McCain and The NY Times and a Gotcha

When the McCain "supposed" scandal broke the other day, I quickly came out and said I think this was a Republican hard right dirty trick. I still stand by that and a friend today pushed back on that stance by saying the world is going after The NY Times for the story.

Naive.

The NY Times has nothing to gain from running the story now. All of those on the right who are saying they are trying to tear down McCain miss the crucial point about timing. The NY Times had this awhile back and didn't run it then for who knows what reason. And at any rate the original story was full of holes and lousy reporting to begin with. But even that misses some of the fun here. The Democrats have nothing to gain in this. They are still in the middle of their own fight, and in fact the McCain brouhaha pulled focus from them. If somehow the Dems were behind this, then they are more stupid than I thought, and if somehow the NY Times thought this would help the Dems, then they deserve all the derision being tossed their way, just for different reasons.

Who's got the most to gain from this? Well, let's see. The hard right hates McCain and would rather crash and burn then see him get elected. Mitt Romney only suspended his campaign, he didn't fold it. Mike Huckabee is quoted as saying the goal is a brokered convention.

Whoever on the far right got this pushed through succeeded on two counts. They knocked McCain off stride and forced him to respond. And they got to splash mud all over the Gray Lady.

And just to make things interesting, though. Newsweek comes out with this little gem, that McCain may have contradicted sworn deposition testimony with in his press conference yesterday.

It makes it tough to keep producing theatre when the real life entertainment is so much fun at times.