From what I can gather, at least from the standpoint of someone who has never thought From what I can gather, at least from the standpoint of someone who has never thought John McCain had any particularly high level of integrity and could care less even if unsubstantiated implications that he might have had sex with someone not his wife are true, this is about as much a "blockbuster" as The Hottie and the Nottie. I just don't see anything remotely surprising or, with the exception of the well-known Keating scandal, terribly important (although perhaps this portends something else or its political impact will be greater.) And although one might take solace from the fact that the Times is actually taking on the Straight Talkitude Express, the fact that they let his campaign kill an apparently more substantive version dilutes this.
Publius has more. In a rational world, I would agree that it's "hard to imagine the NYT (after institutional deliberation) going forward with such an explosive article with such a thin foundation," but when we're talking about the former employer of Jeff Gerth and Judy Miller this isn't necessarily true.
--Scott Lemieux
