Pat Dollard | Young Americans

The Hill:

The White House weighed in Friday on the controversial New York Times story that implied likely GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain acted improperly in his dealings with a lobbyist.

White House Spokesman Scott Stanzel would not comment on specific details in the story, but told reporters that he and others working in the administration felt the influential newspaper had a history of going after Republican presidential candidates.

“I think a lot of people here in this building with experience in a couple campaigns have grown accustomed to the fact that during the course of a campaign, about — seemingly on maybe a monthly basis leading up to the convention, maybe a weekly basis after that, The New York Times does try to drop a bombshell on the Republican nominee,” Stanzel told reporters.

Stanzel also said the newspaper sometimes makes “incredible leaps to try to drop those bombshells on the Republican nominees.”

When pressed on the issue, the spokesman noted that he does not mean to indicate that Democrats are never given the same “kind of treatment,” adding that such stories are a “regular” occurrence for Republicans.