Another reader emails in:

Also in the piece by Jeffrey Klein: All of the evidence, indications and comments that the New York Times published a flattering lie about McCain’s career on its front page are easy for John McCain to refute. All he needs to do is sign Standard Form 180, which authorizes the Navy to send an undeleted copy of McCain’s naval file to news organizations. A long paper trail about McCain’s pending promotion to admiral would be prominent in his file. To date, McCain’s advisers have released snippets from his file, but under constrained viewing circumstances. There’s no reason McCain’s full file shouldn’t be released immediately. There’s also a recent precedent for McCain signing the simple form that leads to full disclosure: Senator John Kerry signed the 180 waiver, which made his entire naval file public. Of course, John Kerry did not make his entire naval file public. Only at the last did he sign the 180, and then he restricted access to those two Boston reporters who said they found nothing. “No smoking gun” I think was the phrase.
No indications if they would have recognized smoke if they had seen it. Some of us would still like to see those records. The reports of just one day — the Rassmann “Green Beret” / third purple heart incident — ought to do it.
George Bush, despite repeated claims to the contrary, did sign the 180 and did make his records public for all.

(The NY Sun had more on the less-than-public-release of the documents back in June 2005)