By: E&P Staff In his column at The New York Times today, David Brooks speculates on the anonymous sources for his paper's McCain bombshell and details the "rift" between a key present and former insider.
He concludes, "At his press conference Thursday, McCain went all-in. He didn?t just say he didn?t remember a meeting about Iseman. He said there was no meeting. If it turns out that there is evidence of an affair and a meeting, then his presidential hopes will be over. If no evidence surfaces, his campaign will go on and it will be clear that there were members of his old inner circle consumed by viciousness and mendaciousness."
The column is at www.nytimes.com.
Meanwhile, Executive Editor Bill Keller tells Howard Kurtz for his Washington Post column today, "They're trying to change the subject to us." McCain's advisers, he said, are attempting "to use the New York Times as an opportunity to rally the base."
Kurtz reports that media analysts are divided by the story. But Alex Jones, who directs the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, called the story "absolutely appropriate. When you run for president, you should have your record scrutinized closely in every respect." Jones said the piece showed that McCain and Vicki Iseman had "a very close relationship. . . . The only thing that seems to be in dispute is whether it was a romantic relationship, and that, frankly, is the least important part of it."
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