And In Other News …

I am not one to bash The New York Times. They have a lot of great journalists and columnists, they cover a lot of news, and I always learn something when I read the paper.

Today, for example, I learned that The New York Times is pretty nervous that John McCain will actually be president.

And the same two journalists who hit McCain on an unproven charge of sexual dalliance with a lobbyist are now charging him with something even more pernicious. They are charging McCain with the crime of being a senator.

As a senator, McCain actually did something for one of his constituents (oh, the outrage!). The constituent in this case was a land developer who actually developed property on a former Army base that helped the Arizona economy. This is an outrage. How dare McCain help his state!

Worse, McCain promoted land exchanges that were actually supported by local government officials and local environmental groups. How dare he do something that actually is supported by a wide range of people!

And get this. According to the story, McCain actually said no to one of his biggest campaign supporters. “McCain occasionally rebuffed Mr. Diamond’s [the constituent] entreaties as inappropriate.”

In other words, if you read the story closely, McCain is helpful to his constituents only when it benefits the public interest. Yep, sounds like a crime to me.

The story makes two basic assertions. One assertion is that there was something inappropriate about McCain vouching for his constituent Donald Diamond when it came to a proposal to develop Fort Ord. What the story neglected to say was that the McCain letter was one of many letters submitted by just about every public official in Arizona on behalf of Mr. Diamond, which amounts to the kind of constituent service that every senator practices every day if he or she wants to get reelected.

The second assertion is that McCain illegitimately promoted three land exchange bills that helped Mr. Diamond. What the story neglected to say was that none of the bills granted large amounts of land to Don Diamond, that the bills’ purpose was to expand the Saguaro National Monument/Park and that the legislation had the support of numerous environmental groups (including the Sierra Club), political groups and local governments.

The old gray lady seems intent on dragging Sen. McCain through the mud, but it is not a crime for a senator to act like a senator. Sorry, guys. If you want to get McCain, you are going to have to do better than that.