McCain and telecom lobbyist Vicki Iseman (who bears somewhat of a resemblance to Cindy McCain — see photo below) were spending so much time time together that during the Senator’s 2000 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, some of his aides intervened to keep the relationship — which both parties maintain was nothing more than friendship — from becoming fodder for the media.

Ok, now back to The Times. In the article, McCain’s involvement with the Keating scandal is regurgitated (though it may not be news — its certainly fair game, especially because kids born after the savings and loan scandals of the 1980s are now old enough to vote). The main point of the piece is that although McCain is now the poster boy for campaign finance reform, the Senator’s straight talk evolved out of his own history of questionable judgment.

Because of its use of anonymous sources and innuendo about the affair that may or may not have taken place, the article has itself become a hot news item. A piece almost as long as the Times story on the website for The New Republic criticizes the paper for using anonymous sources, and suggests that the threshold of fact normally present in the Times is missing in the article. The TNR story also outlines a dispute between the Times reporters on the story and Executive Editor Bill Keller that caused the piece to sit in editorial limbo for months. Romenesko has also picked it up.

Wherever you stand on this, the article is worth a look.

Personally, I was left sort of shaking my head. The story was a lot like a latte: a lot of froth and very little substance.

One thing though, according to the TNR story, McCain hired ex-Clinton defense attorney Bob Bennett to help him deal with The Times during the course of their investigation. Call me crazy, but nothing says “I cheated” quite like hiring a former Clinton lawyer.

Mason Cohn