Straight Talk -- Out of both Sides of his Mouth

St. John of the Straight Talk, having read and fully internalized his press clippings over the years as the defender of all that is true and good, went way out on a limb the other day in his press conference.  There was no equivocating, no "I can't remembers," just flat out denials of having done unusual favors for Ms. Iseman and her clients.  And now, I think I hear the sounds of saws starting to hum in the distance -- or to torture another metaphor, the beginning of the slow drip, drip, drip of contradiction that could spell huge damage to his candidacy.  [McCain's sanctimoniousness in this setting made me fully understand his bond with Joe Lieberman -- it's more than their love of the Iraq war -- it's their overweening sense of moral rectitude in the face of all evidence to the contrary.]

Today in the Washington Post, there is an article flatly contradicting claims not to have met with Lowell "Bud" Paxson before intervening on his behalf in an FCC proceeding.  Paxson also casts doubt on McCain's claim not to have met personally with Iseman over the same issue, as Paxson strongly believes that she was at the same meeting.  This comes a day after Newsweek published a story showing that McCain's press conference statements appeared inconsistent with his sworn deposition testimony given a few years ago about, among other things, his intervention for Paxson.  Moreover, it appears from the Post article that McCain wrote his second letter to the FCC on Paxon's behalf the day after attending a fund raiser on a yacht in West Palm Beach organized by Iseman's lobbying firm to which he was flown on a Paxson corporate jet.  The letter pressured the FCC to act by December 14, 1999, a date that was geared to the time sensitive nature of Paxon's transaction at the time.      

This, coupled with the McCain's campaign finance shenanigans, should be a devastating combination, if, and this is a big if, as a dear friend of mine noted this morning, the commentariat do their jobs and stop fluffing this guy 24/7. 

All of this will be revisited repeatedly and with far greater scrutiny in the next few days by all manner of people I suspect.  But for now, I want to conclude with a quote by Robert Bennett, one of the many greatly overrated lawyers in Washington, who shows in one sentence why people esteem my profession  (the world's second oldest I believe) so greatly:

"We understand that he [McCain] did not speak directly to him [Paxson].  Now it appears that he did.  What is the difference?"

That folks, is how you get to charge $800 an hour in this town.  What is the difference indeed?  This is sophistry taken to the level of an art form, the surest path to riches (and the perception of wisdom) here in the Village.

Comments

[litbrit]

Hear, hear.