Conservatives Are Defending McCain After Newspaper Story

Both McCain's campaign and the RNC sent e-mails Thursday seeking to capitalize on conservative distaste for the Times and the media in general.

"We will not allow their scurrilous attack against a great American hero to stand," proclaimed the message sent by campaign manager Rick Davis. "Objective observers are viewing this article exactly as they should -- as a sleazy smear attack from a liberal newspaper against the conservative Republican front-runner."

Fundraising experts said yesterday that the outpouring is understandable. "Outrage opens the pocketbooks," said Philip A. Musser, a GOP strategist with national finance experience. Musser said conventional wisdom once held that bad news on the trail would dry up the flow of money to a candidate. But this year, the opposite has been true. One of Sen. Barack Obama's best fundraising efforts came the day after he lost in New Hampshire. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton had her best stretch of fundraising after announcing that her campaign was in financial trouble.

Tracy Sturman, a Democratic fundraising consultant, said Internet donors are far more likely to contribute because of outside factors. "It's very impulsive," she said. "It can take just one emotional, knee-jerk reaction to get someone to give money online."

But even as the money flowed in, McCain's lawyers were working to counter a warning from the Federal Election Commission chairman that the candidate has not yet been permitted to withdraw from the public financing system, as he had requested.

McCain counsel Trevor Potter has said that the warning is meaningless because the chairman has no authority to act right now. The six-member FEC board lacks a quorum because the Senate has deadlocked on confirming nominees for four open seats.

But election law experts said yesterday that the matter cannot be brushed aside. If the FEC seats are filled and the panel rejects McCain's arguments for leaving the system, he will face severe restrictions on primary spending.

"Senator McCain is in uncharted waters," said Paul Ryan, an FEC expert at the Campaign Legal Center.

In a statement, McCain's campaign maintained that he has a right to exit the system. "It is clear to the campaign, as it is to a number of FEC experts, that no FEC action is necessary in response to Senator McCain's notice of withdrawal given the constitutional nature of the right," the statement said.