Reporter: My Viagra Question Convinced McCain To Cut Off Press

Confesses Maeve Reston, an LA Times reporter, on the day that 75 more jobs were axed from the Pacific Rim's great paper:

It wasn't my intention, but I played a role in shutting down John McCain's Straight Talk Express. ...

The questions meandered across more than a dozen topics, but I asked if he agreed with his advisor Carly Fiorina's recent statement that it was unfair for some health insurance companies to cover Viagra but not birth control -- because McCain generally opposed those kinds of mandates.

...

In the driveway of the airport motel on the evening of the Viagra question, McCain's aides made an argument that would shape their attitude over the next four months: If reporters were going to ask about issues that they deemed irrelevant to voters, why should the campaign give them access to the candidate at all?

Salter told me I had made the case for those who thought McCain should curtail his exposure to the press.

Hat tip to HuffPo for the post. Hmmm V is not necessarily for Victory. Little blue pills are available so the real Red State men can stand up and be counted.

Who'll be the top dog? Will press stop hounding candidates?

Gawker cried fowl when the rather staid Nature magazine inadvertently placed a back display ad that echoes the political front cover. Tongue in cheek, they wonder about racism, speciesism, whatever. Commenters say the yellow dog looks confused, the dark one hopeful. Wagging tales.
Don't you have a dog in that fight? Which dog don't hunt? Will an old yellow dog learn new tricks? The cliches go on and on.

GOP ad approval spoofed

A candidate himself, Al Franken has scripted the latest skit about McCain attack ads.
It aired last night.

Enter Vanity Fair with its spoof McCain Cover

Vanity Fair steps up the coverage with its own parody.