The New York Times published a page one, above the fold, story on Senator John McCain that 1) implies he had an affair with a lobbyist thirty-plus years his junior and 2) that he granted her, a lobbyist, and the firm she represents, a whole lot of special favors.

The piece, which began being researched nine years ago, came out just as McCain locked in the Republican Presidential nomination and as The New Republic and Politico were threatening to run stories on why the New York Times was holding this story.

The story, if true, would obviously do real damage to McCain and his image as an anti-lobbyist crusader (since he was caught with the Keating Five).

The good thing for McCain is that the New York Times story reads like a Judith Miller piece with all anonymous sources and no real smoking gun. For McCain, this piece should actually help him build some support from those neo-con talk show hosts who love nothing more than bashing the New York Times. At worst, this piece opens the door for other reports to dig deeper into McCain's hypocritical practices with lobbyists and damages his lovefest with the media............