For all his promises of being different than Washington insiders, McCain is just like any other politician. When the Times runs an unflattering story about him, he gets mad.

McCain officials told Politico—which was also going after the story—twice the campaign will “go to war” against the Times. How a war is fought against a newspaper is unclear, but McCain experience as a POW will no doubt help.

McCain camp is also claiming that a piece in the upcoming issue of The New Republic by Gabe Sherman pushed the Times to publish the story. TNR "can't yet confirm that," which we find unnecessarily confusing wording.

Sherman’s piece about the “the Times' foot-dragging on the McCain” article is expected to go up today. Look for our story on TNR’s story on the Times’s story in a few hours.

Oh, by the by, we just checked, and our belly button is still there.

DEMANDS MET That was fast. Just a few hours after the White House did not comment, but requested a change to the New York Times CIA story, the New York Times has changed the sub-hed online and will issue a correction in tomorrow's paper. [The Politico]

Party At The Politico “There's not a lot of fun being had in the MSM right now, and at Politico, we try to make that a priority.” -Bill Nichols, managing editor of The Politico in Text and Ideas. Just a quick FYI: alcohol isn't a panacea.

Yesterday, we talked (at length!) about the widely reported Politico scoop claiming that Hillary Clinton pressured the editors at GQ to kill a story about her campaign, using an upcoming cover story on her husband as leverage.

At the time, we chose to focus on the Clintons' role in the dispute, although GQ's unwillingness to stand by their piece—and wimpy refusal to stand tall in the face of obvious external pressure—was also duly noted.

Which is why we're puzzled at new reports alleging that GQ editors leaked the story to Politico themselves. If true, all we can say to them is well done, sirs! You've done your very best to portray Hillary Clinton as a quintessential schoolyard bully. And as a consequence, you come off looking no better than the prototypical geek who—try as he may—can't seem to hold onto his groundbreaking story proverbial lunch money.

Although we can't seem to shake the nasty habit of writing in the royal we, occasionally one of our editors decides to shake off the cloak of anonymity to write a short, pithy statement long, rambling diatribe about a topic of their choice. Today, Debbie Newman is that editor.

Yesterday, Ben Smith of Politico wrote a longish, somewhat confusing article (provocatively titled "Clinton Campaign Kills Negative Story") detailing a glorified pissing contest between Hillary Clinton and GQ magazine. In said piece, ostensibly written in critique of agenda-driven journalism, the Clintons are depicted as calculating, evil and—worse still—analogous to Tom Cruise while GQ is portrayed as a spineless jellyfish,* who values self-preservation more than the basic principles of the First Amendment.

In other words, it's a completely subjective take on the importance of objectivity.

CONTINUED »

Yesterday's Republican YouTube debate that almost wasn't (it still "isn't," per se, at least not until the scared candidates appear on the rescheduled Nov. 28 event) got those political bloggers' sweat glands pumping. Just like the Dems, this YouTube debate called on Americans to submit questions via video for the chance to have them asked during the debate. The above clip, mentioned in a Kit Seelye item in the Times, is from James Kotecki.

He submits a question we might ask if we could figure out how to get our webcam working: What the hell would these presidential hopefuls do to fix airline travel? But we didn't pose the question; Kotecki, in all his doable-ness, did. What Kotecki, and Seelye, didn't happen to mention, however, is that he works for Politico.com.

Barack Obama is following Jeff Jarvis' advice. Or at least riffing on it. Last week, blog cheerleader Jarvis urged MSNBC to do something worthwhile with its Democratic presidential debate coverage, like make it available online in clip form for anyone to use, sans restrictions.

Now the B-man has drank the Web 2.0 punch and wants the same, calilng calling on DNC chairman Howard Dean to make the footage freely available and not plagued with those obnoxious copyright laws.

Too bad MSNBC doesn't see things his way.

CONTINUED »

Wednesday, The Politico published yet another article marveling over over Democratic Presidential contender John Edward's $400 haircut, entitled "Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow" by Roger Simon. Yesterday, however, Politico started taking some heat of their own.

And, in the words of a tipster, Salon's Glenn Greenwald really "took them to task," blasting Politico for repeatedly harping on such trivial matters while simultaneously having the audacity to view themselves as a serious news source. According to Greenwald, "this is at least the eighth time that Politico—which gloriously 'broke' the story—has referenced Edwards' haircut."

Ouch.

CONTINUED »

So, remember yesterday when John Edwards made that somber announcement stating that his wife's cancer had returned but "the campaign will go on?"*

Well as you may or may not know, prior to the press conference rumors were flying that Edwards was planning to renounce his candidacy. In fact, wildly inaccurate reports of Edward's resignation hit CNN, MSNBC and CBS News, just to name a few. And where did it all start? A blog. More specifically, The Politico.

Seriously, what's the deal with blogs, anyway? Anna Wintour thinks "blog" is an ugly word, and frankly we're inclined to agree. But are they ever accurate? We certainly don't think so, but then again, you can't really believe anything we say because we're also a blog. Sloppy, error-riddled and often ungrammatical, blogs have long been infecting the internets with their misinformation, typos and pretentious royal "we."

CONTINUED »

• Oscar nominations announced. Dreamgirls shut out from Best Picture. Gays cry.

• Ahoy, The Politico, and welcome to the neighborhood … where we don't watch each other's backs or care much if the bullies on the corner kick your ass on the way home from school.

• Maria Bartiromo: CNBC anchor, homewrecker.

• NYT jumbles up its reporters and rebrands them Hollywood scribes.

• With a fourth hour, isn't it time for the Today show to add the fifth through 24th hours?

• Scooter Libby's trial begins.

• Twenty four writers have ditched the Observer for the Times. Twenty four writers are richer because of it.