Hotline After Dark -- A Special John McCain Edition

The late-breaking news from the New York Times on John McCain got plenty of coverage on the cable nets and lead all the morning shows.

McCain also held a presser this a.m. with wife Cindy by his side, where he said of the story: "It's not true."

NBC's K. O'Donnell, with the McCain campaign: "Obviously this changes the dynamic of the campaign trail. We'll have to press him on this" ("Countdown," MSNBC, 2/20).

Newsweek's Wolffe: "This story has been talked about inside Washington for a long period of time. There was a lot of controversy about the New York Times holding it, about why they weren't going to print with it."

Wolffe, asked if this will help Huckabee: "It's obviously not divine intervention, it's the New York Times."

More Wolffe: "Some people, especially certain web sites are going to be focused on the personal aspect to this. But really what's much more important is what it says about John McCain's relationship to lobbyists and to business interests inside Washington at a time when he's presenting himself as a candidate of reform who has taken on lobbyists like Jack Abramoff" ("Countdown," MSNBC, 2/20).

Newsweek's Alter: "I was covering that campaign quite intently in 2000. I've spent a lot of time with John McCain that year and actually, this issue of his relationship with lobbyist did surface. He had to go on 'Nightline' with Ted Koppel and answered questions about it."

More Alter: "This gives a lot of ammo to his Republican opponents and more important, arguably, to Barack Obama, should he be the nominee. We've already noticed that on several issues, Obama is working on a theme of John McCain as hypocritical on torture, because he voted for a bill recently that was quite different and his attitude toward waterboarding and what he had enunciated previously on finance campaign reform. Clearly on taxes, Obama has gone after McCain for being a hypocrite on that. ... You may see this relationship with lobbyists turn up in some of what Barack Obama has to say as he turns his attention to what he now is assuming will be a general election campaign against John McCain" ("Countdown," MSNBC, 2/20).

(EMILY GOODIN)

Pat Buchanan: "If I were Obama, I would not touch it either. If there's something here, it's up to the press" ("Countdown," MSNBC, 2/20).

Ex-WH adviser David Gergen: "I think there are some more facts to come out, clearly both on the McCain camp ... as well as within the New York Times. But I think there are two allegations here that do stand out. ... One is whether he had a romantic relationship with this lobbyist woman, and does that matter, and, secondly, whether, if he did have such a relationship, he did favors for the lobbyist. ... I actually think the timing, in many ways, has helped John McCain. You know, if you're going to come out at all, you would like to kind of have it come out after he's wrapped up the nomination than, say, before Florida, when people would have thought that was a foul, dirty, dirty hit" ("AC 360," CNN, 2/20).

NBC's Todd, on the NYT's piece: "There's this feeling that they didn't include everything that they think they know or everything that they know."

More Todd: "It's a first test for John McCain as the presumptive nominee. So, we'll certainly get an idea of how his campaign is" ("Countdown," MSNBC, 2/20).

CNN's Cooper: "We should also point out the New York Times did endorse John McCain for president" ("AC 360," 2/20).

FNC's Cameron: "The McCain campaign tonight is suggesting that the New York Times has essentially smeared the senator with utterly unsubstantiated, what they call specious allegations, with largely unsourced or no sourced information at all, for charges that all of the principles have adamantly denied. Rumors that are second hand denied by the principals in the New York Times. And the McCain campaign is loaded against the Gary Lady tonight" ("Hannity & Colmes," 2/20).

BENNETT ON DEFENSE

McCain atty Bob Bennett went on the defense:

Bennett: "I think what the New York Times did here was shameless, just shameless. ... You know, I'm in a pretty unique position to talk about John McCain. First, I should tell your listeners I'm a registered Democrat, so I'm not on his side of a lot of issues. But I investigated John McCain for a year and a half, at least, when I was special counsel to the Senate Ethics Committee in the Keating Five, which, by the way, this New York Times article goes back to and discusses, goes back years and years. And if there is one thing I am absolutely confident of, it is John McCain is an honest and honest man."

He continues: "We answered fully to the New York Times. We showed them that there was just nothing there. And, unfortunately, they have just obviously disregarded all of the hard evidence that we presented. Now, I'm not suggesting that the New York Times has an agenda here. I will let others conclude that. But they certainly have allowed themselves to be a vehicle for a repeat of what happened in South Carolina."

Bennett: "Anybody who knows anything about Washington knows that if there is one senator who will not honor the requests of his friends when it comes to various pieces of legislation, it is John McCain. Some of the people that I know very well who are lobbyists, Republican lobbyists, will tell me, and they will tell anybody who asks, McCain calls it the way he sees it on the merits. You can be his friend for 25 years and if he doesn't agree with it, he'll say no."

Asked if he talked to Drudge: "I had no conversations with the Drudge people. I did have several conversations and one meeting with the New York Times reporters and repeatedly provided them answers to their questions. And I was satisfied that there was nothing here. No, I worked very hard at it. I am highly suspicious as to why and how their working on a story was leaked to Drudge. I have my suspicions, but I will be fairer to the New York Times than the New York Times is to John McCain" ("Hannity & Colmes," FNC, 2/21).