Since Washington Post writer Michael Leahy wants to focus on Senator McCain’s relationship with Governor Evan Mecham to prove that McCain’s temperament makes him unfit to be president, here’s something I found in the NR archives from 1992:

Meanwhile, Republican U.S. Senator John McCain faces the fight of his life against left-liberal Democrat Claire Sargent. Mrs. Sargent–she insists on Ms., never Mrs.–is waging a war on the abortion issue (McCain is strongly pro-life) and loves to sing the glories of Anita Hill. McCain’s membership in the Keating Five is a handicap. A further complication is the independent candidacy of former governor Evan Mecham, who retains a core of true-believing backers in spite of– or perhaps because of–his impeachment and his verbal gaffes (it was Mecham who said, “Blacks like to be called pickaninnies, at least they did when I was a kid”). McCain’s $1.7 million war chest has allowed him to launch a full-scale media blitz, and polls have him leading Sargent by some ten points, with Mecham a distant third. But Mecham as a straggler can wail away at McCain –whom he loathes–with little concern over the effect on his own chances. So far, Mecham has accused McCain of “participating in the cover-up” of missing POWs in Vietnam, despite the fact McCain himself was in the Hanoi Hilton for years.

Tell me again why John McCain is not allowed to yell at this guy?

And going back to the Washington Post smear on McCain, why didn’t Michael Leahy feel the need to tell his readers that McCain and Mecham were opponents for McCain’s Senate seat? Also, look at the dates. Although it’s not clear what the exact date is from the way the piece is written (is it that hard to get maybe just the year this occurred?), the Mecham anecdote looks to happen right around the time of the Mecham challenge for McCain’s seat. Here’s the excerpt from the article:

During the early 1990s, McCain telephoned the office of Tom Freestone, a governmental official little known outside Arizona’s Maricopa County. McCain had an unusual request. He wanted Freestone, then chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, to reject a job applicant named Karen S. Johnson, whose last governmental position had been in the office of a former Arizona governor and who had just interviewed for a position as an aide in Freestone’s office.
According to two employees in the office, McCain told Freestone that the applicant’s past political associations left her carrying unflattering baggage.

Imagine that. A senator might have an issue with the hiring of the former assistant of the guy who tried to beat him in an election, or at the very least, cost the Senate a Republican seat.

(One other thought. There’s no gap in Karen Johnson’s work experience on her state-senate website from the time she worked as an assistant to Gov. Mecham to when she received the disputed job as described in the Post. If her last job was indeed for Gov. Mecham while he was running against John McCain, it’s just another reason why her story should not have been included in the piece)