The Iseman Cometh (Before the Court)

Vicki Iseman is suing the New York Times.

If the name doesn't ring a bell, she's a lobbyist who was featured in a long NYT story on John McCain back in February. The piece looked at a range of possible ethical lapses on McCain's part. Iseman was mentioned as someone with whom McCain might be having an affair, "several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity." Needless to say, everything else in the article was ignored.

The story was huge for a day or two. Naturally, it outraged the sort of people who have spent the last two years eagerly reposting every shred of gossip, speculation, and rumor they could find about Barack Obama.

It must be said that the February article turned into a bit of an embarrassment for the Times. I, and not a few others on the left, thought at the time that including the tryst aspect of the story was a blunder. There wasn't enough there there, it allowed the rightwing noise machine to focus on this one soft spot, and all of the rest of the solid reporting on all of the other issues went for naught. It seemed to me that it took the Times months to recover enough spine to print another piece critical of McCain.

Anyway, back to the present: It's a new shiny object, concerning THE perennial object of loathing among the 101st Chairborne, and trousers are tenting all over Wingnuttia.

No one could have predicted.