ForMcCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk

The Long Road

Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

Senator John McCain during his 2000 presidential bid. His campaign this year is not as focused on the corrupting power of money in politics.

JIM RUTENBERG, MARILYN W. THOMPSON, DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and STEPHEN
LABATON

Published: February 21, 2008

The Long Run Honor and Influence

This is part of a series of articles about the life and careers of contenders for the 2008 Republican and Democratic presidential nominations।

WASHINGTON — Early in Senator John McCain’s first run for the White House eight years ago, waves of anxiety swept through his small circle of advisers.

A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, visiting his offices and accompanying him on a client’s corporate jet. Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself — instructing staff members to block the woman’s access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity.

When news organizations reported that Mr. McCain had written letters to government regulators on behalf of the lobbyist’s client, the former campaign associates said, some aides feared for a time that attention would fall on her involvement.

Mr. McCain, 71, and the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, 40, both say they never had a romantic relationship. But to his advisers, even the appearance of a close bond with a lobbyist whose clients often had business before the Senate committee Mr. McCain led threatened the story of redemption and rectitude that defined his political identity.

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Barclay Walsh and Kitty Bennett contributed research.