Old Party in the Old Dominion, which has been his blog's main theme for the past five years. He sends sardonic best wishes to Jeff Frederick, a young conservative who is running a candidate for RPV Chairman in the upcoming state convention. Waldo thinks that Frederick's ascension would hasten the day when the Democrats retake control of the House of Delegates. One of Frederick's associates spoke to the Staunton Republican Committee last week. The incumbent, John Hager, paid a visit to Staunton last August.