McCain Camp Relieved by Its Reaction to Accusations

INDIANAPOLIS Feb. 22, 2008 — -- In less than 24 hours the McCain campaign traveled the long distance from anger and anxiety to calm and confidence. It went from desperate defense to aggressive offense.

In the assessment of McCain communication director Jill Hazelbaker, The New York Times story suggesting that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., had an "improper relationship" with a female lobbyist in 1999 was its first major crisis and she felt it had met the challenge.

Interviews with four McCain senior advisers paint a picture of a staff stunned by the news that the Times article would appear Wednesday night. The McCain campaign has known for months that the Times was preparing such a story, but its publication had been delayed. Several staffers said they had been lulled by the absence of recent inquiries from the newspaper or from other journalists into believing that it would not run.

When McCain aides learned the article would appear in a few hours first in the newspaper's online edition, they were jolted. But one staffer said they had a general plan of action in place in case the article ever did run. It was now activated.

First, top aides to McCain immediately attacked the newspaper in similar language. It was "the New York Times playing the National Enquirer." It was an outrageous "smear" based on unnamed sources. The liberal New York Times was trying to tarnish the conservative presumptive Republican nominee for president. The Times rushed the story to print because the New Republic magazine was about to publish an article about the fight inside the Times over whether to run the article.

Hazelbaker put a written statement within an hour and a half of the story going online.

"It is a shame that The New York Times has lowered its standards to engage in a hit-and-run smear campaign," she said. "John McCain has a 24-year record of serving our country with honor and integrity. He has never violated the public trust, never done favors for special interests or lobbyists,

Top campaign officials were dispatched to the network morning shows Friday.