McCain to answer NY Times charges at 9am (EST Th 2/21) press conference,

[ProgressiveEconomist]

according to CNN. Presumably, CNN, MSNBC, and maybe even Fake News will broadcast it.

What questions should McCain be asked?

GD threads at http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2899629 and http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2899117 provide documentation of some of the "highly unusual" (FCC chairman's words) favors for lobbyists McCain's campaign denied last night:

From http://ap.google.com :

McCain: Reports on Lobbyist a 'Smear' By LIBBY QUAID Feb. 20, 2008

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) ...

In a statement issued by his presidential campaign, McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker said: "It is a shame that The New York Times has lowered its standards to engage in a hit-and-run smear campaign.

"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, and he will not allow a smear campaign to distract from the issues at stake in this election.

[billyoc]

1. Senator McCain, how many 'f's are there in Abramoff?

[ProgressiveEconomist]

2. Good one. Now MSNBC has as its "crawl": "McCain News Conference--Coming Up

next."

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

3. Hit and run smear? Supposedly they sat on the story through Iowa and New Hampshire while

it did appear in smaller news sources.

[Fleshdancer]

4. Didn't Drudge leak it back in December?

I thought I read that somewhere.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

6. I read that too. Also if you do a search on the net, there was chatter about it in January too. nt

[Fleshdancer]

8. the chatterboxes on MSNBC said the whispered rumors have been all over DC for months now

and that NONE of the editors of the other papers are surprised by this. Considering only one newspaper actually printed the story, it sounds like the "liberal media" has been pretty easy on McCain.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

5. The Big Admission: "I wrote a letter (to help Paxon) ... I believe it was appropriate"

See the links to orleans's posts in the lead-in to understand why this is so important.

The FCC Chair at the time said McCain's letter was "highly unusual" -- whey didn't the reporter who asked McCain about the Paxon letter use this in a follow-up????!!!

[halobeam]

7. diligence is no longer in their job description