Tipsheet

McCain Camp Has Harsh Words for the NYT

McCain campaign senior adviser Steve Schmidt unleashed on the New York Times in a conference call this morning.

"It is not today by any standard a journalist organization," he fumed.

"There is not a level of public vetting with regards to Senator Obama's record and background and public statements...this is an organization that is completely, totally, 150 percent in the tank for the Democratic candidate," Schmidt said. "It is an organization that has made a decision to cast aside its journalistic integrity to advocate the defeat of a candidate, in this case John McCain and advocate for the other candidate, Barack Obama."

This tirade comes in response to this piece that links McCain adviser Rick Davis to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as chairman of the Homeownership Alliance, which included several other groups such as Habitat for Humanity and La Raza. Davis says he's been on leave from his lobbying group for over a year and has accepted no compensation since he's been on leave.

Davis and Schmidt lectured reporters on the call for failing to look into Obama Campaign Manager David Axelrod's lobbying connections as well as those by Joe Biden's son, Hunter and Jim Johnson, the former Fannie Mae CEO who was leading Obama's VP vetting process before if it was discovered he recieved a discount mortage from his CEO friend Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide.

Update: You can listen to all of Schmidt's outraged fierceness below