ATIT Reheated (2008): Pablo Fanque's notorious interview with Sen. John McCain

By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Editor

In an interview today with All This Is That's national affairs editor, Pablo Fanque, Senator John McCain at first mocked the New York Times recent revelations about a possible relationship he had had with the lobbyist Vicki Iseman.

Fanque: So is there any whiff of truth to the story?

Sen. McCain: Sure, I guess there's a whiff of truth. She is a woman, and a good looking woman. It's more convenient to pin her on me than it would be a male lobbyist. That's for sure. Every person on the hill deals with lobbyists.

Fanque: But the New York Times also alludes to something deeper than a drink with a lobbyist.

Sen. McCain: Sure they do. Have you read the 'paper lately? They allude to a lot of things. And the Times has a stake in getting their boy Obama elected. They shredded Hillary Clinton, and now they're coming after me.

Fanque: But that still doesn't really answer the question.

Sen. McCain: But isn't this interview supposed to be about how I would support the arts after I'm elected?

Fanque: It is, indeed. But this seems a little more important.

Sen. McCain: Than what?! This is a f***ing sideshow you're running here. Let's talk about The Issues.

Fanque: We are. This has become the issue.

Sen. McCain: Look. I've become a threat to the Democrats and to the New York Times. So you drag up a ten-year-old story and start flogging it. It's not relevant to the campaign.

Fanque: So just what WAS your relationship with Ms. Iseman?

Sen. McCain: I think I explained that. Several times this week.

Fanque: But the New York Times and some of your staffers seem to think otherwise.

Sen. McCain: You're talking about Pravda here. A paper that is ashamed of the United States. And some traitor staff members who will be rapidly disposed of. Pardon me for ending that sentence with a preposition.

Fanque: But Senator, you've explained that you did some business with a lobbyist. Now, it seems, you need to explain the accusations that have been lodged against you about having a romantic relationship with Ms.Iseman.

Sen. McCain: Really. OK. I drilled Vicki Iseman. So what? Do I get the same pass you gave Slick Willy? Do I get the same pass you've been giving Obama and Hillary?

Fanque: Pass? I don't recall hearing these sorts of allegations against them?

Sen. McCain: Then you have your head in the sand. Because it's all out there. This interview is over.
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Reprising Pablo Fanque's notorious 2008 interview with Sen. John McCain in the heat of the election

By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Editor

In an interview today with All This Is That's national affairs editor, Pablo Fanque, Senator John McCain at first mocked the New York Times recent revelations about a possible relationship he had had with the lobbyist Vicki Iseman.

Fanque: So is there any whiff of truth to the story?

Sen. McCain: Sure, I guess there's a whiff of truth. She is a woman, and a good looking woman. It's more convenient to pin her on me than it would be a male lobbyist. That's for sure. Every person on the hill deals with lobbyists.

Fanque: But the New York Times also alludes to something deeper than a drink with a lobbyist.

Sen. McCain: Sure they do. Have you read the 'paper lately? They allude to a lot of things. And the Times has a stake in getting their boy Obama elected. They shredded Hillary Clinton, and now they're coming after me.

Fanque: But that still doesn't really answer my question.

Sen. McCain: But isn't this interview supposed to be about how I would support the arts after I'm elected?

Fanque: It is, indeed. But this seems a little more important.

Sen. McCain: Than what?! This is a f***ing sideshow you're running here. Let's talk about The Issues.

Fanque: We are. This has become the issue.

Sen. McCain: Look. I've become a threat to the Democrats and to the New York Times. So you drag up a ten year old story and start flogging it. It's not relevant to the campaign.

Fanque: So just what WAS your relationship with Ms. Iseman?

Sen. McCain: I think I explained that. Several times this week.

Fanque: But the New York Times and some of your staffers seem to think otherwise.

Sen. McCain: You're talking about Pravda here. A paper that is ashamed of the United States. And some traitor staff members who will be rapidly disposed of. Pardon me for ending that sentence with a preposition.

Fanque: But Senator, you've explained that you did some business with a lobbyist. Now, it seems, you need to explain the accusations that have been lodged against you about having a romantic relationship with Ms.Iseman.

Sen. McCain: Really. OK. I drilled Vicki Iseman. So what? Do I get the same pass you gave Slick Willy? Do I get the same pass you've been giving Obama and Hillary?

Fanque: Pass? I don't recall hearing these sorts of allegations against them?

Sen. McCain: Then you have your head in the sand. Because it's all out there. This interview is over.
[click].

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Buyer's remorse:::::::::McCain campaign calls Sarah a whack job:::::Her team fires back::::::::::Palin goes rogue::::::Let the finger pointing begin!

An Awkward Embrace

The wheels have long since fallen off the McPalin bandwagon, and the finger pointing has begun. In public. The McCain camp clearly has a case of buyer's remorse, and the Palin wing feels like they have been kept under wraps and aggressively over-managed.

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, writes about a “demoralized” McCain campaign: “Palin is going to be the most vivid chapter of the McCain campaign's post-mortem. … Those loyal to McCain believe they have been unfairly blamed for over-handling Palin. They say they did the best they could with what they got.”



Anonymous McCain campaign leakers have now called Governor Palin a “diva," and even “a whack job.”

George Stephanpolous also wrote: "The Alaska governor herself has been pushing out on her own against McCain's handlers. In recent days she has been speaking her own mind about what she thought of McCain's strategy in Michigan, and what she thought of his decision not to go after Rev. Jeremiah Wright. "

From Atlantic Magazine: "There's a faction within the McCain campaign has begun to whisper about Gov. Sarah Palin to reporters. The faction includes staff members and advisers who consult with staff members. It does not seem to include any members of the senior staff, although the definition of the senior staff here is a bit elastic. This faction has come to believe that Palin, perhaps unwittingly, subconsciously or otherwise, has begun to play Sen. McCain off of the base, consistently and deliberately departed from the campaign's message of the day in ways that damage McCain."

Politico.com reports: "'She's lost confidence in most of the people on the plane,' said a senior Republican who speaks to Palin, referring to her campaign jet. He said Palin had begun to 'go rogue' in some of her public pronouncements and decisions. 'I think she'd like to go more rogue,' he said … 'These people are going to try and shred her after the campaign to divert blame from themselves,' a McCain insider said, referring to McCain's chief strategist, Steve Schmidt, and to Nicolle Wallace, a former Bush aide who has taken a lead role in Palin's campaign. Palin's partisans blame Wallace, in particular, for Palin's avoiding of the media for days and then giving a high-stakes interview to CBS News' Katie Couric, the sometimes painful content of which the campaign allowed to be parceled out over a week."



The New York Post said: "Things have gotten so tense between Palin and her traveling staff, an insider said, that she's overruling their advice — which was evident last week when she ignored GOP aides piling into waiting cars at a Colorado event and strolled over to the press corps for an impromptu talk."

From the Cable News Network web site: "'She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone,' said [a] McCain adviser. "She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else. Also, she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: Divas trust only unto themselves, as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom."

UPI reported yesterday that "At a Tampa rally yesterday, Palin blasted the RNC for buying her a $150,000 wardrobe, calling it "ridiculous." Unsurprisingly, these were not the remarks that were sent to her in the morning by the McCain campaign.

New York magazine's Daily Intel column online reported that "The idea of Palin as running mate was sprung on McCain at the very last minute by his two strong-willed advisers, Fred Davis and Steve Schmidt. This weekend's New York Times Magazine story reveals just how short a time period it was between when Davis and Schmidt unilaterally presented their case and when the announcement was made by McCain (five days). According to the story, McCain made up his own mind, but in retrospect he may regret the timing and spin."

Whew!

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John McCain: Blowin' In The Wind

Senator John McCain, whose campaign has become riddled with finger-pointing and back-biting, devastating leaks, increasingly glum news from the pollsters, and rifts with Sarah Palin, said he "trusted his senses," which told him the opinion polls were wrong.

Yesterday on NBC's Meet The Press McCain said: “Those polls have consistently shown me much farther behind than we actually are.”




“We’re doing fine. We have closed [the gap] in the last week. We continue to close this next week. You’re going to be up very, very late on election night.”

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When pigs fly: the Salt Lake City Tribune endorses Obama!

Along with other 'papers that endorsed George W. Bush in the past, the Salt Lake Tribune has endorsed Barack Obama for President. They join the ranks of the former Bush endorsing Seattle Times, The Denver Post, Austin Statesman American, Houston Chronicle, the South Carolina State, and The Chicago Tribune (who have NEVER endorsed a Democrat in their 160 years).

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Was Matt Drudge race-baiting yesterday?

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

Something on The Drudge Report yesterday struck me as playing the race card. Matt Drudge posted a link to a Reuters article on Yahoo News titled "Obama goes door-to-door to drum up votes in Ohio." The Reuters article used this photograph from the Associated Press:




The Drudge Report, however, used the same title for their teaser, but included an entirely different photograph:



Isn't this playing the race card? I guess, they could have put a subtitle "Obama molests Blonde Norwegian-American soccer mom." but I may just be a little suspicious after the all the race baiting we saw over the weekend in the Palin-McCain campaign.
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Maverick Senator John Sidney McCain

click to enlarge

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Stalemate: John McCain rushes back to Washington in a flurry of activity only to witness (and possible create) a stalemate

After all the huffing and puffing about John McCain charging in to rescue the economy. . .nothing happened today. . .pfffffft! They may try to blame the Democratic Party, but in the end, it seems to be the Republicans that queered the deal. . .at least for now.

As late as Tuesday, Senator John McCain hadn't even read the administration's plan! WTF! Hey, we understand. . .it's only been a week or so, and after all, the plan the administration submitted was 2 1/2 pages long! The Senator is a busy man.
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Behind the scenes: a John McCain thought bubble.

Click to enlarge...and for intelligibilty

Behind the scenes: a John McCain thought bubble. I don't usually like the snarky caption-photograph school of humor, but when I saw this photo of John McCain and his running mate Governor Palin, I had no choice but to do one. /jack
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Holy S**t! The October surprise? It Depends®

By Pablo Fanque,
All This Is That National Affairs editor
Washington, D.C. 9-18-2008 12:15 AM EDT

No one quite expected this October surprise, if it comes to that. All This Is That received a tip over the weekend from a G.O.P. insider that John McCain is incontinent and wears adult diapers around the clock.

I jumped onto the story Sunday, after Jack Brummet called from the All This Is That offices. The first call I made was to sources in the Democratic Party. Interestingly, they wouldn't touch the story. The first two people I called told me to drop it. "Pablo, this story is going nowhere. This is just some crap a blogger cooked up in San Francisco."

My next call was to a Democrat I knew would never lie. She may not tell me the truth, but she would never lie about the facts. "Look, just drop it," she said. "We can't even come within 50 miles of this story. Yeah. I've heard some stuff. But there is no way we're going to touch this story. We have nothing to gain and everything to lose. If it comes out, fine. But no way is it coming out of here."



"How so?," I asked? "Look, Pablo. . .the second this story comes out, the McCain campaign will tie it to the P.O.W. years. This malady, this incontinence, will be attributed to his years in the prison camp. It will become a net positive—another hero's scars—and we will be skewered for playing the politics of personal destruction. And the McCain campaign will milk the P.O.W. angle for another month. I did hear some Dem P.A.C. has been working this, and they have photographic evidence, and someone willing to talk."

I called a Republican friend who works for the R.N.C. "How high are you, Pablo? The Democrats are putting their heads in the sand on this one. They'll bide their time in hopes the story emerges elsewhere. They're way more spooked than we are on this one." "But why has nothing been mentioned in the press? Or the blogs and websites, even?" I asked. "You thought the John Edwards story was bottled up? No one wants to make the first move! Yuk."

The story slowly percolates, and it may be only a matter of time before it hits the mainstream media. There are rumors at least one tabloid has enough evidence—flimsy and otherwise—to break the story in the next week.
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Republican convention was most-watched convention on television--ever

Closing night of the GOP convention - click to enlarge


By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor



Party unity, a TV ratings bonanza, an "energized base," and the Democrats on the run have resurrected what might have been a moribund convention. A few months ago, John McCain almost dropped out of the race, and the party was in shambles. The Republicans leave Minnesota with a new lease on life and the stunned Democratic Party once again playing catch-up.


According to Rasmussen Reports polls, the choice of Sarah Palin as VP candidate is only slightly more popular that Obama's choice of Joe Biden. However, the buzz seems to belie that, when coming off the convention Obama/Biden seem--for the moment--to be little more than a footnote, and an irritating presence to disposed of later in the fall.


The Rasmussen Reports now say that Palin’s favorable ratings are .a point higher than either man at the top of the ticket. As of Friday morning, Obama and McCain are each viewed favorably by 57% of voters. Biden is viewed favorably by 48%.


Senator Obama, however, vowed yesterday to fight back: "We're not going to be bullied, we're not going to be smeared, we're not going to be lied about," Obama said. "I don't believe in coming in second."


Unlike McCain, Obama is still madly fundraising. Last night, Obama attended a $2,300-per-person party at the .home of party fundraiser Phil Murphy. About 200 people, including the Bon Jovis and New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, attended.


Republican nominee John McCain can raise no more campaign money because he accepted about $84 million in public funding and the restrictions that go with it. Obama turned down the public funding (and broke an earlier pledge to the voters), in hopes he can raise and spend more on his own.


This next eight weeks promise some excellent political theatre.
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Happy Birthday to Senator John McCain!

click to enlarge

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Senator John McSame: The Double-talk express video & The Real McCain video

The great thing about John McCain is that you don't really have to rant, or write anything at all. You just let him do the work for you. Check out these video compilations of The Senator talking. . .

Photo: The Contenders - Senators McCain and Obama

Click to enlarge Obama and McCain

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A family affair? John McCain will not likely suffer the slings and arrows that now plague Ex-Senator John Edwards

John McCain will not likely suffer the slings and arrows that now plague Ex-Senator John Edwards. He had his own "affair" blow up last year, on the front page of the New York Times, and hundreds of other websites and blogs. But his wife stood steadfast. And how could she not?

Cindy McCain is John McCain's second wife. They were married in 1980. He admits to having an affair with her while he was married to his first wife, Carol. How angry can Cindy McCain really be when he husband steps out? No harm, no foul. John Edwards, on the other hand, had hell to pay at home. . .the same kind of hell that Elliott Spitzer, Mark Foley, and Larry Craig had to undergo.

I am pretty sure the next big political sex scandal will involve both partners: isn't it time we had a really good scandal with swingers (a/k/a "wife-swappers")? There has to be someone running who was involved in a key party or hot tub orgy somewhere, somehow. . .


The other other woman, Vicki Iseman
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Cindy McCain's Breasts:::::::::A coked Up First Lady??::::::::Is Cindy McCain Jeri Kehn's replacement or more like Martha Mitchell Jr. ?

With the John Edwards brouhaha, I kind of missed the "show us your t**s" McCain "controversy." This is good. Check out McCain's speech on YouTube (below). He experiences at least two or three brain freeze moments (I bet there are no TelePrompTer™s at Sturgis), offers to have his wife strip for the crowd, and panders to the crowd on gas prices and the war.

“I was looking at the Sturgis schedule and noticed that you have a beauty pageant and so I encouraged Cindy to compete,” McCain said to hoots from the largely male crowd. “With a little luck, she could be the only woman ever to serve as both the first lady and Miss Buffalo Chip.” Senator John McCain a/k/a "The 44th President" a/k/a "George W. Bush's Third Term Stand-in." Miss Buffalo Chip is a title given to the winner of the Sturgis beauty pageant that features topless (and often bottomless) contestants.

I'll admit I don't spend much time tracking John McCain. And I know very little about Cindy, other than she has more money than Yoko Ono...which is nothing to sneeze at. Is is true that she is coked up, or frequently flying on Oxy's, or some cocktail of hashhish, Xanax, and Maker's Mark? Two times over the last week people have said "You don't know about Cindy McCain? You? I can't believe it." No, I don't know. Write in and disabuse me of that notion. I am too busy trying to find images of Cindy where she took her husband's advice. I mean, we kind of need someone to take the place of Jeri Kehn Thompson in the G.O.P. babestakes, but Cindy does have a spooky, severe, Aryan side.

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A video anthology of Senator John McCain's recent brain meltdowns

This spooky compilation comes from TPMtv. While Senator McCain flings innuendo, Britney and Hilton ads, and even worse Senator Obama's way, his brain-freezes, confusion, and befuddlement stand out in stark juxtaposition to Obama's appearances and statements to the press.


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