Part Two of The New York Times' McCain Smear

The last attempt by The New York Times to smear John McCain fell absolutely flat and actually engendered sympathy for McCain and scorn for the Times. Here comes part 2 - the suggestion by the Times that McCain may not be eligible to serve because he was born in the Panama Canal Zone where his father was stationed:

WASHINGTON — The question has nagged at the parents of Americans born outside the continental United States for generations: Dare their children aspire to grow up and become president? In the case of Senator John McCain of Arizona, the issue is becoming more than a matter of parental daydreaming.

Mr. McCain’s likely nomination as the Republican candidate for president and the happenstance of his birth in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936 are reviving a musty debate that has surfaced periodically since the founders first set quill to parchment and declared that only a “natural-born citizen” can hold the nation’s highest office.

Almost since those words were written in 1787 with scant explanation, their precise meaning has been the stuff of confusion, law school review articles, whisper campaigns and civics class debates over whether only those delivered on American soil can be truly natural born. To date, no American to take the presidential oath has had an official birthplace outside the 50 states.

“There are powerful arguments that Senator McCain or anyone else in this position is constitutionally qualified, but there is certainly no precedent,” said Sarah H. Duggin, an associate professor of law at Catholic University who has studied the issue extensively. “It is not a slam-dunk situation.”

Mr. McCain was born on a military installation in the Canal Zone, where his mother and father, a Navy officer, were stationed. His campaign advisers say they are comfortable that Mr. McCain meets the requirement and note that the question was researched for his first presidential bid in 1999 and reviewed again this time around.

But given mounting interest, the campaign recently asked Theodore B. Olson, a former solicitor general now advising Mr. McCain, to prepare a detailed legal analysis. “I don’t have much doubt about it,” said Mr. Olson, who added, though, that he still needed to finish his research.

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and one of Mr. McCain’s closest allies, said it would be incomprehensible to him if the son of a military member born in a military station could not run for president.

“He was posted there on orders from the United States government,” Mr. Graham said of Mr. McCain’s father. “If that becomes a problem, we need to tell every military family that your kid can’t be president if they take an overseas assignment.”

Again the question becomes how long have they had this story and why have they waited until now to release it? Surely they've known for many years where McCain was born and have probably have had people look at this for a very long time. You'd think that after the beating they took last week they wouldn't even think of sending up this false flag.

Since this issue has never been settled by the courts, what are the odds that Howard Dean and the DNC file a lawsuit to challenge McCain's eligibility?

UPDATE: Scrappleface provides the appropriate response: Bush Orders 'Amnesty' for Foreign-Born McCain

UPDATE 2: Jim Geraghty says if the Times wants to play this game, then a literal reading of the Kenyan constitution would suggest that Barack Obama is actually a citizen of Kenya and therefore, using the same tortured logic being applied by the Times, is not eligible to be president.

Let's see the Times argue for that one.