They fought him, now they're defending him ...

02.24.08 -- 7:40 AM

By Wes Prescott

The Politico's Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei throw in their two cents on why conservatives rallied behind McCain in his fire fight with the New York Times over the Iseman affair ...

Conservative leaders often portray their political mission in moralistic terms: right vs. wrong. But their reaction to a news report that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) might have had an inappropriate relationship with a female lobbyist shows the activist right is often animated by a different impulse: us against them.

The right-wing response to the New York Times article was in some ways as stunning, and as revealing, as the salacious story itself.

Some of the loudest voices of the modern conservative movement — Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Gary Bauer, CBN.org — flogged the Times while hardly pausing to consider the underlying facts of the story. Immediately, almost reflexively, these commentators assumed the worst motives and behavior by The Times and accepted McCain’s bland yet broad denials.

Ann Coulter, the right-wing author and commentator, says the collective conservative response is absurd. “Conservatives are stupid to defend McCain from this story,” Coulter told Politico. “Democrats are the party of adultery, not us.” (It is important to note the Times did not use the a-word but reported that McCain aides feared a “romantic” relationship.)

Still, Coulter is the exception to the rule on this one.

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