Thanks to poorly-staffed watchdogs and short attention spans...

I'll be the first to admit it: I am prone to tirades.

My last blog could be fairly described as a rant against the New York Times. One of my objections was their sordid accusations against McCain for his supposedly inappropriate relationship with a female lobbyist. It seems I'm not alone in my criticism of the Gray Lady.

It also seems the accusations have largely rolled off the Maverick's back, even with the specter of a lawsuit looming.

I called up David Morrison at the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform to see what he thought of all this.

"If he has dirty laundry, now is the best time for the story to appear," Morrison said. McCain is mostly secure in his nomination and the Democratic nomination has certainly not been sewn up, so the general election campaigning hasn't yet begun.

Once it does, Morrison said McCain will have a ready response if anyone tries to bring up this story again:

"We've dealt with that; this is old news."

Okay, then. What about this buzz about McCain vs. the FEC? That can't be good...

It seems McCain may have promised to use public funds to get a loan back when he was short on campaign cash. He said if he did poorly in New Hampshire, he would accept public funding (along with the requisite spending limitations) to pay back the loan.

Well, guess what? McCain didn't fail the New Hampshire test. And now everyone wants to give him money! Fantastic!

Except that the FEC might want to hold him to his earlier intentions. However, the FEC can do little except yell at McCain. It seems they don't have enough board members to reach a quorum on the matter.

The esoteric nature of this current bind could go either way for McCain's public image. A protracted, public fight with the FEC sure doesn't look good, even if the commission can't rule one way or the other. But the weirdness of the FEC's inability to answer their own question might mean that most Americans turn off before the issue is resolved.