By Samuel Rubenfeld
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) continued to hold the lock on the nomination for the Republican Party even as The New York Times and Washington Post both reported on possibly inappropriate ties to a young female lobbyist on Thursday, Feb. 21, while Gov. Mike Huckabee, despite being mathematically unable to capture the nomination, continues to campaign.
The Times story garnered much more attention than the Post did, because the Times indicated there may have been a romantic relationship between McCain and the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, 41, eight years ago, despite both parties denying it, and evidence of the affair happening was circumstantial.
Iseman was a lobbyist for telecommunications companies that had business which came to the Senate Commerce Committee, of which McCain was chairman eight years ago.
Within an hour of The New York Times story being posted on its Web site, McCain Communications Director, Jill Hazelbacker, issued a statement. “Americans are sick and tired of this kind of gutter politics, and there is nothing in this story to suggest that John McCain has ever violated the principles that have guided his career,” the statement said.
McCain held a press conference on Friday, where he issued a blanket denial of the Times story. But his blanket denial was partially contradicted by a Newsweek report on its Web site on Friday, Feb. 22, which wrote that in a deposition given in 2002, McCain admitted to being personally asked by Lowell Paxon to contact the Federal Communications Commission for him to “act on a bid” by Paxon to buy a Pittsburgh television station, something requiring a special exemption from the FCC. . According to the deposition, he could not recall being contacted by the lobbyist, an apparent reference to Iseman.
Some accused The New Republic of pressuring the Times to run their story, since The New Republic was reporting on a story about wars in the Times newsroom over whether to run it. The Times had been working on the story for months, and Matthew Drudge, of The Drudge Report, a Web site instrumental in breaking the Clinton impeachment scandal in the 1990s, broke a story in December about The Times working on this McCain story.
Also, The Washington Post reported on Feb. 16 that McCain took a $1 million loan from a Bethesda bank by ensuring he would stay in the race on public financing if he lost the New Hampshire primary, but said that he didn’t have to keep the public financing if he won. Federal Election Commission officials called the move uncharted territory, and since he won the primary, the money began to pour in, and he tried to opt out of the public financing.
McCain had entered the public financing system for the primary season when his candidacy was floundering last year. When a candidate opts for public financing, they are limited in their campaign spending by how much they were promised. A candidate can spend the public financing, plus no more than a matching amount earned by fundraising.
McCain was promised $5.8 million in March, but now that he is effectively the Republican nominee, he feels he does not need the financing. He wants to spend as much as he needs to spend to win the election.
“Knowingly violating the spending limit is a criminal offense that could put McCain at risk of stiff fines and up to five years in prison,” reported the Washington Post.
And he cannot tell the FEC he’s opting out, he can only ask to do so, according to a letter from the FEC Chairman sent to the McCain campaign.
The Democratic National Committee filed a complaint asking the FEC to force McCain to keep the financing for the rest of the primary season, severely limiting McCain’s ability to spend while the Democrats continue to fight over who will be the nominee.
But the FEC cannot act for it needs a quorum of at least four commissioners to make a decision, and there are only two currently serving.
McCain has been attacking the Democratic frontrunner, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), for hedging on whether he is accepting public financing in the general election. Obama answered “yes” when responding to a questionnaire about whether he would accept public financing earlier in the election cycle.
Meanwhile, on Feb. 19, McCain won the Washington and Wisconsin primaries, solidifying his hold on the Republican delegate lead. McCain is 233 delegates short of achieving the minimum 1,191 required to earn the nomination, a margin he could close with victories in the Texas and Ohio primaries.
Huckabee, despite being mathematically unable to win the nomination, soldiers on. “I’m not in the mathematics business, I’m in the miracle business,” he says repeatedly on the campaign trail.
Huckabee also made an appearance on Saturday Night Live’s topical sketch, “Weekend Update,” playing himself. He did not leave the set when his time was up, an apparent tongue-in-cheek reference to his remaining in the race.