McCain '08: The Lobbyists' Choice?

If any good is going to come from that controversial NY Times story-- besides allowing McCain to play the victim for the GOP base (conservatives love to pretend the whole world is out to get them)-- it's that McCain is finally getting scrutinized for his connection to the lobbyists that he claims to abhor. Being the incorruptible straight-shooter is, of course, his big claim to fame as a general election candidate.

TPM highlights an anecdote that reveals just how close McCain is to lobbyists. Lobbyist Charlie Black-- one of McCain's top advisors-- apparently "does a lot of his work by telephone from McCain's Straight Talk Express bus." If that isn't the perfect metaphor for the corruption of politics, I don't know what it is.

The NY Times did itself a disservice by including all the sexual innuendo and rumormongering in an otherwise straightforward story, but this scandal, unfortunately for McCain, is one that's not likely to go away anytime soon.