February
21 With Endorsements Like These...

That, and other news, in today's Political Panorama.

Updated

"It's not true," John McCain declared at a press conference this morning, to rebut the New York Times story, "For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk," a.k.a. the blonde bombshell. It raises questions about McCain's relationship with telecom lobbyists, but it is really about sex, and the time that he has spent with one in particular, Vicki Iseman. The story has proven that if there's one thing right-wing talk radio is more wary of than McCain, it is the newspaper that endorsed him. They were unified in dismissing the story, as Rush Limbaugh called it a "drive-by media event." 

The problem with the story is that it relies so heavily on anonymous sources, and even then it never really produces a smoking gun, other than a meeting that McCain aide John Weaver had with Iseman to tell her to stay away from the senator.  But short of details about what was said, even that is a bit thin. (Time has Cliff's Notes.) It is a "read-between-the-lines" piece that can easily be dismissed as innuendo. That's why the focus in the coming days will be squarely on the New York Times itself and their decision to run the story.

Clooney's Concern: In an otherwise amusing profile of George Clooney, Time's Joel Stein captures the movie star wondering if his Darfur activism is worth it. Stein writes, "The Darfur organization he helped found, Not on Our Watch, has given away more than $9 million. But now, just three weeks back from having a 14-year-old border guard shove a machine gun at his chest, after recovering from malaria, after helicoptering out of N'Djamena, Chad, in a sandstorm three days before the rebels sacked it, he wonders if his critics are right, if this scheme to use celebrity to bring attention to the world's plights isn't, if not vanity, at least striving after wind. "I've been very depressed since I got back. I'm terrified that it isn't in any way helping. That bringing attention can cause more damage. You dig a well or build a health-care facility and they're a target for somebody," he says. "A lot more people know about Darfur, but absolutely nothing is different. Absolutely nothing.""

The Obama supporter doubts that he will win an Oscar for "Michael Clayton," predicting it will instead go to Daniel Day-Lewis for "There Will Be Blood."

"For me, it's like being Hillary Clinton," Clooney told Time in its latest edition due out on Friday. "If it weren't for Barack Obama, it would have been a very good year."

Clooney, by the way, is an Obama supporter.

"SNL" Cameo: Mike Huckabee is due to make a cameo on the return of "Saturday Night Live" this week, in a show that is bound to focus on the political scene. Executive producer Lorne Michaels tells the New York Times, “We’re going to have to do Obama this week. We need to find our Obama.”

Flashback: In Newsweek, George Will talks with George McGovern, who thinks he could have won in 1972. How? Will writes, "McGovern thinks he could have won with a running mate then called "the most trusted man in America"—Walter Cronkite. Before choosing Eagleton, McGovern considered asking Cronkite, who recently indicated he would have accepted."

Hollywood Giving: Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton continued to land star contributions in January. Reports filed yesterday show that Clinton took in contributions from George Takei, Sally Field, Tony Bennett, Susan St. James and Debra Messing, while Obama collected money from Danny DeVito, Teri Hatcher, Bonnie Franklin and Margot Kidder, according to the New York Daily News. I'll have a more complete rundown later today or early tomorrow.

Cindy and Vicki: Humor site 23/6 asks of the McCain hubub: Is it cheating if she looks exactly like your wife?