Did McCain set himself up?

Tin foil hat edition.

A month ago, the ghey lady endorsed Maverick, and this week they're hosing him down with the flimsiest of allegations about impropriety from 20yrs ago.

~No admission from McCain.
~No admission from the lobbyist.
~No confirmation from a source willing to go on the record.
~No actual accusation from even their unnamed sources.
~Actual denials from staffers who say that the details of the allegations simply don't make any sense.
~In fact, there's one McCain former staffer who notes that the New York Times' story might be based not on the word of former McCain staffers, but other lobbyists.

AP summed it up this way:

A sex scandal that may not be a scandal tucked inside an ethics scandal that may not be an ethics scandal tucked inside an ethics scandal that was a genuine scandal 20 years ago, and for which McCain has begged forgiveness ever since.

This is journalism? The heck with the story. What dipstick of an editor approved this thing?? Would this train wreck of a tabloid clusterf**k have ever made it past legal unless....?

Faced with near revolt from the far right about Mav's RINO record and knee pad cooziness with the media, is this the genesis of Mav's campaign management into a lean, mean, chief exec machine?? From the CQ:

The New York Times may have done the impossible for the John McCain campaign and for Republicans in general. As predicted yesterday when their strange and threadbare allegations hit print, the attack united conservatives behind McCain.

Forget obama swoon or Rove! the magnificent bastard. Set 'em up. Knock 'em down. McCain. MBSCSDD? Did McCain set himself up?