The Times' Timing

First: Chana writes about a soldier she knew who was killed in Iraq. Baruch Dayan Emes.

Akiva has a very interesting post up at BeyondBT worth reading: Ultra Orthodoxy: Not So Inclusive Yet.

Finally, there's a lot of commentary regarding the New York Times piece suggesting Presidential hopeful John McCain is guilty of infidelity; it's a rather weak piece overall, giving no backup to any claims other than a few people thinking that their relationship had an appearance of looking like it could be inappropriate, and this will probably be a short-lived story overall. What I found interesting, however, was the note that McCain had refused interviews [presumably about this story] since December.

I'm rather curious as to why the Times is publishing this story now, when there's so little substance in it, and not back in December. Was there new information gleaned since then? It doesn't sound like it. Most of the story is about events between 8 and 21 years ago. Certainly, the Times favors Democratic candidates in the long run over any Republican - but of the Republicans, the Times would be least dismayed by John McCain, viewed as the most 'left' of all the major candidates. Had this story come out in December or January, there is little doubt that it would have negatively impacted McCain in his race against Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, and whomever else; and at this point, it helps elevate either Democratic candidate by keeping McCain from moving ahead nationally while they continue to duke it out.

Granted, it isn't as if the Times was sitting on this for 6 months and running it at the height of election season; but I'd be curious how long they normally hold similar stories, and why they held this one and then published it now. Were they still fact-finding? If so, that's fine. If not... that's questionable.