McCain Campaign: NY Times Not a News Organization

To stimulate diehard conservative voters, Republican candidates frequently "run" against the press. But in a call to reporters today, McCain campaign senior advisor Steve Schmidt took things a little further than usual.

According to National Review's Byron York, Schmidt and campaign manager Rick Davis were asked about a New York Times story detailing Davis' financial ties to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- an embarrassment to the campaign as McCain is trying to position himself as the mortgage companies' scourge.

"Whatever the New York Times once was," Schmidt told the press, "it is today not by any standard a journalistic organization."

What the Times really was, Schmidt continued, was "a pro-Obama advocacy organization that every day attacks the McCain campaign, attacks Sen. McCain, attacks Gov. Palin, and excuses Sen. Obama. There is no level of public vetting with regard to Sen. Obama's record, his background, his past statements. There is no level of outrage directed at his deceitful ads," etc.

Schmidt is a longtime Republican operative who, the New Republic has reported, likes to use opponents' votes on innocuous health bills to imply that they are sex-mad.