McCain in Fight as Scandal Breaks

Update IV: McCain's Statement Contradicts His Deposition

Update III: TNR: Behind the Bombshell in 'The New York Times.'

Update II: McCain Comments Distort FCC Matter

Update: McCain issues sweeping denial. If McCain is right, and he has specifically denied that he was confronted by aides about the alleged relationship nine years ago, this will be a spectacular failure on the part of the Times and Post that will become a scandal in itself.

McCain camp vows to 'go to war' with NYT reads the lede story in The Politico.

When it's raining, keep your head up; that's the old saying in politics; and, really McCain has no choice but to respond, but I think he is showing too much outrage in his reaction.

From the Post: "The McCain team issued a statement last night decrying 'gutter politics' and saying the story -- which had been reported on the Drudge Report Web site in December -- was a 'a hit and run smear campaign.'"

The 3,022-word Times story is obviously heavily edited and precisely worded.

A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, visiting his offices and accompanying him on a client’s corporate jet. Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself — instructing staff members to block the woman’s access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity. ...

.. Even as he has vowed to hold himself to the highest ethical standards, his confidence in his own integrity has sometimes seemed to blind him to potentially embarrassing conflicts of interest. ...

There is reason to believe that rightwingers who really do not like McCain are pushing the story:

... Mr. McCain earned the lasting animosity of many conservatives, who argue that his push for fund-raising restrictions trampled free speech, and of many of his Senate colleagues, who bristled that he was preaching to them so soon after his own repentance. In debates, his party’s leaders challenged him to name a single senator he considered corrupt (he refused). ...

Obviously, the Times and the Post have more on this, and the affair, whatever it was, was not a secret.

But McCain's aggressive reaction may provoke many follow-up pieces, not something McCain needs as he stands poised to take the Republican nomination for president.

My advice for a statement would have been: A long time ago , I had an inappropriate relationship. I have ended the relationship, learned from the mistake and moved on.

From The Politico (reporters Jonathan Martin and Michael Calderone):

John McCain’s campaign promised to 'go to war' against the New York Times Wednesday night after the newspaper posted its long-awaited story on McCain's alleged relationship with a telecom lobbyist. Both McCain and the woman in question denied having a romantic relationship.