McCain Fails in Rebutting Story ......

McCain Campaign Responds Angrily to Report Questioning Ethics

ABC’s Ron Claiborne and Tahman Bradley report: Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Arizona Sen. John McCain's campaign responded angrily tonight to an article in the New York Times about his ethics, and specifically to reports that McCain had a relationship with a female lobbyist eight years ago that some on his staff were concerned appeared inappropriate.

The Times reports that Vicki Iseman, with the Washington DC firm Alcalde and Fay, represented telecommunications businesses that had business before McCain's commerce committee. The Times reports that a former campaign adviser was instructed to keep Ms. Iseman away from the senator at public events. The paper says another unnamed McCain aide met with the woman at Union Station in Washington, DC to ask her to stay away from the senator.


According to the New York Times, these advisers were "convinced the relationship had become romantic."

The Times article also revisits McCain's involvement in the Keating Five scandal, in which McCain and four other senators were accused of lobbying banking regulators on behalf of a political associate who ran a failed Savings and Loan.

The McCain campaign tonight accused the New York Times of lowering its standards and engaging in a "hit and run smear" campaign.

McCain campaign advisor Charles Black accused the New York Times of shoddy journalism, telling ABCNews, “The New York Times is playing the National Enquirer. They chased around this gossip story, chasing rumors which are false for the past three-and-a-half months.”

Black says the Times only chose to publish the story when it learned another news organization, The New Republic magazine, was preparing a story about the Times’ decision to hold back publication. "The New Republic stampeded them into running this story, which is shoddy journalism, which is a smear of John McCain," Black said.

Here is the full statement from McCain Communications Director Jill Hazelbaker:

"It is a shame that the New York Times has lowered its standards to engage in a hit and run smear campaign. John McCain has a 24-year record of serving our country with honor and integrity. He has never violated the public trust, never done favors for special interests or lobbyists, and he will not allow a smear campaign to distract from the issues at stake in this election.
"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."