A MCCAIN TRUE COLORS WATCH UPDATE: It’s good to see TNR, which has at times been a bastion of liberals-for-McCainism, holding Sen. John McCain‘s feet to the fire for hiring Terry Nelson. This Nelson is truly an odious operative. Both the racist ads against Harold Ford in Tennessee last year and the Republicans’ scheme to jam Democratic phones in New Hampshire in 2002 bore his or his associates’ fingerprints. Meanwhile, “straight talk” McCain has shamefully dodged questions about why he hired a man whose tactics he should deplore. Maybe this will let a little more air out of the finally deflating McCain bubble.

–Ben Adler

Ben Adler is a senior editor at City & State NY. He previously worked for Politico, The Nation, and Reuters, and he has written for The Washington Post and The New Republic, among other publications.