McCain No Longer a Media Darling

We are beginning to see a transformation in the press in its coverage of the Presidential election as it pertains to John McCain. When McCain was useful to the left leaning media he was promoted as the alternative to more conservative Republican candidates.

He was endorsed by many liberal newspapers in the run up to Super Tuesday including the New York Times. An endorsement, by the way, that McCain gladly accepted to the chagrin (and laughter) of conservatives.

Still, there is a choice to be made, and it is an easy one. Senator John McCain of Arizona is the only Republican who promises to end the George Bush style of governing from and on behalf of a small, angry fringe. With a record of working across the aisle to develop sound bipartisan legislation, he would offer a choice to a broader range of Americans than the rest of the Republican field.

Now we are entering a new phase of the election where the conservative faction of the Republican Party has been stiffly beaten back by the centrists. McCain's role has changed. With this dynamic McCain is no longer standing in the way of a conservative nominee of the Republican Party (good for the NYT) but is now the closest thing to a conservative left standing that might disrupt the coronation of a truly liberal Democratic President (not so good for the NYT.)

Which means of course that the NYT has better things to do than talk about McCain as a positive candidate, but instead must begin running pieces that highlight 10 year old rumors and 20 year old scandals.

Mr. McCain, 71, and the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, 40, both say they never had a romantic relationship. But to his advisers, even the appearance of a close bond with a lobbyist whose clients often had business before the Senate committee Mr. McCain led threatened the story of redemption and rectitude that defined his political identity.

It had been just a decade since an official favor for a friend with regulatory problems had nearly ended Mr. McCain’s political career by ensnaring him in the Keating Five scandal. In the years that followed, he reinvented himself as the scourge of special interests, a crusader for stricter ethics and campaign finance rules, a man of honor chastened by a brush with shame.

But the concerns about Mr. McCain’s relationship with Ms. Iseman underscored an enduring paradox of his post-Keating career. Even as he has vowed to hold himself to the highest ethical standards, his confidence in his own integrity has sometimes seemed to blind him to potentially embarrassing conflicts of interest.

My friends, that is Journalism!

As Michelle Malkin says, If you lie down with MSM dogs, you wake up with stories like this.