And now it begins.....

Honeymoon's over John.

The New York Times turned on the man it endorsed for the Republican nomination today, publishing a story contributed by an "anonymous source" that Senator McCain has been fooling around with a lobbyist for a media conglomerate with business before his committee.

In all fairness, The Times quotes lots of folks who defend him.....

Like Robert Bennett, a former Clinton lawyer

Oh, yeah, that really helps me feel better about it.

They quote ex-staffers who "warned him about the woman".

Then they finish the article by bringing up the Keating incident back in the 80's where McCain was investigated and found to have used "poor judgement" though.

Also, I love the picture where they photoshopped a glamour shot of Cindy McCain behind a shot that makes McCain look like the ultimate dirty old man.

Welcome, Senator McCain, to being the media's favorite Republican candidate. Now that you've pretty much won the thing, you can bet that stories like this are only just beginning. Wait till they start digging up the Keating stuff and running photos of you losing your temper in committee sessions.

There are millions of miles of footage of those sessions in their vaults and you can bet the major networks and every liberal rag in the country is right now pouring through the tape looking for the worst photos of Sen. McCain and the worst on-the-podium tantrums you ever did. I predicted months ago that once Senator McCain seals the nomination, the media would turn on him.

It's going to get ugly. Let me make a few guesses at the tack they'll take.

1. McCain's poor judgement. They've used that twice in the Times piece. They say his staff told him it was poor judgement to be seen with the pretty female lobbyist AND they reminded us in the same article that the senate ethics committee pronounced that he used poor judgement in the affair ot the Keating S&L scandal. Watch for "poor judgement" to become a theme.

2. McCain's famous temper. We'll start seeing clips of the senator berating distraut POW family members during the POW/MIA hearings. We'll hear stories from aids and colleagues about McCain losing his cool in all sorts of situations.

3. McCain's mental stability. Someone will do a story of post traumatic stress disorder and the long term effects on soldiers tortured by the North Vietnamese. They'll run through some aggregiously affected guys, ex-prisoners who "went postal" and then there are those who were successful at getting past it like, oh, presidential candidate John McCain who doesn't seem to have any side effects other than an regrettably hot temper that nobody knew him to have before he was tortured and possibly brain-washed by the communists. Then, the guerilla campaign will start on You-Tube and before this is over more than a third of Americans will be absolutely convinced that McCain is liable to "go postal" and start a nuclear war if he's put under the tremendous pressure of being president.

4. McCain's age. See the photo at the top of the page. McCain looks rough. I once met him. He was leaning against a wall waiting to go into a senate committee meeting. He looked like a dry husk with empty tired eyes. I know I'm not the only one who has seen how frail the senator looks. I'm sure, given his schedule, his brutal treatment as a POW and his age, he has every right to look that way. But remember, going after the presidency is a beauty pagent. All the media has to do is show pretty pictures of Obama and ugly, old guy pictures of McCain to fix firmly in the minds of the Americans that he was too old. Remember they tried to do that with Reagan, but didn't succeed. Reagan was too pretty and too healthy and even after he contracted Alzheimer's, Americans never accepted the media attempts to go back in history and convince people he was senile while in office. McCain, unfortunately, was never an actor and doesn't know how to look good for the camera. He always looks frail and his physical limitations will be held against him as they were with Bob Dole in 1996.

5. McCain's leftward leanings. This won't help him with moderates and it will hurt him badly with conservatives. The media will be all over the "betrayal" of conservatives by McCain and it will depress turnout by the Republican base in this election. Plus they will be all over the lack of endorsements coming from talk radio, which traditionally lines up behind Republicans.

6. McCain's morality. We haven't heard the last of the allegations that McCain fools around.

The ladies on "The View" just lead today's episode with the story in in short order hit on McCain's morality, poor judgement, problems with conservatives, age (an Alzheimer's crack by Joy Behar) and his looks. They haven't recieved all the Democrat anti-McCain talking points yet. I'm sure some are in development. I've only guessed at the high points. I'm sure there are more.

You asked for it, John. I almost feel sorry for you.

Almost!

I'm just sayin'

Tom